Some Dangers Of Asceticism

Novi apud te, et apud matrem tuam, superbiam, per quam diabolus cecidit, penitus locum non habere. Unde ad te super ea scribere superfluum sit. Stultissimum quippe est docere, quod noverit ille quem doceas. Sed ne hoc ipsum tibi jactantiam generet, quod saeculi jactantiam contempsisti; ne cogitatio tacita subrepat, ut quia in auratis vestibus placere desisti, placere coneris in sordidis: et si quandum in conventum fratrum veneris vel sororum, humilies sedeas, scabello te causeris indignam. Vocem ex industria, quasi confecta jejuniis, non tenues; et deficientis imitata gressum, humeri innitaris alterius. Sunt quippe nonnullae extrerminantes facies suas, ut appareant hominibus jejunantes: quae statim ut aliquem viderint, ingemiscunt, demittunt supercilium, et operta facie, vix unum oculum, liberant ad videndum. Vestis pulla, cingulam saccum, et sordidis manibus pedibusque, venter solus, quia videri non potest, aestuat cibo. His quotidie Psalmus ille canitur: Dominus dissipabit ossa hominum sibi placentium.  Sanctus Hieronymus, Epistola XXII, Ad Eustochium, Paulae Filiam Source: Migne PL 22 413

I know that neither to you nor your mother may be attributed pride, that which through which the devil fell. It would be superfluous to write to you upon it; for it is most stupid to teach someone something he knows. But do not become boastful now that you have despised the boastfulness of the age. Do not harbor the secret thought that having ceased to court attention in golden garments you may do so in poor attire. If you come into a gathering of brothers or sisters, do not sit in too low a place or announce that you are unworthy of a footstool. Do not roughen your voice as if exhausted by fasting, nor mimic the gait of one who is faint while leaning on another's shoulder. Some women indeed disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to fast, and as soon as you catch sight of any one of them they groan, they cast their eyes down, they cover their faces, but for one eye, of course, which must be kept free to peep around. Plain attire they have, a girdle of sackcloth, unwashed hands and feet; the stomach alone, that which one cannot see, is rich with food. Of these the psalm is sung daily: 'The Lord will scatter the bones of those who please themselves.'1 St Jerome, from Letter 22, To Eustochium daughter of Paula 1 Ps 52.6