Letter 653

To Castor the Dux [a military commander]. Imagine for me that the perishing world is a cave; and that within it the righteous dwell like so many earthly angels, while the wicked, lurking like reptiles in the cave just mentioned, do great wrong and grievously afflict those blessed men. If, then, through the good conduct of these righteous men, through their endurance, and through their exhortation, the beast-like ones should at some point be transformed toward a human condition, well and good. But if they remain uncorrected until the end, they will pay a double penalty in the time to come: both because they embraced what is base in place of virtue, and because they were unwilling to become better than themselves either through living in the company of the righteous or through admonition.

Νόμισόν μοι σπήλαιον ὑπάρχειν τὸν φθειρόμενον κόσμον· ἐν αὐτῷ δὲ καὶ τοὺς δικαίους διαιτᾶσθαι ἀνθρώπους καθάπερ τινὰς ἐπιγείους ἀγγέλους, καὶ τοὺς πονηρούς, δίκην ἑρπετῶν ἐμφωλεύοντας τῷ λε χθέντι σπηλαίῳ, πλεῖστα ἀδικεῖν καὶ καταπονεῖν τοὺς μακαρίους ἄνδρας. Ἐὰν τοίνυν διὰ τῆς τούτων εὐ διαγωγῆς, καὶ τῆς ὑπομονῆς, καὶ τῆς παραινέσεως μεταβληθῶσί ποτε οἱ θηριώδεις πρὸς ἀνθρωπίνην κατάστασιν, εὖγε· εἰ δὲ μέχρι τελευτῆς ἀδιόρθωτοι μένοιν, διπλῆν ἀποτίσουσιν τιμωρίαν κατὰ τὸ μέλ λον, ὅτι τε ἀντὶ τῆς ἀρετῆς τὸ φαῦλον ἠσπάσαντο, καὶ ὅτι οὔτε τῇ συνδιατριβῇ τῶν δικαίων, οὔτε τῇ νουθεσίᾳ βελτίους ἑαυτῶν γενέσθαι βεβούληνται.