jSS ORIGIN OP MONACHISM. 



teachers, and therefore in the defign of reaching the 

 higheft degree of fandtity, embraced this feverer mode 

 of life. 



They dwelt now, firft in iEgypt and afterwards in 

 Syria, remote from the reft of mankind ; either toge- 

 ther, and in that cafe they elecled, in high and firm 

 refolves, a prefldent, father and elder, by whofe gui- 

 dance, exhortations, and example, they hoped to finifh; 

 their conflict ; or, this appearing not fumcient to their 

 platonic myftic aim, as many dreaded left, by the fight 

 of their brethren, by their converfaticn, by focial work 

 and prayer, the complete introverfion of the foul fhould 

 be prevented, and they fail of the exalted myftical re- 

 pofe they fought : therefore, thefe betook themfelve^ 

 to the wildernefs, where, taking pofleflion of the de- 

 ferred abodes of favage beafts, they led a hard, a com- 

 fortlefs, and melancholy life. The former were called 

 coenobites, and thefe anachoretes, or eremites. 



Caffian is the firft author who has collected all thefe 

 Recounts, as a faithful relator both of what he was eye- 

 ivitnefs tp 3 and of what he heard from the mouths of 

 the asgyptian monks. He fays, after one of thefe 

 monks, that the aim of every one of them was to ac- 

 quire an immoveable tranquillity of mind ; all within 

 muft be elevated to the fpi ritual contemplation of the 

 deity, and tp a perpetual purity of heart, whereby 

 $!one we can fee God ; monks are to will but one thing, 

 ^nd that one thing is God. Thus, in the fecond and 

 third century, myfticifm was the origin of all monkery ; 

 confequently, the primitive defign of the monaftic life 

 was fomething whereof millions , of monks have never 

 Jieard, and know nothing about Thus Pythagoras, 



an4 



