Letter 570: Fortune did not plan well for you, but you, I think, have planned well for yourself.

To Themistius. (357) The deity did not deliberate well concerning your affairs, but you, I think, deliberated well. For he has taken Themistion away from you, the boy whom I once nourished on the exhortations of Isocrates; yet the misfortune has not overwhelmed you, but you remain within the laws of philosophy, employing manly courage against Fortune. And it belongs, I think, to one who has borne the evil up to now not to become soft toward the suffering thereafter. For it is shameful, when one was not at first led astray, to give way as time goes on. Iamblichus you came to know as a good man when you came to us; now then treat him well as a good man. And the greatest kindness is to consider him your friend and to show to others that you regard him as a friend. For in every way the man sprung from those people ought to be judged honored in your eyes, and the man sprung from philosophers in the eyes of one who practices philosophy. Now he himself takes pride in the virtues of his forefathers, yet greater for him than to have been born of such men is to have become worthy of them. For even if he did not partake of as much learning as he desired, being hindered by orphanhood, still his nature and the nobility of his character are fitting for philosophy.

Θεμιστίῳ. (357) Ὁ μὲν δαίμων οὐ καλῶς ὑπὲρ τῶν σῶν ἐβουλεύσατο, σὺ δέ, οἶμαι, καλῶς. ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἀφῄρηταί σε Θεμίστιον, ὃν ἐγώ ποτε ταῖς Ἰσοκράτους παραινέσεσιν ἔθρεψα· σὲ δὲ οὐ κατέ- κλυσεν ἡ συμφορά, μένεις δὲ ἐν τοῖς φιλοσοφίας νόμοις ἀνδρίᾳ χρώμενος πρὸς τὴν Τύχην. ἔστι δέ, οἶμαι, τοῦ μέχρι νῦν ἐνηνοχότος τὸ κακὸν τὸ μὴ γενέσθαι μετὰ ταῦτα πρὸς τὸ πά- θος μαλακόν. αἰσχρὸν γὰρ εὐθὺς οὐ προαχθέντα προἰόντος ἐνδοῦναι τοῦ χρόνου. τὸν δ’ Ἰάμβλιχον ἔγνως μὲν ἐλθὼν ὡς ἡμᾶς ἀγαθόν, εὖ ποίει δὲ νῦν ὡς ἄνδρα ἀγαθόν. μεγίστη δὲ εὐεργεσία φίλον τε σαυτοῦ νομίσαι καὶ δεῖξαι τοῖς ἄλλοις, ὅτι αὐτὸν ἡγοῖο φίλον. πάντως δὲ τὸν ἐξ ἐκείνων παρὰ σοὶ δεῖ κεκρίσθαι τίμιον, τὸν ἐκ τῶν φιλοσόφων παρὰ τῷ φιλο- σοφοῦντι. αὐτὸς μὲν οὖν ταῖς τῶν πατέρων ἀρεταῖς σε- μνύνεται, μεῖζον δέ ἐστιν αὐτῷ τοῦ φῦναι ἐκ τοιούτων τὸ γε- νέσθαι τούτων ἄξιον. καὶ γὰρ εἰ μὴ λόγων ὅσων ἐπεθύμει μετέσχεν ὀρφανίᾳ κωλυθείς, ἥ γε φύσις καὶ τὸ τῶν ἠθῶν γενναῖον φιλοσοφίᾳ πρέποντα.