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IN order to preserve the mind and body in a perfect condition
abstinence from food is not alone sufficient: unless the other virtues of
the mind as well are joined to it. And so humility must first be learned by
the virtue of obedience, and grinding toil and bodily exhaustion. The
possession of money must not only be avoided, but the desire for it must be
l utterly rooted out. For it is not enough not to possess it,--a thing
which comes to many as a matter of necessity: but we ought, if by chance it
is offered, not even to admit the wish to have it. The madness of anger
should be controlled; the downcast look of dejection be overcome; vainglory
should be despised, the disdainfulness of pride trampled under foot, and
the shifting and wandering thoughts of the mind restrained by continual
recollection of God. And the slippery wanderings of our heart should be
brought back again to the contemplation of God as often as our crafty
enemy, in his endeavour to lead away the mind a captive from this
consideration, creeps into the innermost recesses of the heart.
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