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The will then, Theotimus, bears rule over the memory,
understanding and fancy, not by force but by
authority, so that she is not infallibly obeyed any
more than the father of a family is always obeyed by
his children and servants.
It is the same as regards the sensitive appetite,
which, as S. Augustine says, is called in us sinners
concupiscence, and is subject to the will and
understanding as the wife to her husband, because as
it was said to the woman: "Be under thy husband, and
he shall have dominion over thee",(1) so was it said
to Cain, "that the lust of sin should be under him
and he should have dominion over it".(2) And this
being under means nothing else than being submitted
and subjected to him.
"O man," says S. Bernard, "it is in thy power if
thou wilt to bring thy enemy to be thy servant so
that all things may go well with thee; thy appetite
is under thee and thou shalt domineer over it. Thy
enemy can move in thee the feeling of temptation, but
it is in thy power if thou wilt to give or refuse
consent. In case thou permit thy appetite to carry
thee away to sin, then thou shalt be under it, and it
shall domineer over thee, for whosoever sinneth is
made the servant of sin, but before thou sinnest, so
long as sin gets not entry into thy consent, but only
into thy sense, that is to say, so long as it stays
in the appetite, not going so far as thy will, thy
appetite is subject unto thee and thou lord over it."
Before the Emperor is created he is subject to the
electors' dominion, in whose hands it is to reject
him or to elect him to the imperial dignity; but
being once elected and elevated by their means,
henceforth they are under him and he rules over them.
Before the will consents to the appetite, she rules
over it, but having once given consent she becomes
its slave.
To conclude, this sensual appetite in plain truth is
a rebellious subject, seditious, restive, and we must
confess we cannot so defeat it that it does not rise
again, encounter and assault the reason; yet the will
has such a strong hand over it that she is able, if
she please, to bridle it, break its designs and
repulse it, since not to consent to its suggestions
is a sufficient repulse. We cannot hinder
concupiscence from conceiving, but we can from
bringing forth and accomplishing, sin.
Now this concupiscence or sensual appetite has
twelve movements, by which as by so many mutinous
captains it raises sedition in man. And because
ordinarily they trouble the soul and disquiet the
body; insomuch as they trouble the soul, they are
called perturbations, insomuch as they disquiet the
body they are named passions, as S. Augustine
declares. They all place before themselves good or
evil, the former to obtain, the latter to avoid.
If good be considered in itself according to its
natural goodness it excites love, the first and
principal passion; if good be regarded as absent it
provokes us to desire; if being desired we think we
are able to obtain it we enter into hope; if we think
we cannot obtain it we feel despair; but when we
possess it as present, it moves us to joy.
On the contrary, as soon as we discover evil we
hate it, if it be absent we fly it, if we cannot
avoid it we fear it; if we think we can avoid it we
grow bold and courageous, but if we feel it as
present we grieve; and then anger and wrath suddenly
rush forth to reject and repel the evil or at least
to take vengeance for it. If we cannot succeed we
remain in grief. But if we repulse or avenge it we
feel satisfaction and satiation which is a pleasure
of triumph, for as the possession of good gladdens
the heart, so the victory over evil exalts the
spirits.
And over all this multitude of sensual passions
the will bears empire, rejecting their suggestions,
repulsing their attacks, hindering their effects, or
at the very least sternly refusing them consent,
without which they can never harm us, and by refusing
which they remain vanquished, yea in the long run
broken down, weakened, worn out, beaten down, and if
not altogether dead, at least deadened or mortified.
And Theotimus, this multitude of passions is
permitted to reside in our soul for the exercise of
our will in virtue and spiritual valour; insomuch
that the Stoics who denied that passions were found
in wise men greatly erred, and so much the more
because they practised in deeds what in words they
denied, as S. Augustine shows, recounting this
agreeable history.
Aulus Gellius having gone on sea with a famous
Stoic, a great tempest arose, at which the Stoic
being frightened began to grow pale, to blench and to
tremble so sensibly that all in the boat perceived
it, and watched him curiously, although they were in
the same hazard with him.
In the meantime the sea grew calm, the danger
passed, and safety restoring to each the liberty to
talk and even to rally one another, a certain
voluptuous Asiatic reproached him with his fear,
which had made him aghast and pale at the danger,
whereas the other on the contrary had remained firm
and without fear. To this the Stoic replied by
relating what Aristippus, a Socratic philosopher, had
answered a man, who for the same reason had attacked
him with the like reproach; saying to him: "As for
thee, thou hadst no reason to be troubled for the
soul of a wicked rascal : but I should have done
myself wrong not to have feared to lose the life of
an Aristippus".
And the value of the story is, that Aulus Gellius,
an eye-witness, relates it. But as to the Stoic's
reply contained therein, it did more commend his wit
than his cause, since bringing forward this comrade
in his fear, he left it proved by two irreproachable
witnesses, that Stoics were touched with fear, and
with the fear which shows its effects in the eyes,
face and behaviour, and is consequently a passion.
A great folly, to wish to be wise with an
impossible wisdom Truly the Church has condemned the
folly of that wisdom which certain presumptuous
Anchorites would formally have introduced, against
which the whole Scripture but especially the great
Apostle, cries out: "We have a law in our body which
resisteth the law of our mind".(3) "Amongst us
Christians," says the great S. Augustine, "according
to holy Scripture and sound doctrine, the citizens of
the sacred city of Gods living according to God, in
the pilgrimage of this world fear, desire, grieve,
rejoice."
Yea even the sovereign King of this city has
feared, desired, has grieved and rejoiced, even to
tears, wanness, trembling, sweating of blood; though
in him as these were not the motions of passions like
ours, the great S. Jerome, and after him the School
durst not use the name, passions, for reverence of
the person in whom they were, but the respectful
name, pro-passions.
This was to testify that sensible movements in Our
Saviour held the place of passions, though they were
not such indeed, seeing that he suffered or endured
nothing from them except what seemed good to him and
as he pleased, which we sinners cannot do, who suffer
and endure these motions with disorder, against our
wills, to the great prejudice of the good estate and
polity of our soul.
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