Loss And Gain

Et ne veteres replicando historias, longum faciam, et excedam mensuram epistolae, brevem tibi fabulam referam, quae infantiae meae temporibus accidit. Beatus Antonius cum a sancto Athanasio, Alexandriae Episcopo, propter confutationem haereticorum, in urbem Alexandriam esset accitus, et isset ad eum Didymus vir eruditissimus, captus oculis, inter caeteras sermocinationes, quas de Scripturis sanctis habebant, cum eius admiraretur ingenium, et acumen animi collaudaret, sciscitans ait: Num tristis es, quod oculis carnis careas? Cum ille pudore reticeret; secundo tertioque interrogans, tandem elicuit, ut moerorem animi simplicitier fateretur. Cui Antonius: Miror, ait, prudentem virum ejus rei dolere damno, quam formicae et muscae et culices habent, et non laetari illius possessione, quam sancti soli et Apostoli meruerunt.  Sanctus Hieronymus, Epistola LXVIII, Ad Castrutium  Source: Migne PL 22 652-653

And lest in repeating old tales I become prolix and exceed the proper measure of a letter, I will briefly refer to something that happened in the time of my childhood. The blessed Anthony was summoned by the holy Athanasius to the city of Alexandria in order to confute heretics, and there came to Anthony a man named Didymus, a most wise scholar who had lost his sight, and the talk among them when it dwelt upon scripture made him admire Didymus' intelligence and acumen. Anthony asked him, 'Does it grieve you that you have lost the use of your eyes?' Didymus was unwilling to reply on account of shame, but he was asked a second and third time until he answered that it was a grave grief to his soul. To which Anthony said, ' I am amazed that a prudent man should lament the loss of a thing which he shares with ants and flies and gnats and not rejoice over that possession which he has merited along with the saints and Apostles.' St Jerome, from Letter 68, To Castrutius