Letter 88: Procopius admires Dorotheus's zeal and hopes he wins the Muses while escaping slander.

I was already about to answer your first letter when you outran me and added a second. Even in letters, it seems, you hurry to win. "But why so much time," you will say, "and why this delay in writing?" A human being cannot do everything he wants. We must follow necessity, serve need, and obey the season. The season gives not what a person wants, but what necessity measures out for the need. That is why, until now, I have been silent unwillingly and have been pained by it. I had every reason to admire your zeal when you were with us, your goodwill that remained after you sailed away, the envy that rose against you, and Fortune's old plot against you. I admired too how wisely you sailed away from speeches and said farewell to chatter about them, choosing to be less in every outward thing so that you might win the Muses. May you soon enjoy that musical love. May you receive as much of it as you desire. If the earlier slander was true, may you become more self-controlled; if it was false, may you be more fortunate, so that your later life receives not even a false accusation and you appear again as the man you were before. When the extremes are joined, the middle is destroyed by blows from both sides.

Δωροθέωι Ἤδη με μέλλοντα πρὸς τὴν προτέραν γράφειν ἐπιστολὴν φθάσας αὐτὸς καὶ δευτέραν ἐπέθηκας· οὕτω κἀν τοῖς γράμμασιν ἐπείγῃ νικᾶν. "ἀλλὰ τίς ὁ χρόνος" ἐρεῖς, "καὶ ἡ τοῦ μὴ γράφειν ἀναβολή;" οὐκ ἔστιν ἄνθρωπον ὄντα πράττειν ὅσα τις βούλεται, ἀλλ' ἀνάγκη παρέπεσθαι καὶ δουλεύειν τῇ χρείᾳ καὶ πείθεσθαι τῷ καιρῷ. ὁ δὲ δίδωσιν οὐχ ὅσα τις θέλει, ἀλλ' ὅσα πρὸς τὴν χρείαν ἀνάγκη μετρεῖ. ταῦτ' ἄρα μέχρι καὶ νῦν ἄκων μέν, σιωπῶν δ' οὖν ὅμως ἠχθόμην, καίτοι θαυμάζειν ἔχων τὴν ὅτε παρ' ἡμῖν ἦσθα σπου δήν, τὴν ἐπειδὴ πάλιν ἀνήχθης ἔτι μοι διαμένουσαν εὔνοιαν, τὸν κατὰ σοῦ συστάντα φθόνον καὶ τὴν πάλαι τῆς τύχης ἐπιβουλήν, καὶ ὡς σώφρων ἀνήγου τῶν λόγων γινόμενος καὶ τῇ περὶ ταῦτα φλυαρίᾳ χαίρειν εἰπών, αἱρησάμενος τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐλαττοῦσθαι μᾶλλον, ἵνα κερδάνῃς τὰς Μούσας. ἀλλ' ὄναιο θᾶττον ἔρωτος μουσικοῦ, καὶ τοσοῦτον λάβοις ὁπόσον ἐθέλεις, καὶ γένοιο τῆς προλαβούσης διαβολῆς, εἰ μὲν ἀληθὴς ἦν, σωφρονέστερος, εἰ δὲ ψευδής, εὐτυχέστερος, ὅπως ὁ μετὰ ταῦτα βίος μηδὲ ψευδῆ διαβολὴν ἔτι δέξηται, ἀλλὰ φανείης πάλιν ἐκεῖνος ὁ πρότερον. οὕτω γὰρ ἂν ἑνωθέν των τῶν ἄκρων διόλλυται τὸ μέσον ἑκατέρῳ μέρει βαλλόμενον.