Letter 382

To Theodore the Monk. If you have bowed the neck of your soul beneath the yoke of all-praiseworthy submission, do not meddle in the arrangements of the one set over you; only be eager to carry out readily whatever is enjoined upon you, even should it prove burdensome and toilsome. For to busy yourself with the dispensations of your teacher, and to wish to put to the test the things he prescribes, is a hindrance to your progress. For what appears plausible and reasonable to the inexperienced person is by no means in every case truly reasonable; for the craftsman judges the matters of his craft in one way, and the unskilled person in another. The one relies upon knowledge, the other upon likelihood; and likelihood rarely hits upon the truth, but for the most part fails, having a kinship with deception rather than with correctness.

Εἰ τῷ ζυγῷ τῆς πανευφήμου ὑποταγῆς, τὸν τῆς ψυχῆς σου αὐχένα ὑπέκλινας, μὴ πολυπραγμονήσης τὰς οἰκονομίας τοῦ προεστῶτος, μόνον δὲ τὰ ἐπιτασσόμενά σοι, κἂν βαρέα, καὶ ἐπίπονα τυγχάνοι, προθύμως ποιεῖν σπούδαζε. Τὸ γὰρ περιεργάζεσθαι τὰς τοῦ διδασκάλου οἰκονομίας, καὶ δοκιμάζειν ἐθέλειν τὰ παρ’ αὐτοῦ προτασσόμενα, ἐμπόδιόν ἐστι τῆς σῆς προκοπῆς. Οὐ γὰρ δὴ πάντως ὅπερ πιθανὸν καὶ εὔλογον φαίνεται τῷ ἀπείρῳ, τοῦτο καὶ ἀληθῶς εὔλογόν ἐστιν· ἄλλως γὰρ ὁ τεχνίτης, καὶ ἄλλως ὁ ἀνεπιστήμων κρίνει τὰ τῆς τέχνης. Καὶ οἱ γὰρ ὁ μὲν τῇ ἐπιστήμῃ κέχρηται, ὁ δὲ τῷ εἰκότι· τὸ δὲ εἰκὸς ὀλιγάκις μὲν στοχάζεται τῆς ἀληθείας, τὰ δὲ πολλὰ ἀποτυγχάνει, μᾶλλον τῆς ὀρθότητος πρὸς τὴν ἀπάτην ἔχον τὴν συγγένειαν.