for so is the disputation of the depraved knotted up with crafty assertions, that they feign to be right the things which they perversely persuade. Reading needs the help of memory; but if this be naturally slower, yet by frequent meditation it is sharpened and by constancy of reading it is gathered together. Often a lengthy reading, on account of its length, blots out the memory of the reader. But if it be brief, and, the book having been set aside, the sentence be reviewed in the mind, then it is read without labor, and the things that have been read, being recollected, are least of all lost from the memory. Silent reading is more acceptable to the senses than reading aloud; for the understanding is more instructed when the voice of the reader is at rest and the tongue moves under silence.
For by prolonged reading both the body is wearied and the sharpness of the voice is dulled. XV. On contemplation and action. 15.1. The active life is innocence in good works, the contemplative is the beholding of things above; the former is common to many, but the latter to few. 15.2. The active life makes good use of the things of this world, but the contemplative life, renouncing the world, delights to live for God alone. 15.3a. He who first makes progress in the active life ascends rightly to contemplation. For he is deservedly raised up in the latter who is found useful in the former. 15.3b-4. Whoever still longs for temporal glory or carnal desire is barred from contemplation, so that, being set in the working of the active life, he may be purged.
For in the active life all vices must first be exhausted through the exercise of good work, so that in the contemplative life one may pass over, with a now pure keenness of mind, to the beholding of God. And although one newly converted may desire at once to ascend to contemplation, yet by reason he is compelled first to be occupied in the working of the active life. Take, then, an example of the active and contemplative life from Jacob: while he was set upon Rachel, that is, upon the vision of the first principle, which signifies contemplation, Leah, that is, the laborious life, was put beneath him, which represents the active life. 15.5. Just as one buried is cut off from every earthly business, so too he who is free for contemplation is turned away from every active occupation.
And just as those ascending from the active life are buried in the quiet of contemplation, so those withdrawing from the action of the world are received by the active life as though it buried them in itself; and by this the active life is the sepulchre of the worldly life, and the contemplative life the sepulchre of the active life. 15.6. Holy men, just as they go forth from the secret place of contemplation to the public arena of action, so again they return from the open ground of action to the secret of inmost contemplation, that within they may praise God, where they have received that whereby they labour outwardly for His glory. 15.7.
Just as it is the eagle's custom always to fix its eye upon the ray of the sun and not to turn away, except only for the sake of seizing food, so too the saints are at times turned back from contemplation to the active life, considering that those things above are so useful, that yet these lowly things are needful in some small measure for our want. 15.8. In the manner of the active life human intention advances perseveringly; but in contemplation it takes itself up again at intervals, because it is wearied by the length of contemplating. 15.9. The vision of the living creatures in Ezekiel, which went and did not return, pertains to the perseverance of the active life;
and again those living creatures which went and returned pertain to the measure of the contemplative life, in which, while anyone strains toward it, being beaten back by his own weakness he is turned aside; and again, with his intention renewed, he is once more raised up to those things from which he had come down. This cannot happen in the active life, from which, if anyone turn aside even for a little, he is at once caught by the excess of vices. 15.10. The right eye that gives offence, which the Lord commanded to be plucked out, is the contemplative life. The two eyes in the face are the active life and the contemplative in man.
He therefore who through contemplation teaches error, does better if he plucks out the eye of contemplation, keeping for himself the one gaze of the active life, so that it is more profitable for him to go to life through simple action, than through the error of contemplation to be cast into hell. 15.11. Often the mind is raised from the depths to the heights, and often, bowed down by the weight of the flesh, it is turned back from the heights to the lowest things. 15.12. Many God visits by His grace out of carnal things, and lifts them up to the summit of contemplation. And many, by a just judgement, He forsakes in their contemplation, and leaves them, fallen, in earthly works. XVI. On those who despise the world. 16.1.
The things that are dear to the lovers of the world, the saints flee as though they were harmful, and they rejoice more in the adversities of the world than they take delight in its prosperity. 16.2. They are strangers to God for whom this world prospers to every advantage. But to the servants of God all the things of this world are contrary, so that while they feel these adversities they may be the more ardently stirred to heavenly desire. 16.3. Great grace shines forth before God in him who has been despicable to this world. For truly it must be that he whom the world hates is loved by God. 16.4. Holy men are pilgrims and guests in this world; whence Peter too is reproved because he thought to make a tabernacle on the mountain, for the saints have no tabernacle in this world, whose fatherland and home is in heaven.
