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AT this we were overwhelmed with no slight confusion and replied as
follows: Although both the difficulty of the place and the solitary life
itself, which even a robust youth could scarcely put up with, ought to be
sufficient to teach us everything (and indeed without your saying anything
they do teach and impress us a very great deal) yet still we ask you to lay
aside your silence for a little and in a more worthy manner implant in us
those principles by which we may be able to embrace, not so much by
imitating it as by admiring it, that goodness which we see in you. For even
if our coldness is known to you, and does not deserve to obtain what we are
asking for, yet at least the trouble of so long a journey ought to be
repaid by it, as we made haste to come here after our first beginning in
the monastery of Bethlehem, owing to a longing for your instruction, and a
yearning for our own good.
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