he gave to the poor. But having kept back a little for his sister,
when he went again into the Lord's house he heard the Lord saying in
the Gospel, "Take no thought for the morrow," and, unable to endure
any more delay, he went out and distributed that too to the needy.
And having committed his sister to known and faithful virgins, and
given to her wherewith to be educated in a nunnery, he himself
thenceforth devoted himself, outside his house, to training; {35}
taking heed to himself, and using himself severely. For monasteries
were not then common in Egypt, nor did any monks at all know the
wide desert; but each who wished to take heed to himself exercised
himself alone, not far from his own village. There was then in the
next village an old man, who had trained himself in a solitary life
from his youth. When Antony saw him, he emulated him in that which
is noble. And first he began to stay outside the village; and then,
if he heard of any earnest man, he went to seek him, like a wise
bee; and did not return till he had seen him, and having got from
him (as it were) provision for his journey toward virtue, went his
way. So dwelling there at first, he settled his mind neither to
look back towards his parents' wealth nor to recollect his
relations; but he put all his longing and all his earnestness on
training himself more intensely. For the rest he worked with his
hands, because he had heard, "If any man will not work, neither let
him eat;" and of his earnings he spent some on himself and some on
the needy. He prayed continually, because he knew that one ought to
pray secretly, without ceasing. He attended, also, so much to what
was read, that, with him, none of the Scriptures fell to the ground,
but he retained them all, and for the future his memory served him
instead of books. Behaving thus, Antony was beloved by all; and
submitted truly to the earnest men to whom he used to go. And from
each of them he learnt some improvement in his earnestness and his