young men saw me and hid themselves, and the old men rose up and stood. The princes ceased to speak, and laid the finger on their mouth. The rulers held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to their throat."[1] But the gravity and dignity of this holy man were mingled with so much sweetness and mercy that, as he tells us, "when seated as a king with his army about him he was a comforter to them that mourned."[2]
Wise men condemn this want of modest gravity, less as a fault in itself than as a mark of levity; for, as we have already observed, an unreserved and frivolous exterior indicates an uncontrolled and ill-regulated interior. Hence the author of Ecclesiasticus says: "The attire of the body, and the laughter of the teeth, and the gait of the man show what he is."[3] "As the faces of them that look therein shine in the water," says Solomon, "so the hearts of men are laid open to the wise"[4] by their exterior acts.
Such are the benefits which result from a grave and modest deportment. We cannot but deplore the conduct of those who, through human respect, laugh and jest with a freedom unbecoming their profession, and allow themselves indulgences which deprive them of many of the fruits of virtue. "A religious," says St. John Climachus, "should not abandon his fasts through fear of falling into the sin of vain-glory." Neither should fear of the
