1. HE that has chosen the solitary life ought to consider all things that are concerned with this world as alien and strange to himself. One who in truth pursues the cross of Christ, denying all things, yea, and his own life also, ought to have his mind nailed to the love of Christ, esteeming the Lord before parents, brethren, wife, children, kindred, friends, possessions. This Christ set forth, when He said, “Every one that hath not left father, or mother, or brethren, or wife, or children, or lands, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me.” In nothing else is salvation and peace found for men, as we have been told. How many kings have appeared of the race of Adam, possessing all the earth, thinking great things because of their royal power; and yet none of them, for all this kind of advantages, had the power to discern the evil which had invaded the soul in consequence of the first man’s transgression, and had darkened it, that it knew not the change which had passed over it—that the mind at first was pure and saw its Master, being in honour, and now, because of its banishment, is clothed with shame, the eyes of the heart being blinded, that it may not behold that glory, which our father Adam before his disobedience beheld.
2. There have been also divers kinds of wise men according to the world; of whom some have displayed excellence by means of philosophy; others have been admired for their expertness in sophistry, others have displayed oratorical skill; others have been men of letters and poets, and have composed histories according to the conventional plan. There have also been different kinds of artificers, who have practised the arts according to the world. Some have carved in wood all kinds of birds and fishes, and figures of men, and in those have endeavoured to display their excellence. Some have taken in hand to fashion portraits, statues in bronze and the like; others have erected great and beautiful buildings; others, mining the earth, bring up the silver and gold that perishes, others precious stones. Others, possessing personal beauties, were elated by the comeliness of their countenances and were the more enticed by Satan, and fell into sin. And all these artificers of whom I have spoken, being held by the serpent who dwells within, and not knowing the sin that abode with them, have been captives and slaves to the evil power, gaining no advantage from their science and their art.
3. The world, then, which is filled with all varieties, is like a rich man, who possesses splendid great houses, and gold and silver, and divers properties, and service of all sorts in abundance; and yet is oppressed by sufferings and sicknesses all at the same time, and all his kinsfolk stand beside him, with all his riches, unable to relieve him of his infirmities. No pursuit belonging to this life, not brethren, not wealth, not courage, nor all other things that we have mentioned, relieve of sin the soul which has been immersed by sin, and cannot discern things clearly. Only the appearing of Christ is able to cleanse soul and body. Let us then rid ourselves of all temporal care, and devote ourselves to the Lord, crying to Him night and day. This visible world, and the satisfaction found in it, appear to solace the body, but so much the more do they sharpen the maladies of the soul, and increase the mischief from which it suffers.
4. A certain prudent man, desiring to spare no pains in the inquiry, made it his business to gain an experience of all the things that come to pass in this world, if he might by chance profit by them. He had recourse to kings, potentates, rulers, and found no saving cure from that quarter to apply to his soul, and after spending a long time with them was none the better for it. He went again to the wise men of the world and the orators: he quitted them also in the same way, having gained no benefit from them. He made the tour of the painters, and of those who raise the gold and silver from the earth, and of all the artists, and was unable to discover any remedy for his own wounds. At last, taking leave of them, he began to seek God for himself, God who heals the diseases and maladies of the soul. But while he kept an eye upon himself and thought these matters over, his mind was found wandering among those very things from which he had ostensibly withdrawn because he hated them.