"Once more. Why do you live on dates and onions in the desert? Why do
you endure great hardships? I endure hardships equally great, and, like
you, I live in abstinence and solitude. But then it is to please God,
and to earn eternal happiness. And that is a reasonable object, for
it is wise to suffer now for a future gain. It is senseless, on the
contrary, to expose yourself voluntarily to useless fatigue and vain
sufferings. If I did not believe--pardon my blasphemy, O uncreated
Light!--if I did not believe in the truth of that which God has taught
us by the voice of the prophets, by the example of His Son, by the acts
of the Apostles, by the authority of councils, and by the testimony
of the martyrs,--if I did not know that the sufferings of the body are
necessary for the salvation of the soul--if I were, like thee, lost in
ignorance of sacred mysteries--I would return at once amongst the men of
this day, I would strive to acquire riches, that I might live in ease,
like those who are happy in this world, and I would say to the votaries
of pleasure, 'Come, my daughters, come, my servants, come and pour out
for me your wines, your philtres, your perfumes.' But you, foolish old
man! you deprive yourself of all these advantages; you lose without
hope of any gain; you give without hope of any return, and you imitate
foolishly the noble deeds of us anchorites, as an impudent monkey
thinks, by smearing a wall, to copy the picture of a clever artist.
What, then, are your reasons, O most besotted of men?"

Paphnutius spoke with violence and indignation, but the old man remained
unmoved.

"Friend," he replied, gently, "what matter the reasons of a dog sleeping
in the dirt or a mischievous ape?"

Paphnutius' only aim was the glory of God. His anger vanished, and he