The Spurious Epistles

Sight indeed is better than writing, inasmuch as, being one of the company of the senses, it not only, by communicating proofs of friendship, honours him who receives them, but also, by those which it in turn receives, enriches the desire for better things. But the second harbour of refuge, as the phrase runs, is the practice of writing, which we have received, as a convenient haven, by your faith, from so great a distance, seeing that by means of a letter we have learned the excellence that is in you. For the souls of the good, O you wisest of women! resemble fountains of the purest water; for they allure by their beauty passers-by to drink of them, even though these should not be thirsty. And your intelligence invites us, as by a word of command, to participate in those divine draughts which gush forth so abundantly in your soul.