Letter 1642: Anger is a fire: useful when controlled, devastating when unleashed.
To Ioannes the Scholasticus. Since vice proceeds through things that seem pleasant for the moment and has pleasure as its companion, while virtue holds forth toils and contests, for this reason the former has attracted many to its love, but the latter only a few. For when one ought to perceive that the pleasure of vice is easily extinguished, while the gladness of virtue is celebrated and immortal; and that the one gives birth to dishonor and shame, the other to praise and glory; and that the one ends in punishment, the other in honor. And the one has the devil as its advocate, while the other has God, the lawgiver of all that is beautiful. And the one overturns, while the other upholds.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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.
Latin / Greek Original
ΦΕΕ – ΙΩΑΝΝΗ ΣΧΟΛΑΣΤΙΚΟ.
Ἐπειδὴ ἡ μὲν κακία διὰ τῶν παραυτίκα δοκούντων εἶναι τερπνῶν πορεύεται, καὶ τὴν ἡδονὴν ἔχει σύμμετροῦσαν· ἡ δὲ ἀρετὴ πόνους προτείνεται καὶ ἀγῶνας· διὰ τοῦτο ἐκείνη μὲν πολλοὺς, αὐτὴ δὲ ὀλίγους ἐπεσπάσατο εἰς τὸν ἑαυτῆς ἔρωτα. Δέον γὰρ, συνορῶντας ὅτι ἡ μὲν τῆς κακίας ἡδονὴ ῥᾳδίως σβέννυται, ἡ δὲ τῆς ἀρετῆς εὐφροσύνη ἀοίδιμός ἐστι καὶ ἀθάνατος· καὶ ὅτι ἡ μὲν ἀδοξίαν καὶ αἰσχύνην, ἡ δὲ ἐπαίνους καὶ δόξαν τίκτει· καὶ ὅτι ἡ μὲν πρὸς τιμωρίαν, ἡ δὲ πρὸς τιμὴν τελευτᾷ. Καὶ ἡ μὲν τὸν διάβολον ἔχει συνήγορον, ἡ δὲ τὸν τῶν καλλίστων νομοθέτην Θεόν. Καὶ ἡ μὲν ἀνατρέπει, ἡ δὲ συγκρο-
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