Letter 224: The cross of Christ stands as the measure against which everything else is evaluated — in this world, and in the one...
To Isidore the Bishop. Concerning envy. Against no other thing, O namesake, whether real or seeming goods, is envy gentle — it is fierce and harsh. But against virtue, which has properly inherited the nature of the good, envy is wholly inconsolable. Now not to be envied is perhaps painless, but not glorious. May it never fall to me or to my friends to act in a way deserving of envy. But one who is envied must bear the malice of envy with temperate reasoning.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
ΣΚΔ΄. – ΙΣΙΔΟΡΩ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟ.
Περὶ φθόνου.
Οὐδὲ ἐπ᾿ ἄλλῳ μὲν οὐδενὶ, [ὦ] ὁμώνυμε, τῶν ὅν
των ἢ δοκούντων καλῶν, πραὺς ὁ φθόνος, ἀλλ᾽ ἄγριος
καὶ ἀργαλέος· ἐπὶ δ᾽ ἀρετῇ, ἥτις κυρίως τὴν τοῦ
καλοῦ κεκλήρωται φύσιν, καὶ πάμπαν ἀπαραμύθη-
τος. Τὸ μὲν οὖν μὴ φθονεῖσθαι, ἄλυπον μὲν ἴσως, οὐ
μὴν εὐκλεές. Φθόνου γὰρ ἂν ἀξίως πράττειν (19),
μήτ' ἐμοί ποτε μήτε φίλοις ἐμοῖς συμβαίη. Χρὴ δὲ
φθονούμενον, σώφρονι λογισμῶ τὰς τοῦ φθόνου κα-
κοηθείας φέρειν.
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