which is salted, and which bringeth forth neither green herb nor fruit. Now good ground produceth wheat and expelleth tares from itself.”
39. Certain brethren came and asked Abbâ Anthony a question about the Book of the Levites, and the old man went forth to the desert, and Abbâ Ammon, who knew his habit, followed him secretly. And when the old man had gone some distance, he cried out with a loud voice, and said, “O God, send Moses unto me, and let him teach me [the meaning of] this verse”; and straightway a voice was heard holding converse with him. Now Abbâ Ammon heard this voice, and said, “I heard the voice which spake with him, but the force of the verse I never learned.”
40. On one occasion when Abbâ Poemen was a youth, he went to an old man to ask him [concerning] three matters, and having gone into his presence he forgot one of them, and he turned to go to his cell; and as he put the key [in the door] to open [it], he remembered the matter which he had forgotten, and straightway he left the key in the door and returned to the old man, and the old man said unto him, “Thou hast returned quickly, brother.” And Abbâ Poemen told him the story thus:—“When I put the key [in the door] to open [it], I remembered the matter which I wanted to know, and I did not open the door because I came back hither speedily.” Now the rocky ground which [he had traversed] in the interval was of no inconsiderable length. And the old man said unto him, “Thy name shall be spoken about throughout all Egypt.”
41. A brother said unto an old Abbâ, “Behold, I have entreated the old men, and they talk to me about the redemption of my soul, but I can lay hold upon nothing in their words; what is the use, then, of making them toil when I can do nothing [with what they say], for I am wholly in a state of uncleanness?” Now there were there two basins, and the old man said unto him, “Go, bring me one of these basins, and pour some oil into it, and rinse the basin round with it, and then empty it out”; and he did so twice. Then the old man said unto him, “Bring now the two [basins] together”; and the brother did as he told him. [And the old man said, “Look and see which basin is the cleaner,” and the brother said unto him], “That into which the oil hath been poured is the cleaner.” The old man said unto him, “And thus also is it with the soul, for even if it layeth hold of nothing through that which it asketh, it is cleaner than if it had never asked a question at all.”
42. A brother asked Abbâ John, and said unto him, “How is
