Those Who Go to the Desert Unready

But some are at times so captivated by the silence of the desert, lasting all day long, that they dread the company of men altogether. When the chance visit of some of the brothers has broken their habit of seclusion even for a little while, they boil over with obvious vexation of mind and show clear signs of annoyance. This happens above all with those who have taken up the solitary life without a well-matured purpose and without being thoroughly trained in the coenobium. Such men are always imperfect and easily upset, and lean to one side or the other as the gales of trouble drive them. [a]

For just as they boil over impatiently at the company or conversation of the brothers, so, while they live in solitude, they cannot bear the vastness of the silence they themselves have courted. They do not even know why solitude ought to be wanted and sought. They imagine that the value and chief part of this life consists in this: in avoiding the company of the brothers, and simply shunning and loathing the sight of a man.