Letter 804

To the Same Person. You have not yet completed your fifteenth year of training in the solitary life, and already you set yourself down as perfect; already you have supposed yourself to surpass the elders who have practiced well before you; already the nestlings of vultures are flying to the heights; already you presume that you have conquered all temptations, though you have not yet so much as glimpsed the shadow of any temptation at all, not yet knowing what the wrestling-match of the demons is, not yet having begun to box against the devil; and already you dare to belittle the war-experienced brothers and to condemn them without discernment.

Οὔπω πεντεκαιδέκατον ἔτος πεπλήρωκας, τῷ μονήρει ἐνασκούμενος βίῳ, καὶ δὴ σαυτὸν τέλειον ὑπογράφεις· ἤδη ὑπερέχειν σεαυτὸν τῶν καλῶς προησκηκότων γερόντων ὑπείληφας· ἤδη νεοσσοὶ γυπῶν τὰ ὑψηλὰ πέτανται· ἤδη πάντας νενικηκέναι πειρασμοὺς ὑποπτεύεις, μήπω μηδενὸς πειρασμοῦ πάμπαν σκιάν τε θεασάμενος, μήπω εἰδὼς τί ἐστιν ἡ πάλη τῶν δαιμόνων, μήπω πρὸς διάβολον ἀρξά- μενος πυκτεύειν· ἤδη τοὺς ἐμπειροπολέμους ἀδελ- φοὺς εὐτελίζειν καὶ κατακρίνειν ἀδιακρίτως τολμᾷς.