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The fourth evil which the desires cause in the soul
is that they stain and defile it, as is taught in
Ecclesiasticus, in these words: Qui tetigerit picem,
inquinabitur ab ea.[155] This signifies: He that
toucheth pitch shall be defiled with it. And a man
touches pitch when he allows the desire of his will
to be satisfied by any creature. Here it is to be
noted that the Wise Man compares the creatures to
pitch; for there is more difference between
excellence of soul and the best of the creatures[156]
than there is between pure diamond,[157] or fine
gold, and pitch.
And just as gold or diamond, if it were heated and
placed upon pitch, would become foul and be stained
by it, inasmuch as the heat would have cajoled and
allured the pitch, even so the soul that is hot with
desire for any creature draws forth foulness from it
through the heat of its desire and is stained by it.
And there is more difference between the soul and
other corporeal creatures than between a liquid that
is highly clarified and mud that is most foul.
Wherefore, even as such a liquid would be defiled
if it were mingled with mud, so is the soul defiled
that clings to creatures, since by doing this it
becomes like to the said creatures. And in the same
way that traces of soot would defile a face that is
very lovely and perfect, even in this way do
disordered desires befoul and defile the soul that
has them, the which soul is in itself a most lovely
and perfect image of God.
2. Wherefore Jeremias, lamenting the ravages of
foulness which these disordered affections cause in
the soul, speaks first of its beauty, and then of its
foulness, saying: Candidiores sunt Nazaroei ejus nive,
nitidiores lacte, rubicundiores ebore antiquo,
sapphiro pulchriores. Denigrata est super carbones
facies eorum, et non sunt cogniti in plateis.[158]
Which signifies: Its hair -- that is to say, that of
the soul -- is more excellent in whiteness than the
snow, clearer[159] than milk, and ruddier than old
ivory, and lovelier than the sapphire stone. Their
face has now become blacker than coal and they are
not known in the streets.[160]
By the hair we here understand the affections and
thoughts of the soul, which, ordered as God orders
them -- that is, in God Himself -- are whiter than
snow, and clearer[161] than milk, and ruddier than
ivory, and lovelier than the sapphire. By these four
things is understood every kind of beauty and
excellence of corporeal creatures, higher than which,
says the writer, are the soul and its operations,
which are the Nazarites or the hair aforementioned;
the which Nazarites, being unruly,[162] with their
lives ordered in a way that God ordered not -- that
is, being set upon the creatures -- have their face
(says Jeremias) made and turned blacker than coal.
3. All this harm, and more, is done to the beauty
of the soul by its unruly desires for the things of
this world; so much so that, if we set out to speak
of the foul and vile appearance that the desires can
give the soul, we should find nothing, however full
of cobwebs and worms it might be, not even the
corruption of a dead body, nor aught else that is
impure and vile, nor aught that can exist and be
imagined in this life, to which we could compare it.
For, although it is true that the unruly soul, in its
natural being, is as perfect as when God created it,
yet, in its reasonable being, it is vile, abominable,
foul, black and full of all the evils that are here
being described, and many more.
For, as we shall afterwards say, a single unruly
desire, although there be in it no matter of mortal
sin, suffices to bring a soul into such bondage,
foulness and vileness that it can in no wise come to
accord with God in union[163] until the desire be
purified. What, then, will be the vileness of the
soul that is completely unrestrained with respect to
its own passions and given up to its desires, and how
far removed will it be from God and from His purity?
4. It is impossible to explain in words, or to
cause to be understood by the understanding, what
variety of impurity is caused in the soul by a
variety of desires. For, if it could be expressed and
understood, it would be a wondrous thing, and one
also which would fill us with pity, to see how each
desire, in accordance with its quality and degree, be
it greater or smaller, leaves in the soul its mark
and deposit of impurity and vileness, and how one
single disorder of the reason can be the source of
innumerable different impurities, some greater, some
less, each one after its kind.
For, even as the soul of the righteous man has in
one single perfection, which is uprightness of soul,
innumerable gifts of the greatest richness, and many
virtues of the greatest loveliness, each one
different and full of grace after its kind according
to the multitude and the diversity of the affections
of love which it has had in God, even so the unruly
soul, according to the variety of the desires which
it has for the creatures, has in itself a miserable
variety of impurities and meannesses, wherewith it is
endowed[164] by the said desires.
5. The variety of these desires is well
illustrated in the Book of Ezechiel, where it is
written that God showed this Prophet, in the interior
of the Temple, painted around its walls, all
likenesses of creeping things which crawl on the
ground, and all the abomination of unclean
beasts.[165] And then God said to Ezechiel: 'Son of
man, hast thou not indeed seen the abominations that
these do, each one in the secrecy of his
chamber?'[166] And God commanded the Prophet to go in
farther and he would see greater abominations; and he
says that he there saw women seated, weeping for
Adonis, the god of love.[167] And God commanded him
to go in farther still, and he would see yet greater
abominations, and he says that he saw there
five-and-twenty old men whose backs were turned
toward the Temple.[168]
6. The diversity of creeping things and unclean
beasts that were painted in the first chamber of the
Temple are the thoughts and conceptions which the
understanding fashions from the lowly things of
earth, and from all the creatures, which are painted,
just as they are, in the temple of the soul, when the
soul embarrasses its understanding with them, which
is the soul's first habitation.
The women that were farther within, in the second
habitation, weeping for the god Adonis, are the
desires that are in the second faculty of the soul,
which is the will; the which are, as it were,
weeping, inasmuch as they covet that to which the
will is affectioned, which are the creeping things
painted in the understandings.
And the men that were in the third habitation are
the images and representations of the creatures,
which the third part of the soul -- namely memory --
keeps and reflects upon[169] within itself. Of these
it is said that their backs are turned toward the
Temple because when the soul, according to these
three faculties, completely and perfectly embraces
anything that is of the earth, it can be said to have
its back turned toward the Temple of God, which is
the right reason of the soul, which admits within
itself nothing that is of creatures.
7. And let this now suffice for the understanding
of this foul disorder of the soul with respect to its
desires. For if we had to treat in detail of the
lesser foulness which these imperfections and their
variety make and cause in the soul, and that which is
caused by venial sins, which is still greater than
that of the imperfections, and their great variety,
and likewise that which is caused by the desires for
mortal sin, which is complete foulness of the soul,
and its great variety, according to the variety and
multitude of all these three things, we should never
end, nor would the understanding of angels suffice to
understand it.
That which I say, and that which is to the point
for my purpose, is that any desire, although it be
for but the smallest imperfection, stains and defiles
the soul. |