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NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

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Libanius to <strong>Basil</strong>.Letter CCCXLV.Libanius to <strong>Basil</strong>.It is, I think, more needful for me to defend myself for not having begun to write to youlong ago, than to offer any excuse for beginning now. I am that same man who always usedto run up whenever you put in an appearance, <strong>and</strong> who listened with the greatest delight tothe stream of your eloquence; rejoicing to hear you; with difficulty tearing myself away;saying to my friends, This man is thus far superior to the daughters of Achelous, in that,like them, he soothes, but he does not hurt as they do. Truly it is no great thing not to hurt;but this man’s songs are a positive gain to the hearer. That I should be in this state of mind,should think that I am regarded with affection, <strong>and</strong> should seem able to speak, <strong>and</strong> yetshould not venture to write, is the mark of a man guilty of extreme idleness, <strong>and</strong>, at the sametime, inflicting punishment on himself. For it is clear that you will requite my poor littleletter with a fine large one, <strong>and</strong> will take care not to wrong me again. At this word, I fancy,many will cry out, <strong>and</strong> will crowd round with the shout, What! has <strong>Basil</strong> done anywrong—even a small wrong? Then so have Œacus, <strong>and</strong> Minos <strong>and</strong> his brother. 3278 Inother points I admit that you have won. Who ever saw you that does not envy you? But inone thing you have sinned against me; <strong>and</strong>, if I remind you of it, induce those who are indignantthereat not to make a public outcry. No one has ever come to you <strong>and</strong> asked a favourwhich it was easy to give, <strong>and</strong> gone away unsuccessful. But I am one of those who havecraved a boon without receiving it. What then did I ask? Often when I was with you incamp, I was desirous of entering, with the aid of your wisdom, into the depth of Homer’sfrenzy. If the whole is impossible, I said, do you bring me to a portion of what I want. Iwas anxious for a part, wherein, when things have gone ill with the Greeks, Agamemnoncourts with gifts the man whom he has insulted. When I so spoke, you laughed, becauseyou could not deny that you could if you liked, but were unwilling to give. Do I really seemto be wronged to you <strong>and</strong> to your friends, who were indignant at my saying that you weredoing a wrong?3243278 Rhadamanthus <strong>and</strong> Minos were both said to be sons of Zeus <strong>and</strong> Europa. cf. Verg., Æn. vi. 566 <strong>and</strong>Pind., Ol. ii. 75.912

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