A Complaint about Gifts

Οἷα ποιεῖς, ὦ θαυμάσιε, τὴν φίλην ἡμῖν πενίαν καὶ φιλοσοφίας τροφὸν τῆς ἐσχατιᾶς ἀπελαύνων; οἶμαι γὰρ ἄν σε καὶ ἐξούλης γραφὴν ὑπ̓ αὐτῆς φεύγειν, εἴ τις αὐτῇ προσγένοιτο λόγος: ὅτι τούτῳ συνοικεῖν εἱλόμην ἐγὼ νῦν μὲν τὸν Ζήνωνα ἐπαινοῦντι, ὃς ναυαγίῳ πάντα ἀποβαλὼν οὐδὲν ἀγεννὲς ἐφθέγξατο, ἀλλ̓, εὖγε, εἶπεν, ὦ τύχη, συνελαύνεις ἡμᾶς εἰς τὸ τριβώνιον, νῦν δὲ τὸν Κλεάνθην μισθῷ ὕδωρ τοῦ φρέατος ἀπαντλοῦντα, ὅθεν αὐτός τε διέζη καὶ τοῖς διδασκάλοις μισθοὺς ὑπετέλει. τὸν δὲ Διογένην οὐδὲ ἐπαύσατό ποτε θαυμάζων τοῖς παρὰ τῆς φύσεως μόνοις ἀρκεῖσθαι φιλοτιμούμενον, ὡς καὶ τὸ κισσύβιον ἀποῤῥῖψαι, ἐπειδήπερ παρὰ παιδὸς ἐδιδάχθη κοίλαις ταῖς χερσὶν ἐπικύπτων πίνειν. ταῦτα ἄν σοι καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἡ σύνοικος ἡμῖν πενία μέμψαιτο, ταῖς μεγαλοδωρεαῖς ἐξοικισθεῖσα νῦν. προσθείη δὲ καὶ ἀπειλήν τινα: ὅτι, εἴ σε ἐνταῦθα πάλιν λάβοιμι, Σικελικὴν ἢ Ἰταλιῶτιν τρυφὴν ἀποδείξω τὰ πρότερα: οὕτω σε ἀκριβῶς τοῖς παῤ ἐμαυτῆς ἀμυνοῦμαι. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν δὴ τοιαῦτα. ἥσθην δὲ ἀκούσας ἦρχθαί σε τῆς θεραπείας ἤδη, καὶ εὔχομαί σε ὄνασθαι αὐτῆς. πρέποι δ̓ ἂν τῇ ἱερᾷ σου ψυχῇ ἄλυπος ὑπηρεσία σώματος. Ἅγιος Βασίλειος Καισαρείας, Ἐπιστολή Δ', Ὀλυμπίῳ Source: Migne PG 32.236c-237b

What are you doing, good fellow, evicting from this remote dwelling my friend poverty, nurse of philosophy? I think that you could well have to flee a court summons because of her expulsion, and there she might make speech, saying: 'I choose now to live with this admirer of Zeno, who, when he had lost everything in a shipwreck, said bravely, 'Thank you, Fortune, for forcing me back to the old cloak,' and of Cleanthes, who drew water from a well to live and to pay his teachers, a man ceaseless in his praise of Diogenes, who was pleased to live according to nature alone, and flung away his bowl when he learned from a boy how to stoop and drink from the hollow of his hand.' In some such terms as these you may be reproached by my fellow dweller Poverty, whom your great gifts have thrown from the house. And she might too add threat to her speech, saying, 'If I catch you here again, I shall show that what went before was Sicilian or Italian luxury, and so I shall quickly chase you off out of my own place.' But enough of such things. I am pleased to hear that you have begun a course of medicine, and pray that you may be improved by it. A body fit for painless labour would suit a soul as pious as yours. Saint Basil of Caesarea, Letter 4, to Olympios