The Mimicry of Vices

On the eight spirits of malice (under the name of Nilus of Ancyra). The same, concerning the eight spirits of malice. Chapter 4. Concerning gluttony. The beginning of fruitfulness is the flower, and the beginning of practice is self-control; he who masters the stomach diminishes passions, but he who is defeated by foods increases pleasures. The beginning of the Amalekite nation is the source of passions, and the beginning of passions is gluttony. The matter of fire is wood, and the matter of the stomach is foods. Many woods raise a great flame, and a multitude of foods nourishes desire. The flame is extinguished when the matter remains, and the desire withers when the food is scarce. He who seized the bit drove out the foreigners, and the bonds of his hands he easily broke apart. The removal of the bit produced a spring of water, and gluttony having been abolished, it gave birth to practical contemplation. Having passed through the Passover of the tent (Exodus 12), he removed the bit of the enemy, and the word of self-control suppressed the passion. The desire for eating gave birth to disobedience, and a sweet taste cast out one from paradise (Genesis 3). The abundance of foods delights the throat, but nourishes the sleepless worms of intemperance. A hungry stomach prepares one to keep watch in prayer, but a full one brings on much sleep. Sobriety of mind is found in a very dry diet, but a moist life immerses the intellect into a depth. For one fasting, prayer is like an eagle's fledgling rising up, but the one weighed down by the heaviness of the neck is dragged down; for one fasting, the mind is a bright star in the clear sky, but the one weighed down is covered in darkness; as mist covers the solar rays, so the thick exhalation of foods darkens the intellect. Chapter 2. A mirror having become soiled does not shatter the form approaching it, and the intellect having been dulled by heaviness does not receive the knowledge of God. A parched land brings forth thorns, and the mind of a glutton sprouts shameful thoughts. It is not possible to find fragrances in a mire, nor in a glutton the sweetness of contemplation. The eye of a glutton searches out banquets; but the eye of the self-controlled searches out the assemblies of the wise. The soul of a glutton counts the memories of martyrs, but the soul of the self-controlled...

He mimics their lives. A cowardly soldier shudders at a trumpet signaling war, and a glutton at the proclamation of self-control. A gluttonous monk, a subverter of the belly, is required to undergo a daily fast.

A traveler quickly reaches a city, and a self-controlled monk, a peaceful state; a slow traveler will stumble in the wilderness, exposed, and a gluttonous monk will not reach the house of apatheia. A wisp of incense sweetens the air, and the prayer of one self-controlled, the scent of God. If you give yourself to the desire of foods, nothing will suffice to fulfill the pleasure; for the desire of foods is a fire, always receiving and always burning. A sufficient measure filled a vessel, but a bursting stomach does not say, 'It is enough.' The stretching out of hands turned the Amalekite (Exodus 17:12), and sinful actions are the result of the passions of the flesh.

Chapter 4. Destroy from yourself every breath of evil, and kill the members of your flesh strongly. For in the same way that a defeated enemy will not present fear to you, so a dead body will not disturb your soul. A dead body knows not the pain of fire, nor does a self-controlled person the pleasure of a dead desire. If you strike an Egyptian, hide him in the sand, and do not take up a body upon a defeated passion; for just as that which is hidden grows in a deserted land, so the passion sprouts up in a greasy body. A withered flame relights itself by taking up embers, and a pleasure having been extinguished is rekindled in the heap of foods. Do not show mercy to a body losing its strength, nor take it up with the luxury of foods; for if it is strong, it will rise up against you, and it will stir up unceasing war against you, until it captures your soul and delivers you as a slave to the passion of fornication.

A well-trained horse, being within the body, will never cast down the rider; for indeed it goes constrained by the bit, and obeys the hand of the driver, but the body is tamed by fasting and wakefulness, and it does not depart from the thought of the one riding upon it, nor...