1.  What was my state of mind, think you, when I received your piety’s letter?  When I thought of the feelings which its language expressed, I was eager to fly straight to Syria; but when I thought of the bodily illness, under which I lay bound, I saw myself unequal, not only to flying, but even to turning on my bed.  This day, on which our beloved and excellent brother and deacon, Elpidius, has arrived, is the fiftieth of my illness.  I am much reduced by the fever.  For lack of what it might feed on, it lingers in this dry flesh as in an expiring wick, and so has brought on a wasting and tedious illness.  Next my old plague, the liver, coming upon it, has kept me from taking nourishment, prevented sleep, and held me on the confines of life and death, granting just life enough to feel its inflictions.  In consequence I have had recourse to the hot springs, and have availed myself of help from medical men.