him, “And supposing that a man cannot attain to this measure, what must we do?” The old man said unto him, “Let us flee and follow after silence.”
33. And an old man said, “Lay hold upon silence. Look carefully into and scrutinize the manner in which thou trainest thyself, both when thou art lying down, and when thou art standing up. Meditate upon the fear of God, and be not afraid of the attack of sinners. Consent not to everything. Be swift to hear and slow to believe.”
34. An old man said: “The man, who hath learned by experience the sweetness of the quietness which is in his cell, doth not flee from meeting his neighbour because he is as one who despiseth him, but because of the fruits which he plucketh from silence.”
35. Abbâ Moses used to say, “The man who fleeth from the world is like unto ripe grapes, but he who dwelleth among the attractions of the children of men is like unto sour grapes.”
36. An old man said: “Human care and worry and anxiety about the things of the body destroy the faculties of knowledge and expression in a man, and leave him like unto a piece of dry wood.”
37. They used to say about Abbâ Nastîr that the old man was like unto the serpent which Moses made for the healing of the people (Numbers 21:9 ff.), and that he was perfect in all spiritual excellences, and that, although he kept silence, he healed every man.
38. A certain brother asked an old man a question, and said unto him, “Father, what shall I do? For, although my body is in my cell, my thoughts wander about into every place, and because of this they vex me greatly, saying, ‘Thou hast no benefit whatsoever, for though thy body is shut up in the cell, thy thoughts wander and are scattered abroad.’ And they bring me to despair, and counsel me to go back to the world as one who has not the ability to acquire the rule of life which is proper for the ascetic monk.” The old man said unto him, “Thou must know, O my son, that this is an attack of Satan, but go, and continue to abide in thy cell, and go not out of it at any time, and pray to God that He may give thee the power to endure patiently, and then thy mind shall collect itself in thee. For the matter is like unto that of a she-ass which hath a sucking foal. If she be tied up, however much the foal may gambol about or wander hither and thither, he will come back to her eventually, either because he is hungry, or for other reasons which drive him to her; but if it happen that his mother be also roaming about
