13. But to return to what I began with: chastity is ever to be cultivated by men and women; it is to be kept with all watchfulness within its bounds. The bodily nature is quickly endangered in the body, when the flesh, which is always falling, carries it away with itself. Because under the pretext of a nature which is always urging men to desires whereby the ruins of a decayed race are restored, deceiving with the enticement of pleasure, it does not lead its offspring to the continence of legitimate intercourse, but hurls them into crime. Therefore, in opposition to these fleshly snares, by which the devil both obtrudes himself as a companion and makes himself a leader, we must struggle with every kind of strength. Let the aid of Christ be appropriated, according to the apostle, and let the mind be withdrawn as much as possible from the association of the body; let consent be withheld from the body; let vices be always chastised, that they may be hated; let that misshapen and degraded shame which belongs to sin be kept before our eyes. Repentance itself, with all its struggles, is a discreditable testimony to sins committed. Let not curiosity be indulged in scanning other people’s countenances. Let one’s speech be brief, and one’s laughter moderate, for laughter is the sign of an easy and a negligent disposition; and let all contact, even that which is becoming, be avoided.15    [Laughter, vol. ii. p. 249, and contact p. 291.] Let no indulgence be permitted to the body, when bodily vice is to be avoided. Let it be considered how honourable it is to have conquered dishonour, how disgraceful to have been conquered by dishonour.

XIII. Sed ut repetam quae coeperam, colenda semper pudicitia viris et foeminis, omni custodia servanda 0826C est intra limites suos. Cito natura corporis periclitatur in corpore, dum rapit illam secum caro, quae semper in lapsu est. Sub praetextu quippe naturae quae homines semper urget ad affectus, quibus ruinae collapsi generis resarciuntur; blandimento voluptatis fallens, non ducit ad continentiam legitimae conjunctionis sobolem, sed jactat in crimen. Ergo contra has carnis insidias, quibus se diabolus et socium ingerit et ducem facit, obluctandum est omni genere virtutis. Assumatur secundum Apostolum Christi opera, et a consortio carnis quantum potest animus colligatur: separetur consensus a corpore, vitia semper castigentur ut odiantur: ante oculos observetur deformis iste atque dejectus peccati pudor. Poenitentia ipsa cum luctibus suis commissorum criminum inhonesta 0827A contestatio est. Nihil consideretur curiose in alienis vultibus? Sermo et brevis sit, et sobrius risus, signum est enim animi facilis et remissi, nam contactus recedat etiam honestus. Nihil corpori liceat, ubi vitandum est corporis vitium. Cogitetur quam honestum sit vicisse dedecus, quam inhonestum victum esse dedecore.