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 urging him or dragging him thereto, God, the Merciful One, sendeth him a helper.”

365. And a brother said unto Abbâ Poemen, “My body is weak, and I am not able to perform ascetic labours; speak to me a word whereby I may live”; and the old man said unto him, “Art thou able to rule thy thought and not to permit it to go to thy neighbour in guile?”

366. And a brother also asked him, “What shall I do? For I am troubled when I am sitting in my cell.” The old man said unto him, “Think lightly of no man; think no evil in thy heart; condemn no man and curse no man; then shall God give thee rest, and thy habitation shall be without trouble.”

367. And the same old man used to say, “The keeping of the commandments, and the taking heed to oneself in everything, and the acquisition of oblations, are the guides of the soul.”

368. Abbâ Poemen said, “A brother asked Abbâ Moses, saying, ‘In what manner is a man to keep himself from his neighbour?’ The old man said unto him, ‘Except a man layeth it up in his heart that he hath been already three years in the grave, he will not be sufficiently strong [to keep] this saying.’ ”

369. Abbâ Poemen said, “If thou seest visions and hearest rumours, repeat them not to thy neighbour, for this is victory of the war.”

370. The same old man also said, “The chief of all wickednesses is the wandering of the thoughts.”

371. Abbâ Poemen said, “If a man perform the desire, and pleasure, and custom of these, they will cast him down.”

372. A brother asked Abbâ Poemen, saying, “If a brother owe me a few oboli, shall I remind him of it?” The old man saith, “Remind him once.” And the brother said unto him, “And if I have reminded him and he hath given me nothing, [what am I to do then?]” The old man saith unto him, “Let the thought perish, only do not harass the man.”

373. A brother asked Abbâ Joseph, saying, “What shall I do? For I cannot be disgraced, and I cannot work, and I have nothing [wherefrom] to give alms.” The old man said unto him, “If thou canst not do these things, keep thy conscience from thy neighbour, and guard thyself carefully against evil of every kind, and thou shalt live; for God desireth that the soul shall be without sin.”

374. A brother asked Abbâ Sisoes of Shĕkîpâ about his life and works, and the old man said unto him that which Daniel spake, “The bread of desire I have not eaten,” that is to say, “A man should not fulfil the lust of his desire.”