Letter 6020: The taste of blessings is unknown to those who live in prosperity.

Ennodius to Faustus. The savor of good things goes unrecognized while they are present: the quality of heaven-sent blessings is scarcely discerned while it is held; after their departure their chief points grow sweet to us; we do not know the value of what we long for while it rests in our hands. Truly I confess that, so long as Ravenna held you, I believed it an ill omen to dwell upon the things I now suffer, nor amid favorable circumstances did I, like some malicious interpreter of my own good fortune, sigh over what might come to pass through your absence. I ought not to have acknowledged my own deserts, if I were not to be separated from a man, nor to have understood that what flatters one who pursues his sins is a thing that flees. But why does the crafting of a letter overstep the bounds of restrained expression? May He bring a remedy to these matters, He whose dominion all things serve. I, however, for which reason these pages have been assigned, am sound in bodily substance, and through these duties, under God's help, I await that your prosperity be announced. Receive, then, my services, and if amid these matters, which you have learned are being conducted along with me, a favorable outcome should bring anything, announce it without the hindrance of any concealment.

XX. ENNODIVS FAVSTO. Ignoratur bonorum sapor in prosperis: uix dinoscitur superni qualitas bonorum, dum tenetur: post migrationem capita dulcescunt: desiderii pretia in manibus constituta nescimus. uere fateor, quamdiu Rauenna uos habuit, sinistrum omen credidi cogitare quae patior nec inter res secundas quasi malignus propriae felicitatis interpres quae per absentiam uestram euenire poterant suspiraui. non debui merita mea, si ab homine non. separarer, agnoscere nec intellegere fugitiuum esse quod sectanti peccata blanditur. sed quid epistolaris concinnatio castigatae terminum dictionis excedit? ferat his rebus medelam cuius XVIUI. 4 reuertitur b adiaratom T sed d ex b corr. uidetur 4- 5 cupi|is B d s. l. m. ree., enpidis b 8 ad (d in ras.) L 9 boneris B\'T, honoris В\'b 10 conditio BLTb 14 interim] itaram* Bb 16 incidis. L XX. 24 abstinentiam L1 26 Beotaodi Tl 28 eioedet B medellam B* imperio uniuersa famulantur. ego tamen, propter quod adtributae sunt paginae, ualeo substantia corporali et per haec munia sub dei ope, ut prosperitas uestra nuntietur, expecto. accipite ergo obsequia mea, et si quid inter haec, quae mecum geri didicistis, euentus dexter adtulerit, sine dissimulationis obstaculo nuntiate.