Letter 633: If this is how things stand, then necessity is stronger even than the gods, as the saying of the wise goes.
Ἀγροικίῳ καὶ Εὐσεβίῳ. (361)
Εἰ ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει, καὶ θεῶν ἀνάγκη κρείττων, ὡς ὁ
τῶν σοφῶν λόγος. ἐγὼ δὲ ἐνθυμούμενος τήν τε ὑμετέραν
ἐκεῖ κακοπάθειαν καὶ ὡς τἀνθάδε ὑμῖν ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω φέρεται
τῶν βοηθησάντων ἂν ἀπόντων ἠθύμουν καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ᾤμην
δεῖν ὑμᾶς ἐλθεῖν, ὅπως τούτων ἔσται πέρας.
πραγμάτων
δέ τις ἐπιγενόμενος κύκλος ἐδίδαξεν ὅτι ἄρα κρεῖττον ἦν ἵζω
τοῦ κυδοιμοῦ μένειν, ἀλλ’ οἴμαι καὶ τοῦτον στήσεσθαι καὶ
ὑμῖν ἐπάνοδον ἔσεσθαι.
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This (written from Constantinople in A.D. 381) is the earliest of Jerome's expository letters. In it he explains at length the vision recorded in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, and enlarges upon its mystical meaning.