the British Islands, and a famine raging there, the
owners sold their cargo to great advantage, {205} and brought back a
considerable value in exchange, one half in money, the other in pewter.

The patriarch lived himself in the greatest austerity and poverty, as to
diet, apparel, and furniture. A person of distinction in the city, being
informed that our saint had but one blanket on his bed, and this a very
sorry one, sent him one of value, begging his acceptance of it, and that
he would make use of it for the sake of the donor. He accepted of it,
and put it to the intended use, but it was only for one night; and this
he passed in great uneasiness, with severe self-reproaches for being so
richly covered, while so many of his masters (his familiar term for the
poor) were so ill accommodated. The next morning he sold it, and gave
the price to the poor. The friend being informed of it, bought it for
thirty-six pieces, and gave it him a second, and a third time; for the
saint always disposed of it in the same way, saying facetiously, "We
shall see who will be tired first." He was well versed in the
scriptures, though a stranger to the pomp of profane eloquence. The
functions of his ministry, prayer, and pious reading, employed his whole
time. He studied with great circumspection to avoid the least idle word,
and never chose to speak about temporal affairs, unless compelled by
necessity, and then only in very few words. If he heard any detract from
the reputation of their neighbor, he was ingenious in turning the
discourse to some other subject, and he forbade them his house, to deter
others from that vice. Hearing that when an emperor was chosen, it was
customary for certain carvers to present to him four or five blocks of
marble, to choose one out of them for his tomb, he caused his grave to
be half dug, and appointed a man to come to him on all occasions of
pomp, and say, "My lord, your tomb is unfinished; be pleased to give
your orders to have it completed, for you know not the hour when death
will seize you." The remembrance of the rigorous account which we are to
give to God, made him often burst into the most pathetic expressions of
holy fear. But humility was his distinguishing virtue, and he always
expressed, both in words and actions, the deepest sentiments of his own
nothingness, sinfulness, miseries, and pride. He often admired how
perfectly the saints saw their own imperfections, and that they were
dust, worms,