To love everything and everybody and always to sacrifice oneself for love meant not to love anyone, not to live this earthly life.
In time, however, the tendency to withdraw from society and give oneself up wholly to the practice of religious and ascetical exercises set in; and at any rate in Egypt, at the middle of the 3rd century, it was the custom for such ascetics to live in solitary retirement in the neighbourhood of the towns and villages.
Above all, fasting was a mode of preparing oneself for the sacramental eating of a sacred animal, and as such often assisted by use of purgatives and aperients.
Therefore, one should control oneself, even as a trader controls a noble steed.
The left hand is meant for serving oneself or for passing food.