but that if he was an angel, he had no need to live in a cell.

Consider again the saying of the great Antony, when some brethren
were praising another in his presence. But Antony tried him, and
found that he could not bear an injury. Then said the old man,
"Brother, thou art like a house with an ornamented porch, while the
thieves break into it by the back door."

Or this, of Abbot Isidore, when the devil tempted him to despair,
and told him that he would be lost after all: "If I do go into
torment, I shall still find you below me there."

Or this, of Zeno the Syrian, when some Egyptian monks came to him
and began accusing themselves: "The Egyptians hide the virtues
which they have, and confess vices which they have not. The Syrians
and Greeks boast of virtues which they have not, and hide vices
which they have."

Or this: One old man said to another, "I am dead to this world."
"Do not trust yourself," quoth the other, "till you are out of this
world. If you are dead, the devil is not."

Two old men lived in the same cell, and had never disagreed. Said
one to the other, "Let us have just one quarrel, like other men."
Quoth the other: "I do not know what a quarrel is like." Quoth the
first: "Here--I will put a brick between us, and say that it is
mine: and you shall say it is not mine; and over that let us have a
contention and a squabble." But when they put the brick between
them, and one said, "It is mine," the other said, "I hope it is
mine." And when the first said, "It is mine, it is not yours," he