book, “Behold, I have shewn it to Father So-and-so, and he hath told me that thy price is dear.” And the brother answered and said unto him, “I did not tell thee anything to the contrary,” and the would-be buyer said, “No, thou didst not.” Said the brother, “I will not then sell thee the book,” and straightway he repented, and came to the old man and made excuses to him, and offered him the book, but the old man refused to accept it. And the brother entreated him, saying, “Allow me [to restore it to thee], O father, for if thou dost not accept it I cannot obtain life”; so the old man was entreated, and he took it, and that brother remained with him until his death, and through the patient endurance of the old man he gained life.
185. On one occasion certain philosophers came to the desert to try the monks. And there was living there a man who led a life of fair works, and they said unto him, “Come thou hither,” and his anger rose and he reviled them. Now there passed by a certain great monk who was a Libyan, and they said unto him, “O thou monk who hast grown greyheaded in iniquity, come hither”; and he went to them readily, and they smote him on one cheek, whereupon he turned the other to them. And when they saw this they rose up straightway and worshipped him, and they said, “Verily this is a monk”; then they set him in their midst, and asked him, saying, “What things do ye who are living in the desert do more than we? Ye fast, and we also fast; ye lead pure lives, and we also lead pure lives; whatsoever ye do we also do; what do ye who live in the desert do more than we?” The Libyan said unto them, “We keep watch over our minds”; and the philosophers said unto him, “We are unable to keep watch over our minds.”
186. They say that Abbâ Macarius the Egyptian on one occasion went up from Scete to the Nitrian mountain, and as he drew nigh unto a certain place, he said unto his disciple, “Pass on a little in front of me”; and when he had done so there met him a certain heathen priest, who was running along and carrying some wood about the time of noon. And that brother cried out to him and said, “O minister unto devils, whither runnest thou?” And the priest turned round and smote him with many severe blows, and he left him with but very little breath remaining in him, and he took up his wood and went on his way; and when he had gone on a little further the blessed Macarius met him on his journey, and said unto him, “Mayest thou be helped, O man of labours?” And the priest was astonished, and came to him and said, “What fair thing hast thou seen in me that thou shouldst salute me [in this gracious
