Letter 194

194. To Zoilus.

What are you doing, admirable man, outdoing us in the measure of humility? For, being such in education, and knowing so well how to write, as your letter shows, you yet ask, as though for some bolder undertaking exceeding your worth, to obtain pardon from us. But, leaving aside this irony, write to us on every occasion. For whether we have any share in eloquence, we shall most gladly read the letters of a learned man; or whether — taught by Scripture how great a good love is — we count of all worth the converse of a man who loves us. And may it be yours to write of the good things we pray for you, health of body and prosperity of your whole house.

But know that our own affairs are no more endurable than usual. It is enough to say this much, and to indicate to you the weakness of our body. For the present excess of sickness that holds us is neither easy to indicate in words, nor to be believed by deeds, if anything more than those things which you yourself knew has been found in us toward sickness. But it is the work of the good God to give us strength to bear with patience the blows brought upon our body for our profit by the Lord who does us good.