Letter 49: It is the nature of mirrors to reflect the faces of those who look into them -- anyone who gazes at one sees his own...
To Damianus, Bishop of Sidon,
It is the nature of mirrors to reflect the faces of those who look into them -- anyone who gazes at one sees his own features. The same is true of the pupils of our eyes: they show us other people's likenesses.
Your holiness furnishes a perfect example of this. You have not actually seen my ugliness -- you have simply gazed with admiration at your own beauty. I truly possess none of the qualities you ascribed to me. Still, it is my prayer that your words may yet be vindicated by reality, and I beg your piety to bring it about by your prayers that your praises do not fall to the ground for want of anything real to support them.
Human translation - New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
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- 2026-03-20v2.1.0-import
Initial corpus import from New Advent / NPNF.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2707049.htm
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