16.5. Holy men therefore desire to despise the world and to recall the motion of the mind to the things above, that there they may gather themselves again whence they flowed down, and may withdraw themselves from where they were scattered. 16.6. The just, who renounce riches and honours and the enticements of life, thereby mortify themselves from every earthly possession, that they may live for God; and so they trample upon the allurements of this world, that from the mortification of this life they may rise up the stronger to that other life. For all temporal things, like green herbs, wither and pass away, and therefore for the sake of eternal things, which never wither, the servant of God rightly despises these, because in them he sees no stability. 16.7.
He who, after the renunciation of the world, pants with holy desires for the heavenly fatherland, is raised up from this earthly intention as though lifted by certain wings, and he beholds through his groaning the place where he had fallen, and with great joy he strains toward where he has arrived. But he who, turned back from the rest of contemplation, falls into the cares of this world, if he returns to the memory of himself, straightway groans, and knows from the very difficulty of his labour how tranquil were the things he lost, and how confused are the things into which he has fallen. For what in this life is more laborious than to burn with earthly desires? Or what here is more secure than to desire nothing of this world?
For those who love this world are troubled by its turbulent cares and anxieties. But those who hate it and do not follow it, enjoying the tranquillity of inward quiet, already in some measure begin here to have the rest of that future peace which they there await. XVII. On the saints who separate themselves from fellowship with the world. 17.1. Holy men, renouncing the world from the very foundations, so die to this world that they delight to live for God alone; and the more they withdraw themselves from the manner of life of this world, the more, with the inward keenness of the mind, they contemplate the presence of God and the frequent company of the angelic society. 17.2. So depraved and manifest are the works of the wicked, that those who desire the heavenly fatherland flee not only their manners but also their fellowship.
Some indeed desire to be separated even bodily from the wicked, that they may not be entangled in their sins. Others, though not by bodily departure, yet withdraw from them by spiritual intention; and though they share a common way of life, yet they are set apart in heart or in work; and although God often protects the life of the elect in the midst of the carnal, yet it is exceedingly rare that anyone set amid the pleasures of the world should remain untainted from the vices, into which, even if he is not quickly entangled, he is nevertheless at some time drawn. For he who has been near to danger cannot long be safe. 17.3. The way without a stumbling-block is the life of the monk without the hindrance of cupidity and fear.
For while one is drawn away from fellowship with the world, cupidity neither binds him consenting, nor torments him feeling it. 17.4. It is good to be bodily removed from the world, but it is much better to be so by the will; but perfectly, to be both. He therefore is perfect who is set apart from this world both in body and in heart. 17.5. The wild ass, as Job says, despises the city, and the monk despises the common way of life of secular citizens. These seek out the adversities of our life and despise its prosperities, so that, while this life is despised by them, the life to come may be found. XVIII. On the higher precepts of monks. 18.1. Certain are the precepts which are given to the faithful living the common life in the world, and others to those renouncing this world.
For to the former it is said that they should manage all their possessions well, to the latter that they should forsake all their possessions. The former are bound by the general precepts, the latter transcend the general precepts by living more perfectly. 18.2. For perfection it is not enough unless, having renounced all his possessions, each one also renounce his very self; but what is it to renounce oneself, except to renounce one's own pleasures? so that he who was proud may be humble, and he who is prone to anger may strive to be meek. For if anyone so renounce all that he possesses, that he renounce not his own ways, he is not Christ's disciple. For he who renounces his goods, denies his own things; but he who renounces his depraved ways, denies, that is, his very self. Whence the Lord also says:
'If any man,' He says, 'will come after me, let him deny himself.' XIX. On the lukewarmness of monks. 20.1-2. Those who do not follow the profession of a monk with rigid intention, the more slackly they aim at the purpose of heavenly love, the more readily are they drawn back again to the love of the world. For an imperfect profession seeks once more the desires of the present life; in which, though the monk does not yet bind himself in deed, yet he already binds himself in the love of his thought. For far from God is the soul to which this life is still sweet; for such a one knows not what to seek of things above, nor what to flee of things below. For as it is written: 'He that adds knowledge, adds sorrow.'
For the more anyone is able to know the things above which he should desire, the more sharply ought he to grieve over the lowly things to which he clings. For this reason too the apostle James says: 'Be miserable, mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow.' Hence also the Lord: 'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted'; and again: 'Woe to you that laugh, for you shall weep.' 20.3. He who puts forward the conversion of holiness for this end, that he may at some time desire to be set over others, such a one is no disciple of Christ, but a follower of depravity, because not for God, but for the honour of the world he strives to bear the labour of Christ's cross. XX. On the humility of the monk or work. 19.1.
