|
WHAT shall I say of those two brethren who lived beyond that desert of
the Thebaiid where once the blessed Antony dwelt, and, not being
sufficiently influenced by careful discrimination, when they were going
through the vast and extended waste determined not to take any food with
them, except such as the Lord Himself might provide for them. And when as
they wandered through the deserts and were already fainting from hunger
they were spied at a distance by the Mazices (a race which is even more
savage and ferocious than almost all wild tribes, for they are not driven
to shed blood, as other tribes are, from desire of spoil but from simple
ferocity of mind), and when these acting contrary to their natural
ferocity, met them with bread, one of the two as discretion came to his
aid, received it with delight and thankfulness as if it were offered to him
by the Lord, thinking that the food had been divinely provided for him, and
that it was God's doing that those who always delighted in bloodshed had
offered the staff of life to men who were already fainting and dying; but
the other refused the food because it was offered to him by men and died of
starvation. And though this sprang in the first instance from a persuasion
that was blame-worthy yet one of them by the help of discretion got the
better of the idea which he had rashly and carelessly conceived, but the
other persisting in his obstinate folly, and being utterly lacking in
discretion, brought upon himself that death which the Lord would have
averted, as he would not believe that it was owing to a Divine impulse that
the fierce barbarians forgot their natural ferocity and offered them bread
instead of a sword.
|
|