Letter 327

To the Same. If you will toil a little to cleanse your heart, and to beautify it as is fitting, I will readily show myself compliant to you, bringing the words that profit the soul, and filling the house of the mind with the divine treasures. To Asterius the Reader [anagnostes, a lector in minor orders]. I do not wish you to advance in self-conceit, but in the work of the noblest way of life, and of the knowledge of God.

Ἂν μικρὸν κοπιάσῃς καθαρίσαι τὴν σὴν καρδίαν, καὶ πρεπόντως φιλοκαλῆσαι, ἑτοίμως φανοῦμαί σοι εὐεικτος, κομίζων τοὺς ψυχωφελεῖς λόγους, καὶ ἐμπιπλῶν τὴν νοητὴν οἰκίαν τῶν θείων κειμηλίων. — ΑΣΤΕΡΙΩ ΑΝΑΓΝΩΣΤΗ. Οὐ βούλομαι σε τῇ οἰήσει προκόπτειν, ἀλλὰ τῷ ἔργῳ τῆς καλλίστης πολιτείας, καὶ τῆς θεογνωσίας.