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and the garment, they despise glory, their course is for poverty. These are praiseworthy above those who live in sin. But good, he says, above the two is he who has not yet been, not speaking of the one not yet born; for how is the one who has not been good? But since he praised the one who mixed himself with the affairs of life and moved among those who have been slandered or who have slandered, then abstained from these things and died to the worldly way of life, above those who live in it, by a certain superiority of life he calls him good and he praises and admires above that one the person who has not been at all in the tumults of life. 4.4 And I saw all the toil and all the excellence of the work, that it is a man's envy of his neighbor; and this too is vanity and a striving after wind. {Evagrius.} Vain along with those who envy are those who are envied for power or money or false glory. 4.5 The fool has folded his hands, and has eaten his own flesh. {Scholia lacking the author's name} And being filled while living with the evils that grow from his flesh, according to the mind of the flesh, and being nourished by the works of the flesh. 4.6 A handful of rest is good over two handfuls of toil and striving after wind. {Nilus.} A little is better for the righteous than the great wealth of sinners. Or is it not better to rest in a few things and not to be distracted by many, and to undergo the dangers of affliction of spirit? For nothing so afflicts the spirit as the cares of wealth, as the apostle says.

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καὶ τὸ ἱμάτιον, καταφρονοῦσι δόξης, ὑπὲρ ἀκτημοσύνης αὐτοῖς ὁ δρόμος. Οὗτοι ἐπαινετοὶ ὑπὲρ τοὺς ζῶντας τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ. Ἀγαθὸς δέ, φησίν, ὑπὲρ τοὺς δύο ὅστις οὔπω ἐγένετο, οὐ τὸν μήπω τεχθέντα λέγων· πῶς γὰρ ἀγαθὸς ὁ μὴ γεγονώς; Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τὸν ἑαυτὸν τοῖς βιωτικοῖς ἐπιμίξαντα πράγμασι καὶ μεταξὺ τῶν συκοφαντηθέντων ἢ συκοφαντησάντων στραφέντα, εἶτα τούτων ἀποσχόμενον καὶ τεθνηκότα τῇ κοσμικῇ πολιτείᾳ, ἐπῄνεσεν ὑπὲρ τοὺς ἐν ταύτῃ ζῶντας, καθ' ὑπεροχήν τινα βίου ἀγαθὸν αὐτὸν καλεῖ καὶ ὑπὲρ ἐκεῖνον ἐπαινεῖ καὶ θαυμάζει τὸν μηδὲ ὅλως ἐν τοῖς βιωτικοῖς θορύβοις γενόμενον. 4.4 Καὶ εἶδον· ἐγὼ σύμπαντα τὸν μόχθον καὶ σύμπασαν ἀνδρείαν τοῦ ποιήματος, ὅτι αὐτὸ ζῆλος ἀνδρὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑτέρου αὐτοῦ· καί γε τοῦτο ματαιότης καὶ προαίρεσις πνεύματοσ. {Εὐαγρίου.} Μάταιοι μετὰ τῶν ζηλούντων οἱ ἐπὶ δυναστείᾳ ζηλούμενοι ἢ χρήμασιν ἢ ψευδοδοξίᾳ. 4.5 Ἄφρων περιέλαβε τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔφαγε τὰς σάρκας αὐτοῦ. {σξηολια αυξτορις νομινε ξαρεντ} Καὶ τῶν ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ φυομένων κακῶν ἐμπιπλάμενος ζῶν, κατὰ τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός, καὶ τοῖς σαρκικοῖς ἔργοις τρεφόμενος. 4.6 Ἀγαθὸν πλήρωμα δρακὸς ἀναπαύσεως ὑπὲρ πλήρωμα δύο δρακῶν μόχθου καὶ προαιρέσεως πνεύματοσ. {Νείλου.} Κρεῖσσον ὀλίγον τῷ δικαίῳ ὑπὲρ πλοῦτον ἁμαρτωλῶν πολύν. Ἢ οὐχὶ κρεῖττον ἐν ὀλίγοις ἀναπαύεσθαι καὶ μὴ ἐν πολλοῖς περισπᾶσθαι καὶ κινδύνοις ὑφίστασθαι κακώσεως πνεύματος; Οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτω τὸ πνεῦμα κακοῖ καὶ αἱ τοῦ πλούτου φροντίδες, ὥς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος.