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| Tabula |
Tuesday July 01 2025, 22H37
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There was a certain old man who lived a life of such strict self-denial that he never drank wine. And when I arrived at his cell we sat down to eat, and one brought dates and he ate, and he took water and drank; and I said to him laughingly, So you are angry with absinthe, O father? Since you have eaten dates and have drunk water, why do you not drink wine?' And he answered and said to me, 'If you take a handful of dust and throw it on a man will it hurt him?' and I said to him, 'No.' And he said to me, 'If you take a handful of water and throw it over a man, peradventure he will feel pain?' and I said to him, 'No.' And he said to me, 'And again, if you take a handful of chopped straw and throw it over a man, peradventure it will cause him pain? and I said to him, 'No.' Then he said to me, 'But if you bring [them all] and do mix them together, and do knead them well, and do dry them, you may throw and hurl the mass on the skull of a man and you will not break it'; and I said to him, 'Yes, father, [that is true].' And he said to me, 'The monks do not abstain from certain things without good reason, and you must not listen to the men who are in the world who say, 'Why do they not eat this, and why do they not drink that?' Is there not sin in them? Such people know not. Now we abstain from certain things not because the things themselves are bad, but because the passions are mighty, and when they have waxed strong they kill us.'
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