Letter 447: Even Hippocrates the physician, so the story goes, knowing that death was coming, wanted to improve the condition he...
To Hieron: If the reading of the book has profited you in any way, show it in your conduct. But if you persist in the very things it condemns, you appear to be passing judgment against the book itself. And certainly, in that case, we shall neither address a further word to you by letter nor furnish you with another book if you ask for one -- not until we see the fruit of the first.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
ΥΠΑ'. – ΙΕΡΩΝΙ.
Εἰ σε τι ὧνησεν ἡ τῆς βίβλου ἀνάγνωσις, δεῖξον
ἐπὶ τῆς πράξεως. Εἰ δὲ μένεις ἐφ᾽ ὧν ἐκείνη κατ-
ηγορεῖ, φαίνῃ καταγινώσκων αὐτῆς. Καὶ πάντως
ἐπὶ τούτοις ἡμεῖς οὔτε φθεγξόμεθά τι πρὸς σὲ διὰ
γράμματος, οὔτε βιβλίον αἰτοῦντι παράσχωμεν, εἰ
μὴ καὶ τῆς προτέρας καρπὸν θεασώμεθα.
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