Chapter XXIV.
Of the difficulty of uniformity in eating; and of the
gluttony of brother Benjamin.
And
so far is this not done
without difficulty, that those who know nothing of perfect
discretion would rather prolong their fasts for
two days, and reserve for tomorrow what they should have eaten today,
so that when they come to partake of food they may enjoy as much as
they can desire. And you know that lastly your fellow citizen
Benjamin most obstinately stuck to this: as he would not every day
partake of his two biscuits, nor, continually take his meagre fare with
uniform self-discipline, but preferred always to continue his fasts for
two days that when he came to eat he might fill his greedy stomach with
a double portion, and by eating four biscuits enjoy a comfortable sense
of repletion, and manage to fill his belly by means of a two
days’ fast. And you doubtless remember what sort of an end there
was to the life of this man who obstinately and pertinaciously relied
on his own judgment rather than on the traditions of the Elders, for he
forsook the desert and returned back to the vain philosophy of this
world and earthly vanities, and so confirmed the above mentioned
opinion of the Elders by the example of his downfall, and by his
destruction teaches a lesson that no one who trusts in his own opinion
and judgment can possibly climb the heights of perfection, nor fail to
be deceived by the dangerous wiles of the devil.