Learning by the Example of the Elders

My children, anyone who wants to gain skill in any art must give himself with the utmost pains and care to the study of the craft he is eager to learn, and must keep the rules and instructions of the best masters of that work or science. Otherwise he is indulging a vain hope, wishing idly to become like those whose pains and diligence he will not copy. For we know that some have come from your country to these parts only to go around the monasteries and get to know the brothers. They did not mean to take up the rules and regulations for whose sake they had traveled here, nor to withdraw to the cells and try to carry out in action what they had learned by watching or by teaching. [a]

These people kept the character and pursuits they had grown used to. And, as some reproach them, they are thought to have changed countries not for their own good but because they needed to escape poverty. For in the obstinacy of their stubborn minds they not only could learn nothing, but would not even stay any longer in these parts. For if they changed neither their way of fasting, nor their order of psalms, nor even the style of their clothes, what else could we think they were after in this country, except simply a supply of food?