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AND when a man whom pride has mastered has fallen through these stages
of descent, he shudders at the discipline of the ceonobium, and--as if the
companionship of the brethren hindered his perfection, and the sins of
others impeded and interfered with his advance in patience and humility--he
longs to take up is abode in a solitary cell; else is eager to build a
monastery and gather together some others to teach and instruct, as if he
would do good to many more people, and make himself from being a bad
disciple a still worse master. For when through this pride of heart a man
has fallen into this most dangerous and injurious coldness, he can neither
be a real monk nor a man of the world, and what is worse, promises to
himself to gain perfection by means of this wretched state and manner of
life of his.
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