Synesius’s Grief for the Death of his Children, brings upon him a Fit of Sickness; his Letter of Complaint to Hypatia in his Illness.

Continuing therefore to grieve for the Death of his Children, he fell into an ill State of Health, which he signifies to his Mistress (whom in all his Letters he stiles The Philosopher) and to the beloved Companions of his Studies, in these Words. “Being confined to my Bed I have dictated this Letter, which may you receive in good Health, my Mother, my Sister, and my Instructress! in all which Respects you have been my Benefactress, or if there be any other, either Name or Thing, that is more honourable. The Weakness of my Body proceeds from the Anguish of my Soul. The Remembrance of my deceased Children consumes me by little and little. Synesius ought only to have lived so long, as the Evils of Life were unknown to him. Afterwards it has happened to him as to a Stream that is stopt; it rushes over its Dam on a sudden, and forces all the Pleasure of Life before it. Let me cease to live, or to remember the Burial of my Children. May you enjoy Health yourself, and salute in my Name the happy Companions, beginning with Father Theotecnus, and Brother Athanasius, and so proceeding to the rest. Or if any other be since associated to them, who is agreeable to you (and to whom, for this very Reason of pleasing you, I ought to stand obliged) salute him also from me, as one of my dearest Friends. If what relates to me be of any Concern to you, ’tis well done; though, even then, I shall be insensible to this Favour.” What can be more affectionate, what can be more tender, what can be more benevolent or candid? The Soul speaks here in every Line. A while after, the Calamities of War being added to all his other Sorrows, he writes her this Letter, beginning with a couple of Lines out of Homer, changing only a Word or two.

“I, who am surrounded with the Miseries of my Country, and who am thoroughly weary of it, since I daily see hostile Arms, and Men slaughter’d like Beasts; that I breathe Air infected with the Corruption of dead Bodies, and that I hourly expect the like Fate myself; for who can hope well, where the very Face of the Sky is most lamentable, being darkened by the Shadow of carnivorous Birds? Yet, notwithstanding all this, I retain an Affection for the Country; nay, how can I do otherwise, being a Lybian by Nation, and born in this Place, where I behold no ignoble Sepulchres of my Ancestors. For your Sake alone I fancy I can set light by my Country, and, as soon as Leisure offers, will banish myself out of it.” In Clidophorus I shew’d the like Resolutions out of some of his Letters to others: but whether he ever executed them, or how long he lived, or where or in what Manner he died, is not recorded by any Author that I remember.