Letter 384

To Eleutherius, monk, formerly of the numeri [a Roman military regiment; thus a former soldier]. I do not accept you until you have cut off the passions, you who resort to countless meetings, and wounds upon wounds are heaped up against your mind through the senses, and until you learn this: that you have chosen to be removed from a neglected and unclean life over to the virtue of Christ. Therefore treat your soul, and do not, by unguarded meetings, increase the diseases of your soul. For the mind of those who have but recently withdrawn from vice is like a body that has begun to recover from a long sickness through hardships; just as some small pretext becomes for it the cause of a relapse into the disease, since it has not yet been fixed firm in mighty strength. For in such persons the sinews of the mind are flabby and shaken, so that there is fear lest the foul passion run back again, since it is of a nature to be stirred up afresh in the dissipation brought on by the crowds that lay hold of one.

Οὐκ ἀποδέχομαί σε πρὶν ἐκκόψαι τὰ πάθη, μυρίαις χρώμενον συντυχίαις, καὶ τραύματα ἐπὶ τραύμασι τῇ διανοίᾳ διὰ τῶν αἰσθήσεων σωρευόνται, καὶ μάθῃς ὅτι· ἐξ ἠμελημένου καὶ ἀκαθάρτου βίου πρὸς τὴν ἀρετὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ μετοικισθῆναι προείλου. Διόπερ θεράπευε, μὴ μέντοι αὔξανε ταῖς ἀφυλάκτοις συντυχίαις τὰ νοσήματα τῆς ψυχῆς. Ἔοικε γὰρ ὁ νοῦς τῶν προσφάτως τῆς κακίας ἀνακεχωρηκότων. κόπων, σώματι ἀρξαμένῳ ἐκ μακρᾶς ἀρρωστίας ἀναλαμβάνειν, ὥσπερ καὶ μικρά τις πρόφασις, τῇ ἐπὶ τὴν νόσον ἀναλύσεως αἰτία καθίσταται, μήπω πρὸς ἰσχὺν κραταιὰν πεπηηγμένῳ. Πλαδῶσι γὰρ τοῦτοις οἱ νοεροὶ τόνοι, καὶ κραδαίνονται, ὡς δέος εἶναι, μὴ παλινδρομήσῃ τὸ πάθος τὸ μιαρόν, πεφυκὸς ἐν τῇ ἀναχύσει διερεθίζεσθαι τῶν ἐπιλαβῶν ὄχλων.