Chapter XL.
That the monk should seek for examples of perfection not
from many instances but from one or a very few.
And
that you may the more
easily arrive at this, the examples of the perfect life of one dwelling
in the congregation, which you may imitate, should be sought from a
very few or indeed from one or two only and not from too many. For
apart from the fact that a life which is tested and refined and
purified is only to be found in a few, there is this also to be gained,
viz.: that a man is more thoroughly instructed and formed by the
example of some
one
, towards the perfection which he sets before
him, viz.: that of the Cœnobite life.