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In between their regular meals in common they are especially careful
that no one should presume to gratify his palate with any food: so that
when they are walking casually through gardens or orchards, when the fruit
hanging enticingly on the trees not only knocks against their breasts as
they pass through, but is also lying on the ground and offering itself to
be trampled under foot, and (as it is all ready to be gathered) would
easily be able to entice those who see it to gratify their appetite, and by
the chance offered to them and the quantity of the fruit, to excite even
the most severe and abstemious to long for it; still they consider it wrong
not merely to taste a single fruit, but even to touch one with the hand,
except what is put on the table openly for the common meal of all, and
supplied publicly by the steward's catering through the service of the
brethren, for their enjoyment.
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