134 (341). To the Presbyter Paeonius
LETTERS
134. To the Presbyter Paeonius1 You can undoubtedly imagine from what you wrote how much your letter delighted us, so clearly apparent from the contents was the purity of heart from which those words came forth. For, as the stream reveals its own source, so the nature of the speech reveals the character of the heart which has brought it forth. Therefore, I confess that I ha\'e experienced something extraordinary and far different from what seemed likely. I am always eager to receive news from your Perfection, but, when I took your letter into my hands and read it, I was not more pleased with what you had written than I was grieved at considering how great a loss had befallen me during your period of silence.
But, since you have begun to write, do not cease doing so, for you give more delight than do those who send much money to the lovers of wealth. But, there has not been a scribe near me-neither a calligraphist nor a shorthand writer.
For, of those whom I happen to have trained, some have returned to their former manner of life and others, being afflicted with chronic ailments, have given up the work.
Paeonius is unknown except through this ictter. St. Basil here refers to the calligraphists and tachygraphists whom he has trained. Letters
134, 135, 223. 333. and 331 have been quoted in some studies of stenographv. A. Schramm (,Korrespondenzulatt.' Amtliche Zeitschr. des k.
Stenographischen lnstituts zu Dresden 48 (1903) 221 and 241ff.) would conclude from the present letter that St. Basil himself was a master of tachygraphy, and did not scorn to give instructions in it. F. Maier
(idem, 49 (1904) 42ff.) rightly objects to this conclusion. In anv case, S!. Basil employed tachygraphy and had his difficulties with it. Cf. the present letter and Letter 135. This letter was written in 373.