Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/200

 182 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. love serves ; it cannot cherish, evil in the brother or himself, or aught distracting from the common end. In love and humility toward God and man, the abbot must direct, and the monk obey : in love and humil- ity monks must go through their days, perform their acts of labor for the good of all and the glory of God, act toward each other not in idle foolishness of in- tercourse, but so that all may advance toward God and eternal life. To these ends were monastic regu- lations, so that each act of the monk's life should be an act of obedience and humility, done in love of God and man. Even in prayers and spiritual devotions, the monk shall observe set times and seasons, lest he be proud or puffed up at his progress. The ideal monastic character was that which cor- responded to these principles. And in hundreds of instances a personality with such a character did re- sult ; a personality when directing faultless in humil- ity and obedience to God, faultless in humility and obedience when obeying; knowing neither pride nor vanity, nor covetousness nor lust, nor slothful depres- sion ; grave and silent with bent head, yet with an inner peace, even an inner passionate joy ; meditative, mystic, an other-world personality; one that dwells in spiritual facts, for whom this world has passed away and the lusts thereof ; one that is centred in God and in eternal life, and yet capable of intense activities; a man who will not swerve from orders received, as he swerves not from his great aim, the love of God and life eternal. Such a character was narrow in that it lacked the qualities developed by those normal human activities which monastic life ^