Letter 491: You wonder why, when you were helping us in deed and giving what aid you could, we never even wrote to say what came...

To Elias. (356 AD) You wonder why, when you were helping us in deed and giving what aid you could, we never even wrote to say what came of it. I was testing the remedy over time — the only way to judge its power, since it could hardly be assessed by sight, but only by whether it prevented the illness from striking as before. So hear what your gift has accomplished. I shall report nothing greater or less than the truth. It has not eliminated the attacks entirely, but it has shortened them: instead of seven days or more, the affliction now contracts to two — at least so far. The future I leave to God. The doctors, of course — who always disparage anything outside their art that proves more powerful than it — say the improvement comes not from your remedy but from restraining my diet. But no one will persuade me otherwise: my relief came from you, not from them. Know that such conviction only makes me love you more than before. May your own body never need the same kind of help.

Ἠλίᾳ. (356) Θαυμάζεις ὅτι σὺ μὲν ἡμῖν ἐπεκούρεις ἔργῳ καὶ ὅ τι εἶχες ἐβοήθεις, ἡμεῖς δὲ οὐδὲ ὅ τι ἡμῖν ἐκ τῆς βοηθείας ὑπῆρξεν ἐγράψαμεν. τοῦτο δὲ ἐποίουν βασανίζων ἐν χρόνῳ τὴν συμ- μαχίαν, ᾧ μόνῳ τὴν δύναμιν αὐτῆς ἦν ἰδεῖν. οὐ γὰρ ὀφθαλ- μῷ γε ἐκρίνετο ἄν, ἀλλὰ τῷ κωλῦσαι τὸ νόσημα μὴ ὡς πρό- τερον ἐπελθεῖν. ὅ τι δ’ οὖν ἤνεγκεν ὃ πέπομφας, ἄκουσον· ἐρῶ δὲ μεῖζον οὐδὲν οὐδὲν οὔτ᾿ ἔλαττον. τὰς μὲν προσβολὰς ὅλως οὐκ ἀνῄρηκεν, βραχυτέρας δὲ κατὰ τὸν χρόνον ἐποίη· σεν· ἀντὶ γὰρ ἡμερῶν ἑπτὰ καὶ ἔτι πλειόνων εἰς δύο συνέστειλε τὸ πάθος, ὅσα γε ἐκ τῶν πεπραγμένων. τὸ μέλλον δὲ ἀφείσθω τῷ θεῷ. τοῖς μὲν οὖν ἰατροῖς, — ἀεὶ δὲ οὗτοι διασύρου- σιν ὅ τι ἂν αὐτῶν ἔξω τῆς τέχνης ὂν μεῖζον ἰσχύῃ τῆς τέ- χνης —, οὐκ ἐνθένδε φαίνεταί τι γεγονέναι χρηστόν, ἀλλ’ ἀπὸ τοῦ κεκολάσθαι τὰ περὶ τὴν τράπεζαν· ἐμοῦ δὲ τοῦτο οὐδεὶς ἐξαιρήσεται, ὡς οὐκ ἐκεῖθεν, ἀλλὰ παρὰ σοῦ γέγονα ῥᾴων. 5, ὃ πεπεισμένον ἀνάγκη πλέον ἢ πρὸ τοῦ φιλεῖν, ἀμοιβῶν δὲ παραπλησίων μή σοι δεηθείη τὸ σῶμα.