The highest virtue of the monk is humility, his highest vice is pride. But then let each one judge himself a monk, when he has esteemed himself least, even when he has performed the greater works of the virtues. 19.2. Those who forsake the world, and yet follow the virtues of the precepts without humility of heart, these, as it were, fall more grievously from a height, because they are cast down more grievously through the exaltation of the virtues than they could have slipped through the vices. 19.3a. Every servant of God ought not to be lifted up over his own merits, since he may see that others, from being lower, are made more excellent than himself. And let every saint know not to prefer himself to the holiness of another. 19.3b.
Always ought the conscience of the servant of God to be humble and sorrowful: humble, that he may not grow proud; and by a profitable sorrow, that his heart may not dissolve into wantonness. 19.4. The servant of God, while he does some good work, is uncertain whether what he does pertains to him for the reward of good, lest perhaps in the scrutiny of the heavenly Judge he be reckoned guilty, and be found to have done something in the things of God negligently or proudly. And therefore for this very reason he becomes sorrowful and mourning, and is unceasingly troubled, remembering beyond doubt that it is written: 'Cursed is he that does the work of the Lord negligently.' For truly we are condemned, if through sloth we do those things which are good. 19.5.
The servant of God ought without ceasing to read, to pray, and to work, lest perhaps the spirit of fornication should steal away the mind given over to idleness. For pleasure yields to labour, but it quickly takes possession of a mind at leisure. Consider Solomon, wrapped up through idleness in many fornications, and through the vices of fornication fallen even into idolatry. XXI. On monks who are occupied with the cares of the world. 21.1a. Those who for the fear of God renounce the world, and yet are entangled in the cares of household affairs, the more they occupy themselves with the pursuit of things, the more they withdraw themselves from divine charity. 21.1b. Those who strive at once both to obey earthly cares and to exercise themselves in divine ones, are not able to embrace both together;
for two cares cannot equally be in the human breast, and it is difficult for one who serves two masters to please the one. 21.2. Unless first the troublesome multitude of secular cares be driven out from the more secret parts of the heart, the soul, which lies within, will in no way rise again. For while it sprinkles itself abroad through the innumerable thoughts of the world, it in no way gathers itself to the consideration of itself. 21.3. The lukewarmness of those is rebuked who, wishing to be free for God, both renounce the world and spurn their own cares, but while they procure the advantages of their kinsfolk, they separate themselves from the love of God. 21.4. The spiritual man ought so to benefit his kindred, that while he strives to render them the favour of the flesh, he himself does not decline from his spiritual purpose.
For many of the monks, out of love for their parents, have been entangled not only in earthly cares but also in legal disputes, and for the temporal welfare of their own kin have lost their own souls. 21.5. Sometimes there is an ordered discrimination, when that is denied to a kinsman which is granted to a stranger, so that you may know it is not to forbid the office of piety, but to deny the affection of carnality. For it is granted carnally to parents, what is bestowed piously on strangers. 21.6. Just as our own soul is not to be hated by us, but we ought to hold its carnal affections in hatred, so neither are our parents to be held in hatred by us, but their hindrances, which impede us from the right path—yet since the Lord has so commanded us to hate our parents, even as also our own souls. 21.7.
The kine of the Philistines, which bore the ark of God, prefigured holy men renouncing the world. For, just as those kine were in no way turned aside from the right path by affection for their calves, so too the man who renounces the world ought not, on the pretext of kinship, to be hindered from a good purpose. XXII. On those who are hindered by love of the world. 22.1. Many desire to fly to the grace of God, but they fear to lack the delights of the world. The love of Christ indeed calls them forward, but the cupidity of the world calls them back. And so they forget their vow, because they are seized by the enticements of vanity. 22.2. Whatever mind you may be enveloped in the storms of this world, mount the wood of the cross, that you may be freed from the sea, that is, from the tempest of this world.
For none shall save you from the pit of human death, unless Christ shall have rescued you. 12.3. He who has resolved to renounce the world is bound by the guilt of transgression, if he changes his vow. For they are to be grievously arraigned in the scrutiny of the divine judgement, who despised to fulfil in deed what they had promised by their profession. 22.4. Wonderfully is the likeness compared of one striving to return from the pleasures of the world to God, while the cupidities of the world hold him back, to one who, drowsing, strives to rise up and is weighed down by the stupor of sleep. For the former knows how to return to the good, and is not permitted to do so by the burdens of pleasures. The latter has chosen the better part, to keep watch, but is held by the torpor of sleep. 22.5.
