Letter 227: The wise person keeps his head during prosperity and prepares for adversity while things are going well.

To Serenos. On the necessity of always being vigilant. The philosophic life turns away from tumult, and the monastic discipline is brought to perfection outside of all confusion, so that one may use as the foundation of the height of humility this very thing, namely leisure spent alone and apart from troublesome affairs and unseemly words, taking it up earnestly and completely. But if we suppose that a worn cloak, a beard, and a staff are enough for us to accomplish the angelic way of life, and if in the midst of the crowds we mingle ourselves with the spectacles and the things heard in the city, exulting only in the instruments of victory while shrinking from the wrestling and the combat by which victory is straightway won-or rather, while kindling within ourselves the very causes of the struggle-then we fail to notice that we have become dogs returning to our own vomit [cf. Proverbs 26:11; 2 Peter 2:22], or a sow wallowing in the mire of our old habit.

Περὶ τοῦ δεῖν πάντοτε νήφειν. Φιλοσοφία ἀποστρέφεται θόρυβον, καὶ γυμνασία μοναχικὴ ἔξω κατορθοῦται συγχύσεως, ἵνα ταύτῃ χρήσηται ὑπόβαθρα τοῦ ὕψους τῆς ταπεινώσεως, τῇ κατὰ μόνη σχολῇ καὶ πραγμάτων ὀχληρῶν, καὶ ῥημάτων ἀπρεπῶν, (90) σπουδαίως καὶ τελείως ἐκλαβόμενος. Εἰ δὲ τρίβωνα καὶ ὑπήνην, καὶ βάκτρον ἀρκεῖν ἡμῖν πρὸς ἐξάνυσιν τῆς ἀγγελικῆς πολιτείας οἰόμεθα, καὶ μέσοι δήμων, καὶ θεαμάτων καὶ ἀκου- σμάτων ἀστικῶν συμφυρόμεθα, τοῖς ὀργάνοις τῆς νί- κης μόνοις ἐναβρυνόμενοι, τὴν δὲ πάλην καὶ μάχην ἐκλίνοντες, ἐξῆς ἡ νίκη προσγίνεται, μᾶλλον δὲ τὰς αἰτίας τῆς πάλης ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἀνακαίοντες, λανθάνομεν κύνες τυγχάνοντες, καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἔμετον ὑποστρέφον- τες, ἢ ὃς τῷ βορβόρῳ τῆς παλαιᾶς συνηθείας ἐγκα- λινδούμενοι.