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LASTLY, Abbot Paul, one of the greatest of the Fathers, while he was
living in a vast desert which is called the Porphyrian desert, and being
relieved from anxiety by the date palms and a small garden, had plenty to
support himself, and an ample supply of food, and could not find any other
work to do, which would support him, because his dwelling was separated
from towns and inhabited districts by seven days' journey, or even
more, through the desert, and more would be asked for the carriage of the
goods than the price of the work would be worth; he collected the leaves of
the palms, and regularly exacted of himself his daily task, as if he was to
be supported by it. And when his cave had been filled with a whole year's
work, each year he would burn with fire that at which he had so diligently
laboured: thus proving that without manual labour a monk cannot stop in a
place nor rise to the heights of perfection: so that, though the need for
food did not require this to be done, yet he performed it simply for the
sake of purifying his heart, and strengthening his thoughts, and persisting
in his cell, and gaining a victory over accidie and driving it away.
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