From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk
To: Cassianus and Absonius
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Two short letters — one on the road to piety, one on the distinction between rashness and involuntary action.
The road that seems finest to me is the one that leads toward piety and ends in open, spacious freedom. The path of virtue is not narrow forever — it only appears so at the beginning. Those who persist find that it widens into something they could not have imagined from the entrance.
To Absonius: 'Rash' and 'involuntary' are not the same thing. The first refers to acting without reflection; the second to acting without will. The first has to do with doing; the second with suffering. A rash act is one that lacks deliberation; an involuntary act is one that lacks consent. Let those who confuse the two be careful: to excuse rashness as involuntary is to deny responsibility for what one chose not to think about.
Context:Two short letters — one on the road to piety, one on the distinction between rashness and involuntary action.
The road that seems finest to me is the one that leads toward piety and ends in open, spacious freedom. The path of virtue is not narrow forever — it only appears so at the beginning. Those who persist find that it widens into something they could not have imagined from the entrance.
To Absonius: 'Rash' and 'involuntary' are not the same thing. The first refers to acting without reflection; the second to acting without will. The first has to do with doing; the second with suffering. A rash act is one that lacks deliberation; an involuntary act is one that lacks consent. Let those who confuse the two be careful: to excuse rashness as involuntary is to deny responsibility for what one chose not to think about.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.