Those who have slipped from good to worse become blacker than cold coals, because through the torpor of the mind they are extinguished from the fire of the love of God, and through the appetite of the world, being deprived of the light of heavenly illumination, they are darkened by the blackness of sins. 22.6. Certain ones extinguish the intention of a good work through fear of want, and are not permitted, with feeble mind, to accomplish what they desired; and while they fear to be in need in the world, they cut themselves off from the heavenly glory. 22.7. With many arguments of counsels the devil lies in wait for them in the acquiring of much, who had vowed to be content with few and modest things.
He therefore sets before their minds the future destitution of their children, he persuades them to have more, whence it may suffice for themselves and the needy, so that by these enticements he may overthrow the intention of good devotion, and lead back the deceived mind into earthly gains. 22.8. With many arguments the devil lies in wait for those who renounce the world, that they may again submit themselves to his love. But more grievously does he strike, in the concupiscences of the world, those whom after their renunciation he has led back to the love of the world. And most of all through vainglory the devil subjects the monk to himself, so that him whom he could not retain through love of the world, he may draw away from the summit of humility, and through the swelling of pride make him subject to himself. 22.9.
The servant of God ought always to foresee the snares of the deceiving devil, and ought the more to apply caution of heart in good works, lest through vainglory he lose himself and perish, and forfeit all the good things which by acting rightly he had obtained. XXIII. On boasting. 23.1. Boasting is to be guarded against as much in deeds as in words; yet the downfall is to be lamented, that anyone should please himself rather than God, and procure praise from men. 23.2a. Vain and full of error is the mind that seeks after fame and gives its zeal to grasping earthly praise. 23.2b. Look around upon yourself, O man, and arrogate nothing to yourself of the things that are in you, except sin. 23.2c. He turns not aside to the right hand, who attributes not to himself but to God the good things that he does;
nor does he turn to the left, who does not presume, from divine indulgence, upon licence to sin. This is what the prophet says: 'This is the way, walk in it, neither to the right hand, nor to the left.' 23.3. It is true that nature expects to be delighted in praises; but then rightly, if each one be praised in God, not in himself, as it is written: 'In the Lord shall my soul be praised.' 23.4. Often, in despising vainglory, one falls into another kind of exaltation, while each one glories in himself, on account of the fact that he despises the praise from men. 23.5. To some it is granted to do just as much good and yet not to have the fruit of the good work, which they themselves take away from themselves through zeal for human boasting. 23.6.
Let those who love the favours of vainglory always behold their own foulness, and grieve that they have lost the good work which they did for human ostentation. 23.7. The lover of vainglory does not rest from acting, that he may always be able to be praised, and a depraved appetite ever increases in him the forces of vanity. 23.8. The beginning of a good work ought not too quickly to come openly to the knowledge of men, lest, while the beginning of the good is disclosed to human eyes, the undertaking of holiness should grow empty of the virtue of perfection. For before the time of ripeness, flowering harvests quickly perish, and the shoots become useless. 23.9.
The virtues of the saints are subjected to the dominion of unclean demons through the appetite for ostentation, as was king Hezekiah, who through boasting betrayed his riches to the Chaldeans, and therefore heard through the prophet that they would perish, so that it might signify that the servant of God, when he betrays his virtues through the zeal of vainglory, loses them and straightway makes the demons the lords of his own works, just as that man through ostentation made the Chaldeans the lords of his own things. 23.10. That discretion is best, that our works be both known, for the increasing of God's glory, and hidden, for the avoiding of human self-exaltation. But he ought to make public the good that he does, who, founded on perfect humility, is now touched by no exaltation.
For he who understands that he is still assailed by the love of praise, let him do his good deeds in secret, lest perhaps he lose what he has done. 23.11. Sometimes holy men, while they desire utterly to correct their own mutability, are at times touched by a swelling of their own exaltation, being conscious of the action of righteousness, but from the evil of this insinuation they are purged by the compunction of humility. 23.12. Holy men sometimes instruct certain ones who hear them concerning themselves, and yet in these things they guard themselves with lofty consideration, lest, while they raise others up from earthly intention, they themselves be plunged into the appetite for earthly praise. 23.13.
Certain ones, through incautious boasting of their virtues, slip back into vices; and certain ones, while they often bewail themselves under the impulse of vices, from that very weakness grow more strongly whole again through humility. 23.14. Generally it is profitable for the arrogant to be forsaken by God, so that, conscious of their own weakness, they may return to humility, and, after their fall, may prove humble. 23.15. Some, by a false opinion of arrogance, esteem themselves to be perfect when they are not, because they are made known when temptations arise. 23.16. The nearer anyone becomes to the truth, the farther he has judged himself to be from it. For this belongs to the humility which joins man to God. But this boasting closes the eyes by which God could be seen. 23.17.
