To Julianus.
fare you this long
while? Have you altogether recovered the use of your hand? And how do other things prosper? According to your wishes and my prayers? In accordance with your purposes?
Where men are readily disposed to change, it is only
natural that their lives are not well ordered: but where their
minds are fixed, steadfast and unalterable, it follows that their lives
should be conformable to their purposes.
True, it is not in the helmsman’s power to make a
calm when he wishes; but with us, it is quite easy to render our lives
tranquil by stilling the storms of passion that surge within, by rising
superior to those that assail us from without. The upright man is
touched by neither loss, nor sickness, nor the other ills of life; for
he walks in heart with God, keeps his gaze fixed upon the future, and
easily and lightly weathers the storms that rise from earth.
Be not troubled with the cares of earth. Such men
are like fat birds, in vain endowed with flight, that creep like beasts
upon the ground. But you—for I have witnessed you in
difficulties—are like swimmers racing out at sea.
A single claw reveals the whole lion: so from a
slight acquaintance I think I know you fully. And I count it a
great thing, that you set some store by me, that I am not absent from
your thoughts, but constantly in your recollection.
Now writing is a proof of recollection; and the oftener
you write, the better pleased I am.