Now since time, which is wont to assuage all things, has intervened since the
calamity, and your present condition seems to demand the aid of your
friends, I have conceived it to be proper to communicate to you some words
that can give comfort, for
[p. 111] the mitigation of grief and
the termination of mournful and vain lamentations. For
Words are physicians for an ailing mind, When at the
fitting time one soothes the heart.1
Since, according to
the wise Euripides,
2
For divers ills are remedies diverse : The kindly
speech of friends for one in grief, And admonitions when one plays the
fool.
Indeed, though there are many emotions that aifect the
soul, yet grief, from its nature, is the most cruel of all. They say :
To many there doth come because of grief
Insanity and ills incurable, And some for grief have ended their own
life.3
