Letter 854

To the same person. "Who knows," Solomon has written, "whether the spirit of man" -- that is, of the righteous man -- "will ascend upward?" [Ecclesiastes 3:21]. For "before death," says Sirach, "call no one blessed" [Sirach 11:28], because the human race slips, and very easily falls away from righteousness into lawlessness. Who, then, knows whether the present worker of virtue, having remained unfallen and excellent until his departure, and not having altogether quenched the lamp of his admirable way of life, will hasten back up to the heavenly courts?

« Τίς οἶδε, » Σολομῶν γέγραφεν, «εἰ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, » δηλαδὴ τοῦ δικαίου, « ἀναβήσεται ἄνω; » « Πρὸ γὰρ τελευτῆς, φησὶν ὁ Σιράχ, μὴ μακάρι- σέ τινα, » διότι ὀλισθαίνειν τὸ ἀνθρώπειον γένος, καὶ ῥᾷστα μεταπίπτον ἐκ τῆς δικαιοσύνης πρὸς τὴν παρανομίαν. Τίς οὖν οἶδεν, εἰ ὁ πρὸς τὸ παρὸν τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐργάτης, μέχρις ἐξόδου διαμείνας ἄπτω- τός τε καὶ ἄριστος, καὶ μὴ σβέσας παντελῶς τὴν λαμπάδα τοῦ τρόπου τοῦ θαυμαστοῦ, πρὸς τὰς οὐ- ρανίους αὐλὰς ἀναδραμεῖται;