The Epistles of Plato 3 · Written to particular people in particular difficulty
The Gospels say who he was; the Rule says how we live. The letters were written between the two — how one man managed with the Law when the Law was not enough.
3.1To Aristippus, and to the friends at Cyrene.
3.2We have argued for many years. I want to be clear before I die.
3.3You say the material world is a playground the Logos gave us. I say it is a cave of appearances.
3.4We both quote the Teacher, and neither of us quotes him wrongly.
3.5What I have thought about all these years is why both are true.
3.6I understand it now: you were describing the man who uses it, and I the man it uses.
3.7The same cup of wine is an instrument in your hand and a chain in another’s. The difference is not in the wine.
3.8I used to think you soft. I now think your way the harder one.
3.9The man who refuses everything need only decide once. The man who enjoys everything without being possessed must decide again every morning.
3.10I wrote that into the Covenant: possess all things, be possessed by none. (cf. The Covenant 5.3)
3.11Half of that verse is yours.
3.12I still will not come to your table. Not because I think it bad, but because I know I could not hold myself.
3.13To admit what you cannot hold is also a kind of examination.
3.14If you go before me, do not let them say we were enemies.