ABSTRACT
According to what the holy fathers say, the rational soul possesseth three powers, desire, anger, and thought, and from these, as from fathers and mothers, are produced the other powers. From desire spring chastity, love, and patience; from anger, strength and fortitude, and from thought understanding, wisdom and knowledge. From these, according to what say the holy writers on the ascetic and monastic life, is propagated in the God-loving heart every work upon which as by stories, the spiritual building riseth and with which the mind, which is wise in Divine matters, buildeth up and completeth the whole t©wer whicli mounteth up to heaven. Now the labours and habits of life which are wrought by holy men and which have repentance as their aim, namely, fasting, watching, bowing of the whole body and head to the ground, and*
١ The MSS. have ؛ﺊﻫﺄﻫا but read 0ﻢﻟأﺀأ. cccc
prayers themselves, are the primary matters and mate rials for the ascetic life; and services of Psalms, selfdenial, tears,1 contrition, readings of the Scriptures, patience, seriousness, chastity, voluntary poverty, silence, meditation on divine matters, the despising of self, the fleeing away from men, the struggling, and the sitting apart quietly in the cell: [p. 326] these are all the various things which purify the understanding [which] loveth prudence. These, and more than these, needeth the labour of monks which is performed with correct aim and for the sake of the glory of the world which is to come. And the blessed Mark the monk grouped these things under the three comprehensive heads of the ascetic life, namely, “that a man should pray without ceasing; that he should cleanse his thoughts; and that he should endure those things which happen.” Wherefore when the soul of him that would be per fect in these things hath entered into them, it hath already become a dwelling-place for the Holy Spirit; and hath trodden the passions under foot; and hath become exalted above the body; and hath yoked2 it beneath itself like a chariot; and like a strenuous charioteer it pursueth after the passions and treadeth under foot the desires of the body; and like a fire blazing with the love of our Lord it burneth up all humidity [of the body] which is placed as an obstacle in the burning path of Christ; and it is filled with love towards its neighbour, from which love for God is produced, and concerning which the divine Apostle John saith in his Catholic Epistle, “He that thinketh he
1 The MSS. have £.؛<>?, but read ; ١٠؛ ?. 2 Read c;؛;،؛،؟؟.
