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We ought then with all our might to strive for the virtue of discretion
by the power of humility, as it will keep us uninjured by either extreme,
for there is an old saying akro'thtes iso;thtes, i.e., extremes meet. For
excess of fasting and gluttony come to the same thing, and an unlimited
continuance of vigils is equally injurious to a monk as the torpor of a
deep sleep: for when a man is weakened by excessive abstinence he is sure
to return to that condition in which a man is kept through carelessness and
negligence, so that we have often seen those who could not be deceived by
gluttony, destroyed by excessive fasting and by reason of weakness liable
to that passion which they had before overcome. Unreasonable vigils and
nightly watchings have also been the ruin of some whom sleep could not get
the better of: wherefore as the apostle says "with the arms of
righteousness on the right hand and on the left," we pass on with due
moderation, and walk between the two extremes, under the guidance of
discretion, that we may not consent to be led away from the path of
continence marked out for us, nor fall by undue carelessness into the
pleasures of the palate and belly.
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