When they had once resolved to devote themselves to the service of religion, the question arose, how they might best improve and employ 10 the talents committed to them. Somehow, the idea of marrying and taking orders, or taking orders and marrying, building or improving their parsonages, and showing forth the charities, the humanities, and the gentilities of a family man, 15 did not suggest itself to their minds. They fancied that they must give up wife, children, property, if they would be perfect; and, this being taken for granted, that their choice lay between two modes of life, both of which they regarded as 20 extremes. Here, then, for a time, they were in some perplexity. Gregory speaks of two ascetic disciplines, that of the solitary or hermit, and that of the secular;[27] one of which, he says, profits a man's self, the other his neighbor. Midway, 25 however, between these lay the Coenobite, or what we commonly call the monastic; removed from the world, yet acting in a certain select circle. And this was the rule which the friends at length determined to adopt, withdrawing from 30 mixed society in order to be of the greater service to it. [27] [Greek: azyges] and [Greek: migades]. The following is the passage in which Gregory describes the life which was the common choice of both of them: 5 "Fierce was the whirlwind of my storm-toss'd mind, Searching,'mid holiest ways, a holier still. Long had I nerved me, in the depths to sink Thoughts of the flesh, and then more strenuously. Yet, while I gazed upon diviner aims, 10 I had not wit to single out the best: For, as is aye the wont in things of earth, Each had its evil, each its nobleness. I was the pilgrim of a toilsome course, Who had o'erpast the waves, and now look'd round, 15 With anxious eye, to track his road by land. Then did the awful Thesbite's image rise, His highest Carmel, and his food uncouth; The Baptist wealthy in his solitude; And the unencumbered sons of Jonadab. 20 But soon I felt the love of holy books, The spirit beaming bright in learned lore, Which deserts could not hear, nor silence tell. Long was the inward strife, till ended thus:-- I saw, when men lived in the fretful world, 25 They vantaged other men, but risked the while The calmness and the pureness of their hearts. They who retired held an uprighter port, And raised their eyes with quiet strength towards heaven; Yet served self only, unfraternally. 30 And so, 'twixt these and those, I struck my path, To meditate with the free solitary, Yet to live secular, and serve mankind." AUGUSTINE AND THE VANDALS