...The purpose therefore of the first part of this study is an attempt to show how monasticism grew out of the special conditions of thought and life in Egypt, a mode of approach which has not apparently been adopted elsewhere to the same extent. The latter part deals with a subject that has been treated attractively by many writers, but it aims at being a survey of the first century of monasticism in Egypt, based upon those sources which have been generally accepted by recent criticism as the most reliable. - From the Preface