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THAT most refreshing interlude also of relaxation and courtesy, which
sometimes is wont to intervene because of the arrival of brethren, although
it may seem to us tiresome and what we ought to avoid, yet how useful it is
and good for our bodies as well as our souls you must patiently hear in few
words. It often happens I say not to novices and weak persons but even to
those of the greatest experience and perfection, that unless the strain and
tension of their mind is lessened by the relaxation of some changes, they
fall either into coldness of spirit; or at any rate into a most dangerous
state of bodily health. And therefore when there occur even frequent visits
from the brethren they should not only be patiently put up with, but even
gratefully welcomed by those who are wise and perfect; first because they
stimulate us always to desire with greater eagerness the retirement of the
desert (for somehow while they are thought to impede our progress, they
really maintain it unwearied and unbroken, and if it was never hindered by
any obstacles, it would not endure to the end with unswerving
perseverance), next because they give us the opportunity of refreshing the
body, together with the advantages of kindness, and at the same time with a
most delightful relaxation of the body confer on us greater advantage than
those which we should have gained by the weariness which results from
abstinence. On which matter I will briefly give a most apt illustration
handed down in an old story.
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