Letter 479: The philosophers teach, Nemesios, that the soul has parts, and that its health depends on the right ordering of...

To Nemesios. Many deserve a name and do not have it, but many have a reputation which they do not deserve. They suffer truly from envy of the good. How many of mankind do you suppose have been nameless and without repute, yet have proved far more excellent than those who are sung of? These latter found poets and chroniclers [logopoioi] who judge everything that is done not against the truth, but interpret it according to whatever goodwill they happened to feel, and who make what was achieved tower as high as heaven; while the former did not find any to hymn them, on account of envy [phthonos], which is accustomed to attend brilliant deeds. Here, then, even if some have seemed to be proclaimed aloud and others to be passed over in silence, yet with the world now hastening on to its end, in that other place we shall see who are the truly brilliant and glorious, since the divine justice will not endure to bring in its verdict from the opinion of men, but from its own, the verdict that is pure and unerring. Do not, therefore, be faint of heart if, being a citizen of heaven, you perceive the tongues of those who envy you borne against you like a windless second spear-point; but rather, for this very reason, expect that you will be the more brilliant.

Multi merentur nomen et non habent, sed multi famam habent, quam non merentur. Invidia boni ere laborant. Πόσους οἴει τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀνωνύμους καὶ ἀδόξους εἶναι πολλῷ σπουδαιοτέρους γεγενημένους τῶν ἀδο- μένων; οἳ τοὺς μὲν ποιητῶν καὶ λογοποιῶν, τῶν πᾶν τὸ πραττόμενον μὴ πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν κρι- νόντων, ἀλλὰ πρὸς ἣν εἶχον εὔνοιαν ὑπολαμβανόντων, καὶ τὸ κατορθωθὲν οὐρανόμηκες ποιούντων· τοὺς δὲ μὴ ἐσχηκέναι τοὺς ὑμνήσαντας διὰ φθόνον, ὅπερ ταῖς λαμπραῖς πράξεσιν ἀκολουθεῖν ἔθωθεν. Ἐνταῦθα μὲν οὖν εἰ καὶ ἔδοξαν οἱ μὲν ἀνακεκηρῦχθαι, οἱ δὲ σεσιωπῆσθαι, τοῦ κόσμου λοιπὸν εἰς τέλος ἐπειγομέ- νου, ἐκεῖσε τοὺς ὄντως λαμπροὺς καὶ ἐνδόξους ὀψό- μεθα, τῆς θείας δίκης οὐκ ἀνεξομένης ἐκ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων δόξης ἐνεγκεῖν τὴν ψῆφον, ἀλλ’ ἐκ τῆς οἰκείας, τῆς εἰλικρινοῦς καὶ ἀδιαπτώτου. Μὴ οὖν ὀλιγωρεῖ, εἰ οὐρανοπολίτης ὢν τὰς τῶν φθονούντων σοι γλώττας αἰχμῆς νηνέμου δευτέρας αἰσθάνῃ κατὰ σαυτοῦ φερομένας, ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦτο μάλιστα λαμπρό- τερος ἔσεσθαι προσδόκησον.