Chapter IX.

Custom is indeed in everything hard to resist. It possesses an enormous power of attracting and seducing the soul. In the cases where a man has got into a fixed state of sentiment, a certain imagination of the good is created in him by this habit; and nothing is so naturally vile but it may come to be thought both desirable and laudable, once it has got into the fashion47    οὐδὲν οὕτω τῇ φύσει φευκτόν ἐστιν, ὡς, κ. τ. λ. Both Livineius and Galesinius have missed the meaning here. Jac. Billius has rightly interpreted, “Nihil naturâ tam turpe ac fugiendum est, quin, si,” &c.. Take mankind now living on the earth. There are many nations, and their ambitions are not all the same. The standard of beauty and of honour is different in each, the custom of each regulating their enthusiasm and their aims. This unlikeness is seen not only amongst nations where the pursuits of the one are in no repute with the other, but even in the same nation, and the same city, and the same family; we may see in those aggregates also much difference existing owing to customary feeling. Thus brothers born from the same throe are separated widely from each other in the aims of life. Nor is this to be wondered at, considering that each single man does not generally keep to the same opinion about the same thing, but alters it as fashion influences him. Not to go far from our present subject, we have known those who have shown themselves to be in love with chastity all through the early years of puberty; but in taking the pleasures which men think legitimate and allowable they make them the starting-point of an impure life, and when once they have admitted these temptations, all the forces of their feeling are turned in that direction, and, to take again our illustration of the stream, they let it rush from the diviner channel into low material channels, and make within themselves a broad path for passion; so that the stream of their love leaves dry the abandoned channel of the higher way48    ἐπὶ τὰ ἄνω, Reg. Cod., better than τὸ and flows abroad in indulgence. It would be well then, we take it, for the weaker brethren to fly to virginity as into an impregnable fortress, rather than to descend into the career of life’s consequences and invite temptations to do their worst upon them, entangling themselves in those things which through the lusts of the flesh war against the law of our mind; it would be well for them to consider49    Reading φροντίζοντας, with Reg. Cod. that herein they risk not broad acres, or wealth, or any other of this life’s prizes, but the hope which has been their guide. It is impossible that one who has turned to the world and feels its anxieties, and engages his heart in the wish to please men, can fulfil that first and great commandment of the Master, “Thou shalt love God with all thy heart and with all thy strength50    S. Matt. xxii. 37..” How can he fulfil that, when he divides his heart between God and the world, and exhausts the love which he owes to Him alone in human affections? “He that is unmarried careth for the things of the Lord; but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world51    1 Cor. vii. 32 (R.V.)..” If the combat with pleasure seems wearisome, nevertheless let all take heart. Habit will not fail to produce, even in the seemingly most fretful52    τοῖς δυσκολωτάτοις; better than to take this as a neuter., a feeling of pleasure through the very effort of their perseverance; and that pleasure will be of the noblest and purest kind; which the intelligent may well be enamoured of, rather than allow themselves, with aims narrowed by the lowness of their objects, to be estranged from the true greatness which goes beyond all thought.

