[561] …you have no one to overcome; for with such great force you breathed against the flesh right from the beginning, that you extinguished these desires of it, not by bridling the horse, but by hobbling it, casting it to the ground, and causing it to remain motionless. And at that time you achieved self-mastery, but now you have achieved freedom from passion. For the desire for luxury no longer molests you, and you have labor in holding it in check; but having once and for all caused it to disappear, and having rendered the flesh inaccessible to it, you have trained the stomach to enjoy only as much food and drink as is necessary so as not to die and bring upon yourself punishment. For this reason, I call this not fasting, nor self-mastery, but something greater than this. This can also be seen regarding your sacred wakefulness; for the desire for sleep, with that other having been extinguished, was extinguished along with it—for food is the nourishment of sleep. And you conquered it by another way as well, having from the beginning constrained nature itself, and having spent whole nights awake; yet later, by constant habit, you brought the matter into a state of nature. For just as for others it is natural to sleep, so for you it is to be awake. These things truly are marvelous and full of astonishment, even when considered by themselves; but if one were also to examine the time, that these things were being achieved at an untimely age, and the lack of those to teach you, and the multitude of those causing scandal, and that in a soul that had just deserted from an impious household to the truth, and that in a female body, and one otherwise delicate on account of the magnificence and luxury of your ancestors, how many oceans of wonders will he discover opening up in each of these things? For this reason, I will not even mention the others: your humility, your love, the remaining virtues of your holy soul. For just as I remembered these, and spoke their names, my mind caused ten thousand springs to gush forth again, and it struggles to tell of their forms, as of the previous one, even if only in part—or rather, only the subjects themselves; for that is something that seeks a very infinite discourse. But I will not suffer myself, so as not to fall from the subject I chose to complete, to be carried off into an infinite ocean. For if this were not incumbent upon me now—to uproot your despondency 341 from you—I would gladly have lingered on these words, and sailed an infinite ocean, or rather oceans, cutting through the multifaceted paths of each of your virtues, of which each path gave birth to an ocean again—whether in patience, or in humility, or in almsgiving, the multifarious kind, spread even to the very ends of the earth, or in love, which conquers ten thousand furnaces, or in wisdom, which is infinite and full of much grace, and has transcended the measures of nature. If anyone were to wish to go over the achievements born of these, he would do the same as if someone were to attempt to count the waves of the sea.
6. Therefore, having passed by these infinite oceans, B I will strive to show the lion by its claw, discoursing a little about your attire, about the garments worn simply and at random. For the achievement seems lesser than the others; but if one were to examine it precisely, he will find it to be very great, and one requiring a philosophical soul, and a soul that tramples upon all worldly things and is flying towards heaven itself. For this reason, not only in the New, but also in the Old Testament, when God was leading the human race through shadow and type, and the things of the commonwealth were being ordered more bodily, and there was not yet any discourse concerning heavenly things, nor mention of things to come, nor any riddle of the philosophy that now holds sway, but the laws were written for the Hebrews in a somewhat cruder and more fleshly way, with much vehemence forbidding the adornment of garments, He says these things through the prophet: *Thus says the Lord to the ruling daughters of Zion. Because the daughters of Zion are exalted, and have walked with a high neck, and with winks of the eyes, and in their walk dragging their tunics, and playing with their feet; and the Lord shall humble the ruling daughters of Zion, and will uncover their figure, and will take away the glory of their apparel. And there shall be to you instead of sweet scent, dust; and instead of a girdle, you shall be girded with a rope; and instead of the adornment of your head, you shall have baldness because of your works; and instead of a tunic of purple, you shall be girded with sackcloth; these things you shall have instead of adornment* (Isa. 3:16-18, 24). Did you see the unspeakable wrath? Did you see the most severe punishment and vengeance? Did you see the intensified captivity? From this, conjecture the magnitude of the sin. For the Lover of mankind would not have brought such a most severe punishment, had the sin that draws it upon itself not been much greater. But if the sin is great, it is evident that the achievement, which stands opposite to it, is also very great. For this reason, also when conversing with worldly women, Paul not only leads them away from wearing gold, but does not even allow them to put on expensive garments (1 Tim. 2:9). For he knows, he knows clearly, that this is a grievous disease of the soul, and one difficult to overcome, and it is the greatest indication C of a corrupted judgment, and one greatly needing a philosophical mind; and not only the worldly women, who have associated with men, and none of whom easily bore this exhortation, demonstrate this, but also those who seem to practice philosophy, and who have been chosen to belong to the choir of virginity. For many of them, having successfully fought against the tyranny of nature, and purely running the race of virginity, and imitating an angelic commonwealth in this, and demonstrating in a mortal body the preludes of the resurrection (For in that age, He says, *they neither marry, nor are given in marriage* [Luc. 20:35]), and having set themselves to competition with the bodiless powers, and struggling for incorruption in a corruptible body, and achieving through their deeds things that for many are not even bearable to hear, and warding off desire—just as one would a rabid dog constantly leaping upon one—and stilling the raging sea, and in wild [circumstances]