Just as the ray of the sun, while it is gazed upon, dulls the keenness of the eye, so too he who immoderately scrutinizes lofty things concerning himself is blunted from the perception of the truth. 23.18. Just as the eagle from on high sinks down to its food, so man from the height of a good manner of life is plunged, through carnal appetite, to lower things. XXIV. On hypocrisy. 24.1. The hypocrite has the words of the saints, but has not their life, and those whom he has begotten through the discourse of doctrine he does not cherish by examples, but forsakes, because those whom he builds up by word, he destroys by his life and manners. 24.2. Hypocrites are called dissemblers, who seek not to be just, but only desire to seem so. These do evil, and profess good. Through ostentation indeed they appear good, but through action they truly exist evil. 24.3.
All vices can be perpetrated by the simple, but dissimulation and hypocrisy are not committed except by the wickedly cunning, who by their craft are able to conceal vices under the appearance of virtues and to set forth a holiness that is not true. 24.4. The saints not only do not at all seek glory beyond their measure, but they even flee to be seen as that which they have deserved to be. But hypocrites, covering the hidden things of their malice before the eyes of men, clothe themselves with a certain sanctity of innocence, that they may be venerated. To whom it is well said by the divine voice: 'Woe to you, hypocrites, because you are made like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful to men, but within are full of the bones of the dead!'
'So also you outwardly indeed appear just to men, but within you are full of avarice and iniquity!' 24.5. Doubly are the hypocrites condemned, whether for their hidden iniquity, or for their open dissimulation. For from the former they are condemned because they are wicked; from the latter, because they show forth what they are not. 24.6. Hypocrites are not always hidden; for although at their beginning certain of them do not lie open, yet before their life is ended, they are uncovered as to how feignedly they have lived. For everything sincere endures, but the things that are feigned cannot be lasting. 24.7. The salvation of those is not to be despaired of who still savour something earthly, since they may also act in hidden things whereby they may be justified.
For these are better than hypocrites, in that they are evil in the open, and good in secret; but hypocrites are evil in secret, and show themselves good openly. 24.8. The just man is forbidden to rebuke the hypocrite, lest, being chastised, he become worse, as Solomon says: 'Rebuke not a scorner, lest he hate you.' XXV. On envy. 25.1. Malice against another's good punishes its own author. For whence the good man makes progress, thence the envious man wastes away. 25.2. Men living perversely, just as they rejoice over the fallings of the good, so they are confounded by their rightly-done deeds and their perseverance in good. 25.3. The envious man is a member of the devil, by whose envy death entered into the world, just as the proud man too is a member of the devil, of whom it is written:
'He beholds everything that is high, and he himself is king over all the children of pride.' 25.4. There is no virtue which does not have the contrary evil of envy; misery alone lacks envy, because no one envies the wretched, against whom in truth no malice is set, but only mercy is applied. 25.5. Many both refuse to imitate the good, and waste away through the malice of envy at the advancements of the good. Whereby it comes to pass that they are neither corrected from their own evil, but through envy grow worse, and endeavour, as far as it is in them, if they can, to corrupt the good from their right pursuit. 25.6. When the good see the wicked prosper, let them not be scandalized, but let them chiefly consider what end they are going to have. 25.7. This the envious man affords to another's virtues, which Satan afforded to blessed Job.
For while he was jealous at his prosperities, he stirred up adversities; but whence the devil believed he could overthrow him, thence his merits were increased, and thence shone forth the more approved proofs of his patience. 25.8. So the envious seek an entrance for evil report, whereby they may stain the life of the good, just as the Sodomites sought the door by which, meaning to do harm, they might enter the house of Lot. But they, by the blindness of error, saw the walls, but did not find the door. Not otherwise do the envious, seeing as it were a wall, dissemble the virtues, but search out the vices, whereby they may burn their own conscience. XXVI. On dissimulation. 26.1.
A kind of fraudulence, in the manner of a quiver, subtly conceals the arrows of its snares, that it may make a false security, and cunningly deceive him against whom it secretly contrives. 26.2. The enemy who is manifest is to be guarded against, but more so he who cannot be seen. For easily do we conquer the things we see, but the things we do not see we drive off from ourselves with difficulty. 26.3. Rarely is a man harmed by strangers, if his own do not injure him. For we are more endangered by the snares of our own than of others. 26.4. Often poisons lie hidden, smeared over with the honey of words, and so long does the deceiver feign goodness, until by deceiving he deceives. XXVII. On hatred. 27.1-2. Not the man, but the vices are to be held in hatred.