On returning home, I cannot meet you, hindered by lingering ailments.  If these do not get better I shall not be able to meet you even in the winter.  Is not all this, as you yourself say, due to Fate?  Is not this Necessity?  Does not my case nearly outdo poets’ tales of Tantalus?  But, as I said, I feel better after getting your letter, and am now no longer of the same mind.  When God gives good things I think we must thank Him, and not be angry with Him while He is controlling their distribution.  So if He grant me to join you, I shall think it best and most delightful; if He put me off, I will gently endure the loss.  For He always rules our lives better than we could choose for ourselves.