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AND so far is this not done without difficulty, that those who know
nothing of perfect discretion would rather prolong their fasts for two
days, and reserve for tomorrow what they should have eaten today, so that
when they come to partake of food they may enjoy as much as they can
desire. And you know that lastly your fellow citizen Benjamin most
obstinately stuck to this: as he would not every day partake of his two
biscuits, nor, continually take his meagre fare with uniform self-
discipline, but preferred always to continue his fasts for two days that
when he came to eat he might fill his greedy stomach with a double portion,
and by eating four biscuits enjoy a comfortable sense of repletion, and
manage to fill his belly by means of a two days' fast. And you doubtless
remember what sort of an end there was to the life of this man who
obstinately and pertinaciously relied on his own judgment rather than on
the traditions of the Elders, for he forsook the desert and returned back
to the vain philosophy of this world and earthly vanities, and so confirmed
the above mentioned opinion of the Elders by the example of his downfall,
and by his destruction teaches a lesson that no one who trusts in his own
opinion and judgment can possibly climb the heights of perfection, nor fail
to be deceived by the dangerous wiles of the devil.
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