Letter 1518: Death is not the end but a transition.
Isidore of Pelusium→Riothoen Biagonos|c. 426 AD|Isidore of Pelusium|To Riothoen Biagonos (recipient)|AI-assisted
grief death
On Ingratitude. He accuses an ungrateful mind.
I blame you greatly, because the gratitude has died in you which, when you were in need at that time, you firmly promised you would keep immortal. Know, therefore, that if you fall once again into misfortune, you will not have anyone to come to your aid; for those who are forgetful of favors necessarily lack helpers when they are in want.
That man I define as truly courageous whom neither the difficulty of affairs nor the plotting of enemies has put to the test [and found wanting]. For while most men are accustomed to be caught by such things, the man who is not found easily captured amid unwished-for circumstances, but who bears insult with decorum, who makes plots against him an occasion for glory, and who does not descend into servile flatteries, but holds his spirit higher than those who plot against him - this man, in my judgment as judge, is courageous. For since in times of prosperity it is very easy even for the unmanly to employ a [high] spirit, whereas difficulties are what test good men, I for my part define the man who is moderate in prosperity, and undejected in the difficulty of affairs, to be the most courageous.
I blame you greatly, because the gratitude has died in you which, when you were in need at that time, you firmly promised you would keep immortal. Know, therefore, that if you fall once again into misfortune, you will not have anyone to come to your aid; for those who are forgetful of favors necessarily lack helpers when they are in want.
That man I define as truly courageous whom neither the difficulty of affairs nor the plotting of enemies has put to the test [and found wanting]. For while most men are accustomed to be caught by such things, the man who is not found easily captured amid unwished-for circumstances, but who bears insult with decorum, who makes plots against him an occasion for glory, and who does not descend into servile flatteries, but holds his spirit higher than those who plot against him - this man, in my judgment as judge, is courageous. For since in times of prosperity it is very easy even for the unmanly to employ a [high] spirit, whereas difficulties are what test good men, I for my part define the man who is moderate in prosperity, and undejected in the difficulty of affairs, to be the most courageous.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.