the vanity, and hate the treachery of the world. "When
mothers would wean their children," says St. Austin, "they anoint their
breasts with aloes, that the babe, being offended at the bitterness, may
no more seek the nipple." Thus has God in his mercy filled the world
with sorrow and vexation; but woe to those who still continue to love
it! Even in this life miseries will be the wages of their sin and folly,
and their eternal portion will be the second death. Paul found true
happiness because he converted his heart perfectly from the world to
God. Desiring to devote himself totally to his love, he determined to
betake himself to the great St. Antony. He went eight days' journey into
the desert, to the holy patriarch, and begged that he would admit him
among his disciples, and teach him the way of salvation. Antony harshly
rejected him, telling him he was too old to bear the austerities of that
state. He therefore bade him return home, and follow the business of his
calling, and sanctify it by the spirit of recollection and assiduous
prayer. Having said this he shut his door: but Paul continued fasting
and praying before his door, till Antony, seeing his fervor, on the
fourth day opened it again, and going out to him, after several trials
of his obedience, admitted him to the monastic state, and prescribed him
a rule of life; teaching him, by the most perfect obedience, to crucify
in himself all attachment to his own will, the source of pride; by the
denial of his senses and assiduous hard labor, to subdue his flesh; and
by continual prayer at his work, and at other times, to purify his
heart, and inflame it with heavenly affections.[1] He instructed him how
to pray, and ordered him never to eat before sunset, nor so much at a
meal as entirely to satisfy hunger. Paul, by obedience and humility,
laid the foundation of an eminent sanctity in his soul, which being dead
to all self-will and to creatures, soared towards God with great fervor
and purity of affections.

Among the examples of his ready obedience, it is recorded, that when he
had wrought with great diligence in making mats and hurdles, praying at
the same time without intermission, St. Antony disliked his work, and
bade him undo it and make it over again. Paul did so, without any
dejection in his countenance, or making the least reply, or even asking
to eat a morsel of bread, though he had already passed seven days
without taking any refreshment. After this, Anton