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THE mind then that is hardened by such feelings, and which begins with
this miserable coldness is sure to go daily from bad to worse and to
conclude its life with a more hideous end: and while it takes delight in
its former desires, and is overcome, as the apostle says, by impious
avarice (as he says of it "and covetousness, which is idolatry, or the
worship of idols," and again "the love of money," says he, "is the root of
all evils" ) can never admit into the heart the true and unfeigned
humility of Christ, while the man boasts himself of his high birth, or is
puffed up by his position in the world (which he has forsaken in body but
not in mind) or is proud of his wealth which he retains to his own
destruction; and because of this he is no longer content to endure the yoke
of the monastery, or to be instructed by the teaching of any of the elders,
and not only objects to observe any rule of subjection or obedience, but
will not even listen to teaching about perfection; and such dislike of
spiritual talk grows up in his heart that if such a conversation should
happen to arise, he cannot keep his eyes fixed on one spot, but his gaze
wanders blankly about here and there, and his eyes shift hither and
thither, as the custom is. Instead of wholesome coughs, he spits from a dry
throat: he coughs on purpose without any need, he drums with his fingers,
and twiddles them and scribbles like a man writing: and all his limbs
fidget so that while the spiritual conversation is proceeding, you would
think that he was sitting on thorns, and those very sharp ones, or in the
midst of a mass of worms: and if the conversation turns in all simplicity
on something which is for the good of the hearers, he thinks that it is
brought forward for his especial benefit. And all the time that the
examination of the spiritual life is proceeding, he is taken up with his
own suspicious thoughts, and is not on the watch for something to take home
for his good, but is anxiously seeking the reason why anything is said, or
is quietly turning over in his mind, how he can raise objections to it, so
that he cannot at all take in any of those things which are so admirably
brought forward, or be done any good to by them. And so the result is that
the spiritual conference is not merely of no use to him, but is positively
injurious, and becomes to him an occasion of greater sin. For while he is
conscience stricken and fancies that everything is being aimed at him he
hardens himself more stubbornly in the obstinacy of his heart, and is more
keenly affected by the stings of his wrath: then afterwards his voice is
loud, his talk harsh, his answers bitter and noisy, his gait lordly and
capricious; his tongue too ready, he is forward m conversation and no
friend to silence except when he is nursing in his heart some bitterness
against a brother, and his silence denotes not compunction or humility, but
pride and wrath: so that one can hardly say which is the more objectionable
in him, that unrestrained and boisterous merriment, or this dreadful and
deadly solemnity. For in the former we see inopportune chattering, light
and frivolous laughter, unrestrained and undisciplined mirth. In the latter
a silence that is full of wrath and deadly; and which simply arises from
the desire to prolong as long as possible the rancorous feelings which are
nourished in silence against some brother, and not from the wish to obtain
from it the virtues of humility and patience. And as the man who is a
victim to passion readily makes everybody else miserable and is ashamed to
apologize to the brother whom he has wronged, so when the brother offers to
do so to him, he rejects it with scorn. And not only is he not touched or
softened by the advances of his brother; but is the rather made more angry
because his brother anticipates him in humility. And that wholesome
humiliation and apology, which generally puts an end to the devil's
temptation, becomes to him an occasion of a worse outbreak.
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