Chapter V.

Now we declare that Virginity is man’s “fellow-worker” and helper in achieving the aim of this lofty passion. In other sciences men have devised certain practical methods for cultivating the particular subject; and so, I take it, virginity is the practical method in the science of the Divine life, furnishing men with the power of assimilating themselves with spiritual natures. The constant endeavour in such a course is to prevent the nobility of the soul from being lowered by those sensual outbreaks, in which the mind no longer maintains its heavenly thoughts and upward gaze, but sinks down to the emotions belonging to the flesh and blood. How can the soul which is riveted32    Cf. De Anim⟧ et Resurr., p. 225, D. for the metaphor. to the pleasures of the flesh and busied with merely human longings turn a disengaged eye upon its kindred intellectual light? This evil, ignorant, and prejudiced bias towards material things will prevent it. The eyes of swine, turning naturally downward, have no glimpse of the wonders of the sky; no more can the soul whose body drags it down look any longer upon the beauty above; it must pore perforce upon things which though natural are low and animal. To look with a free devoted gaze upon heavenly delights, the soul will turn itself from earth; it will not even partake of the recognized indulgences of the secular life; it will transfer all its powers of affection from material objects to the intellectual contemplation of immaterial beauty. Virginity of the body is devised to further such a disposition of the soul; it aims at creating in it a complete forgetfulness of natural emotions; it would prevent the necessity of ever descending to the call of fleshly needs. Once freed from such, the soul runs no risk of becoming, through a growing habit of indulging in that which seems to a certain extent conceded by nature’s law, inattentive and ignorant of Divine and undefiled delights. Purity of the heart, that master of our lives, alone can capture them.

[5] Κεφάλαιον εʹ Ὅτι προηγεῖσθαι χρὴ τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπάθειαν τῆς σωματικῆς καθαρότητος. Πᾶσα γάρ ἐστι σπουδὴ τοῦ τοιούτου βίου, ὅπως μὴ τὸ ὑψηλὸν τῆς ψυχῆς διὰ τῆς ἐπαναστάσεως τῶν ἡδονῶν ταπεινωθείη, καὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ μετεωροπορεῖν καὶ εἰς τὰ ἄνω βλέπειν τὴν διάνοιαν ἡμῶν πρὸς τὰ σαρκὸς καὶ αἵματος πάθη κατενεχθεῖσαν πεσεῖν. Πῶς γὰρ ἔτι δύναται πρὸς τὸ συγγενές τε καὶ νοητὸν φῶς ἐλευθέρῳ ἀναβλέπειν τῷ ὄμματι ἡ προσηλωθεῖσα κάτω τῇ ἡδονῇ τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν πρὸς τὰ ἀνθρώπινα πάθη κατασχολήσασα, ὅταν [γὰρ] πρὸς τὰ ὑλώδη σχῇ τὴν ῥοπὴν ἐκ μοχθηρᾶς τινος καὶ ἀπαιδεύτου προλήψεως; Καθάπερ [γὰρ] οἱ τῶν συῶν ὀφθαλμοὶ εἰς τὸ κάτω παρὰ τῆς φύσεως ἐστραμμένοι τῶν οὐρανίων θαυμάτων ἀπείρως ἔχουσιν, οὕτως ἡ τῷ σώματι συγκατασπασθεῖσα ψυχὴ οὐκέτι πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὰ ἄνω κάλλη βλέπειν δυνήσεται, πρὸς τὸ ταπεινὸν καὶ κτηνῶδες τῆς φύσεως ἐπικύπτουσα. Ὡς ἂν οὖν μάλιστα ἡμῖν ἐλευθέρα καὶ ἄνετος ἡ ψυχὴ πρὸς τὴν θείαν τε καὶ μακαρίαν ἡδονὴν ἀναβλέποι, πρὸς οὐδὲν τῶν γηΐνων ἑαυτὴν ἐπιστρέψει οὐδὲ τῶν νενομισμένων κατὰ τὴν τοῦ κοινοῦ βίου συγχώρησιν ἡδονῶν μεταλήψεται, ἀλλὰ μεταθήσει τὴν ἐρωτικὴν δύναμιν ἀπὸ τῶν σωματικῶν ἐπὶ τὴν νοητήν τε καὶ ἄϋλον τοῦ καλοῦ θεωρίαν. Πρὸς τὴν τοιαύτην τοίνυν τῆς ψυχῆς διάθεσιν ἡ παρθενία τοῦ σώματος ἡμῖν ἐπενοήθη, ὡς ἂν μάλιστα λήθην καὶ ἀμνηστίαν ἐμποιήσειε τῇ ψυχῇ τῶν ἐμπαθῶν τῆς φύσεως κινημάτων, μηδεμίαν ἀνάγκην ἐπάγουσα πρὸς τὰ ταπεινὰ τῆς σαρκὸς ὀφλήματα καταγίνεσθαι. Ἐλευθερωθεῖσα γὰρ ἅπαξ τῶν τοιούτων χρεῶν οὐκέτι κινδυνεύει μὴ τῷ κατ' ὀλίγον προσεθισμῷ περὶ τὰ δοκοῦντα νόμῳ τινὶ φύσεως συγκεχωρῆσθαι ἐν ἀποστροφῇ καὶ ἀγνοίᾳ τῆς θείας τε καὶ ἀκηράτου γένηται ἡδονῆς, ἣν μόνη καρδίας καθαρότης τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν ἡγεμονικοῦ θηρεύειν πέφυκεν.