Sight indeed is better than writing, inasmuch as, being one ' of the company of the senses, it not only, by communicating prQ^ofs 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 har- bour of refuge, as the phrase runs, is the prac- tice of writing, which we have received, as a convenient haven, by thy faith, from so great a distance, seeing that by means of a letter we have learned the excellence that is in thee. For the souls of the good, O thou 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 thy intelligence invites us, as by a word of command, to participate in those divine draughts which gush forth so abundantly in thy soul.