Letter 423: I may be meddling when I urge a father to care for a son he has decided to neglect.

To Heortius. Perhaps I am meddling in urging a father to take care of a son when that father has resolved to neglect him; but having seen Themistius in tears, I chose rather to incur that reproach than to overlook this matter. He said nothing harsh, then, but only that some forgetfulness of your own self had taken hold of you. As for me, if you were in want, I would have thought it right for you to collect contributions from your friends to help the boy; but since, by good fortune, you are among the foremost of the well-to-do, I urge you to expend some of your possessions on the most precious of all possessions. For perhaps hunger too is not very useful to a young man; yet now the matter at hand is not about the belly, but about how the young man may have books. For without these he will be like one who attempts to learn to shoot arrows without a bow.

Ἑορτίῳ. (355) Περιεργάζομαι μὲν ἴσως πατέρα παρακαλῶν ἐπιμελεῖσθαι παιδὸς ἀμελεῖν ἐγνωκότα, δακρύοντα δὲ ἰδὼν Θεμίστιον μᾶλ- λον ἐδεξάμην ἐκεῖνο δόξαι ἢ τοῦτο παριδεῖν. ἔλεγε τοίνυν τραχὺ μὲν οὐδέν, ὡς δὲ λήθη σέ τις αὑτοῦ λάβοι, ἐγὼ δέ, εἰ μὶν ἠπόρεις, ἠξίουν ἄν σε παρὰ τῶν φίλων ἀγείροντα τῷ παιδὶ βοηθεῖν· ἐπεὶ δὲ εὖ ποιῶν ἐν πρώτοις εἶ τῶν εὐπόρων, παραινῶ τι τῶν ὄντων εἰς τὸ τῶν ὄντων σρι τιμιώτατον ἀνα- λῶσαι. ἴσως μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲ πεῖνα σφόδρα νέῳ χρήσιμον, ἔστι δὲ νῦν οὐ περὶ τῆς γαστρὸς ὁ λόγος, ἀλλ’ ὅπως ᾐ το νεανίσκῳ βιβλία· ὧν ἀπόντων ὅμοιος ἔσται τῷ πειρωμένῳ το- ξεύειν ἄνευ τόξου μανθάνειν.