Letter 281

To Linnius the Monk. You are eager to whirl about your whole disposition, already shaken and unsettled, fabricating countless pretexts and exchanging one region for another. Now, then, at least, cease from this wandering: be settled in your thinking, take up steady reasoning, slay your instability with the sword of endurance, rein back your disorderly impulses, put an end to your unspeakable agitation, and gather your whole self to Christ, in soul and in body.

Πᾶσαν τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν περιτορχάζειν σπουδάζεις σεσαλευμένην τὴν γνώμην, ἀφορμὰς μυρίας πλαττό- μενος, καὶ χώρας ἐκ χωρῶν μεταμείβων. Κᾀν νῦν τοιγάρτοι παῦσαι τῆς πλάνης, ἑδράσθητι τῷ φρονεῖν, σταθερὸν ἀνάλαβε λογισμὸν, καταφόνευσον τὴν ἀστα- σίαν τῷ ξίφει τῆς καρτερίας, τὰς ἀτάκτους ὁρμὰς ἀναχαίτισον, τέλος ἐπίθες τῷ ἀμυθήτῳ βρασμῷ, ἐπισυνάγαγε ὅλον ἑαυτὸν πρὸς Χριστὸν ψυχῇ, καὶ σώματι.