themselves eternal riches; and they took up their Cross and
followed Christ, some being made perfect by martyrdom, even as I
have already told thee; and some by the practice of self-denial
falling not a whit short of those others in the life of the true
philosophy. Know thou, then, that this is a command of Christ
our King and God, which leadeth us from things corruptible and
maketh us partakers of things everlasting."

Said Ioasaph, "If, then, this kind of philosophy be so ancient
and so salutary, how cometh it that so few folk now-a-days follow
it?"

The elder answered, "Many have followed, and do follow it; but
the greatest part hesitate and draw back. For few, saith the
Lord, are the travellers along the strait and narrow way, but
along the wide and broad way many. For they that have once been
taken prisoners by the love of money, and the evils that come
from the love of pleasure, and are given up to idle and vain
glory, are hardly to be torn therefrom, seeing that they have of
their own free will sold themselves as slaves to a strange
master, and setting themselves on the opposite side to God, who
gave these commands, are held in bondage to that other. For the
soul that hath once rejected her own salvation, and given the
reins to unreasonable lusts, is carried about hither and thither.
Therefore saith the prophet, mourning the folly that encompasseth
such souls, and lamenting the thick darkness that lieth on them,
'O ye sons of men, how long will ye be of heavy heart? Why love
ye vanity, and seek after leasing?' And in the same tone as he,
but adding thereto some thing of his own, one of our wise
teachers, a most excellent divine, crieth aloud to all, as from