[9] Κεφάλαιον θʹ Ὅτι δυσμετάθετον ἐπὶ παντὸς ἡ συνήθεια. Ἀμήχανον γάρ τί ἐστιν ἐπὶ παντὸς ἡ συνήθεια, πολλὴν ἔχουσα δύναμιν πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἑλκύσαι καὶ ἐπισπάσασθαι τὴν ψυχὴν καί τινα καλοῦ παρασχεῖν φαντασίαν, ἐν ᾧ ἄν τις σχέσιν καὶ προσπάθειαν διὰ τοῦ προσεθισμοῦ τινα κτήσηται. Καὶ οὐδὲν οὕτω τῇ φύσει φευκτόν ἐστιν, ὡς ἐν συνηθείᾳ γενόμενον μὴ καὶ σπουδῆς ἄξιον καὶ αἱρετὸν νομισθῆναι. Ἀπόδειξις τοῦ λόγου ὁ ἀνθρώπινος βίος, ἐν ᾧ τοσούτων ὄντων ἐθνῶν οὐ τὰ αὐτὰ πᾶσι σπουδάζεται, ἄλλα δὲ παρ' ἑτέροις ἐστὶ καλά τε καὶ τίμια, τῆς παρ' ἑκάστοις συνηθείας τὴν περί τι σπουδήν τε καὶ ἐπιθυμίαν ποιούσης. Καὶ οὐ μόνον κατὰ τὰ ἔθνη τὴν τοιαύτην παραλλαγὴν ἔστιν ἰδεῖν τῶν αὐτῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων παρά τισι μὲν θαυμαζομένων, διαβαλλομένων δὲ παρ' ἑτέροις, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἔθνους καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς πόλεως καὶ γένους, ἐν οἷς πολλὴν διαφορὰν ἔστιν ἰδεῖν ἐκ τῆς συνηθείας ἑκάστοις ἐγγινομένην. Οὕτως ἐκ μιᾶς ὠδῖνος ἀδελφοὶ προελθόντες εἰς γένεσιν τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασι τῷ βίῳ πλεῖστον ἀπ' ἀλλήλων ἐσχίσθησαν: καὶ οὔπω τοῦτο θαυμαστόν, ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ καθ' ἕκαστον ἄνθρωπος οὐ τὴν αὐτὴν ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ περὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πράγματος κρίσιν ἔχει, ἀλλ' ὡς ἂν περὶ ἕκαστον ἀπὸ τῆς συνηθείας διατεθῇ. Καὶ ἵνα μὴ τὰ πόρρω τοῦ πράγματος λέγωμεν, πολλοὺς ἡμεῖς ἐγνωρίσαμεν ἐραστὰς μάλιστα τῆς σωφροσύνης εὐθὺς παρὰ τὴν πρώτην ἡλικίαν φανέντας, ἀρχὴν δὲ ῥυπαροῦ βίου ποιησαμένους τὴν δοκοῦσαν ἔννομόν τε καὶ συγκεχωρημένην τῶν ἡδονῶν μετουσίαν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἅπαξ τὴν τοιαύτην παρεδέξαντο πεῖραν, κατὰ τὸ ῥηθὲν ἡμῖν ἐπὶ τοῦ ῥείθρου ὑπόδειγμα ὅλον πρὸς ταῦτα τὸ ἐπιθυμητικὸν μεταστρέψαντες καὶ τὴν ὁρμὴν τῆς διανοίας ἀπὸ τῶν θειοτέρων πρὸς τὰ ταπεινὰ καὶ ὑλώδη μετοχετεύσαντες πολλὴν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τὴν εὐρυχωρίαν τοῖς πάθεσιν ἤνοιξαν, ὡς παντελῶς τῆς ἐπὶ τὰ ἄνω φορᾶς λῆξαι καὶ ἀποξηρανθῆναι τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν, ὅλην πρὸς τὰ πάθη μεταρρυεῖσαν.
Διὰ τοῦτο λυσιτελὲς εἶναι νομίζομεν τοῖς ἀσθενεστέροις εἰς τὴν παρθενίαν ὡς εἰς ἀσφαλές τι φρούριον καταφεύγειν καὶ μὴ πρὸς τὴν ἀκολουθίαν κατιόντας τοῦ βίου προκαλεῖσθαι καθ' ἑαυτῶν πειρασμοὺς καὶ «τοῖς ἀντιστρατευομένοις τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ νοὸς ἡμῶν» διὰ τῶν τῆς σαρκὸς παθημάτων συμπλέκεσθαι, καὶ κινδυνεύειν οὐ περὶ γῆς ὅρων καὶ χρημάτων ἀποβολῆς ἢ ἄλλου τινὸς τῶν κατὰ τὴν ζωὴν ταύτην σπουδαζομένων φροντίζοντας, ἀλλὰ περὶ τῆς προηγουμένης ἐλπίδος. Οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ τὸν εἰς τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον ἀποστραφέντα τῇ διανοίᾳ καὶ τὴν ὧδε μέριμναν ἀναλαβόντα καὶ εἰς ἀνθρωπίνην ἀρέσκειαν ἑαυτὸν ἀσχολοῦντα πληρωτὴν γενέσθαι τῆς μεγάλης καὶ πρώτης ἐντολῆς τοῦ κυρίου, ἥ φησιν «ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας καὶ δυνάμεως τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπᾶν». Πῶς γὰρ ἀγαπήσει τις ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας τὸν θεόν, ὅταν καταμερίσῃ τὴν καρδίαν ἑαυτοῦ πρὸς θεὸν καὶ κόσμον καὶ κλέπτων τὴν ἐκείνῳ μόνῳ χρεωστουμένην ἀγάπην ἀνθρωπίνοις αὐτὴν πάθεσι προσαναλίσκῃ; «Ὁ γὰρ ἄγαμος μεριμνᾷ τὰ τοῦ κυρίου, ὁ δὲ γαμήσας μεριμνᾷ τὰ τοῦ κόσμου». Εἰ δὲ ἐπίπονος ἡ πρὸς τὰς ἡδονὰς μάχη δοκεῖ, θαρρείτω πᾶς: οὐδὲ γὰρ πρὸς τοῦτο μικρὰ ἡ συνήθεια καὶ τοῖς δυσκολωτάτοις εἶναι δοκοῦσιν ἡδονήν τινα διὰ τῆς ἐπιμονῆς ἐνεργάσασθαι, καὶ ἡδονὴν τὴν καλλίστην καὶ καθαρωτάτην, ἧς ἄξιόν ἐστι τόν γε νοῦν ἔχοντα περιέχεσθαι μᾶλλον ἢ τῇ περὶ τὰ ταπεινὰ μικροπρεπείᾳ τῶν μεγάλων κατὰ ἀλήθειαν καὶ «πάντα νοῦν ὑπερεχόντων» ἀλλοτριοῦσθαι.