not have said. I tried to perfect myself mentally -- I studied

everything I could, anything life threw in my way; I tried to

perfect my will, I drew up rules I tried to follow; I perfected

myself physically, cultivating my strength and agility by all sorts

of exercises, and accustoming myself to endurance and patience by

all kinds of privations. And all this I considered to be the

pursuit of perfection. the beginning of it all was of course moral

perfection, but that was soon replaced by perfection in general: