I am really under no obligation to publish my own mind to you, or to state the reasons for my present sojourn where I am; it is not my custom to indulge in self advertisement, nor is the matter worth publicity.  I am not, I think, following my own inclinations; I am answering the challenge of your leaders.  I have always striven to be ignored more earnestly than popularity hunters strive after notoriety.  But, I am told, the ears of everybody in your town are set a thrilling, while certain tale-mongers, creators of lies, hired for this very work, are giving you a history of me and my doings.  I therefore do not think that I ought to overlook your being exposed to the teaching of vile intention and foul tongue; I think that I am bound to tell you myself in what position I am placed.  From my childhood I have been familiar with this spot, for here I was brought up by my grandmother; Macrina, at her residence at Annesi. hither I have often retreated, and here I have spent many years, when endeavouring to escape from the hubbub of public affairs, for experience has taught me that the quiet and solitude of the spot are favourable to serious thought.  Moreover as my brothers cf. Ep. ccxvi., where he speaks of going to the house of his brother Peter near Neocæsarea.  One of the five brothers apparently died young, as the property of the elder Basil was at his death, before 340, divided into nine portions, i.e. among the five daughters and four surviving sons, the youngest, Peter, being then an infant.  (Greg. Nyss. Vita Mac. 186.)  Naucratius, the second son, was killed by an accident while hunting, c. 357.  Gregory of Nyssa must, therefore, be referred to in the text, if by “brothers” is meant brothers in blood.  Was it to Peter’s “cottage” or some neighbouring dwelling that Gregory fled when he escaped from the police of the Vicar Demosthenes, in order not to obey the summons of Valens to his synod at Ancrya?  Is the cottage of Peter “some quiet spot” of Ep. ccxxv.?  The plural ἀδελφῶν might be used conventionally, or understood to include Peter and a sister or sisters. are now living here, I have gladly retired to this retreat, and have taken a brief breathing time from the press of the labours that beset me, not as a centre from which I might give trouble to others, but to indulge my own longing.