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Longer Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 13: That the Practice of Silence is Beneficial for Novices
The practice of silence is beneficial for novices. For, if they control the tongue, they will both give sufficient proof of continence and will learn in quiet, eagerly and attentively, from those that are skilled in instruction, how they must ask questions and answer each individual question. For there is a tone of voice and symmetry of language and appropriateness of occasion and special vocabulary which are peculiar to the religious, and can only be learned by the man who has unlearned his former habits. Now silence both induces forgetfulness of the past through lack of practice and affords leisure to learn good habits. Accordingly a novice must keep silence, except of course for the psalmody, unless he is constrained either by a special need concerning the care of his own soul or the unavoidable necessity of the work he has in hand, or by some question that is put to him.
Notes
- Cf. B. 208. Note that this Rule, with 26, 27, 38, 39, 49, 51, 53, 54 alone among the Longer Rules has no Scripture proof-texts.