Letters

Basil of Caesarea (330–379)

Letters CCCXVI., CCCXVII., CCCXVIII., CCCXIX.

Without address.

[Commendatory; short.]

Letters CCCXXX., CCCXXXI., CCCXXXII., CCCXXXIII.

[All short and without address.

Letters from CCCXXIII to CCCXXXIII. have no importance.]

Letter I

To Eustathius the Philosopher.

Much distressed as I was by the flouts of what is called fortune, who always seems to be hindering my meeting you, I was wonderfully cheered and comforted by your letter, for I had already been turning over in my mind whether what so many people say is really true, that there is a certain Necessity or Fate which rules all the events of our lives both great and small, and that we human beings have control over nothing; or, that at all events, all human life is driven by a kind of luck. You will be very ready to forgive me for these reflexions, when you learn by what causes I was led to make them.

On hearing of your philosophy, I entertained a feeling of contempt for the teachers of Athens, and left it. The city on the Hellespont I passed by, more unmoved than any Ulysses, passing Sirens' songs.

See also

• More works by Basil of Caesarea

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