On the Contemplative Life 83

1. Let us now see what the diligence of discussion may discover also concerning the four affections, which the folly of the wise men of this world deems to be vices. For if one could not fear, or grieve, or desire, or rejoice at all unless he were a sinner or lost, they could rightly be called not affections but diseases. But since such movements of the soul are found in the holy apostles and prophets, who would be so foolish as to believe them to be vices, by which those pleased God who resisted vices more than the rest of men? And so Paul the Apostle speaks thus of fear: But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtlety, so also your minds should be corrupted from the chastity which is in Christ (2 Cor. xi. 3).

Likewise concerning desire he says forcefully: I desire to depart and to be with Christ (Phil. i. 23). But also concerning sorrow, which others call grief, the same vessel of election and teacher of the Gentiles says: For great sorrow is mine, and continual grief to my heart, for my brethren who are my kinsmen according to the flesh (Rom. ix. 2). But also concerning joy, writing to the Romans, when he had said, Your obedience is published abroad in every place: I rejoice, he says, concerning you. But I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil (Rom. xvi. 19). Whoever shall have wished to reprehend this fear or grief, this desire, this joy, reprehends

is the Apostle, who through such affections not only pleased God, but also blamed certain men among the criminal, in that they were without affection. But also the prophet, by saying: I was glad in those things which were said to me (Ps. cxxi. 1); and, in the person of the Lord, I waited for one who would grieve together with me, and there was none (Ps. lxviii. 21), commends such joy and sorrow. But when another says, The fear of the Lord drives out sin (Ecclus. i. 27); and, The longing for wisdom leads to the kingdom (Wisd. vi. 21), he not only does not reprehend, but even praises the affection of spiritual longing and of divine fear. 2. We sin, therefore, not by having these affections, but by using them ill.

For the property of human affections indicates man's Creator; their quality signifies a good or evil will; and thus these movements which in men are affections become in those who use them well virtues, and in those who live ill passions, or perturbations, or, as some prefer, sicknesses. Nor are the Stoics to be listened to, who contend that these can and ought to be utterly eradicated: since there is no sense at all where no affection of fearing, or grieving, or desiring, or rejoicing is found. Finally, as though they themselves repented of their opinion, with the exception of sorrow, which they deny falls into the mind of the wise, they say that the remaining affections, with their names changed, are present in the wise:

putting caution in place of fear, gladness in place of joy, and will in place of desire. As though the wise man does not fear, but is cautious; and wills, but does not desire; nor is glad in this life, but rejoices. But they do not believe that his mind is saddened, because the sorrow which is wont to arise from a committed sin cannot, by any recollection of sin, prick the wise man, whom they suppose to have no sin. That this is most vain, our Lord, born according to the flesh, showed, who was both sad and wept (Matt. xxvi. 37; Luke xix. 41; John xi. 35); nor yet did that sorrow by which He was sad come to Him from His own sins, who, conceived and born without sin, not only did not sin, but also could not sin. 3.

But that the follies of those who suppose the wise man cannot be saddened or grieved may be refuted even out of their own writings, let them read that which their most learned man says: For not to grieve at all does not happen without a great recompense of brutishness in the mind, and of stupor in the body (Cicero, book III of the Tusculan Disputations, on insensibility). But concerning the fear which they place among evils, our Scripture speaks, saying: The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for ever and ever (Ps. xviii. 10). But—as must truly be confessed—it is distinguished from that other penal fear, of which the Apostle says: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear (1 John iv. 18).

For that fear deters from evil those willing to sin, and holds the unwilling in good; but this other fear, of which the prophet says, He who is without fear cannot be justified (Ecclus. i. 28), is increased the more by the growth of charity; and one fears in one way, lest he incur the evil by which he may be punished; in another way, lest he lose the good in which he delights. Therefore not every fear ought to be held among vices, but only that of which it is written: Because fear hath punishment (1 John iv. 18). But the other, of which it is said, The fear of the Lord drives out sin; and, He who is without fear cannot be justified; and, The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for ever and ever: is not to be numbered among the vices, but rather to be understood as the enemy of vices. 1.

Now that which they say—The good will, the evil desire; or, The good rejoice, the evil are glad—who of sound mind would admit it? nay, who with a sound mind would not refute it? Since our Scripture too rebukes the man of evil will, saying: Be not willing to tell any lie at all (Ecclus. vii. 14); and Tullius, the most copious orator, places desire among good things, where he says: I desire, conscript fathers, to be merciful (Cicero, book I, Invective against Catiline); and among them Virgil (book VI of the Aeneid, line 752) censures joy, saying: Hence they fear, and desire, and grieve, and rejoice. And whereas joys are set down for evil among those pagan dwellers, among us gladness is placed for good, the prophet saying: Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous (Ps. xxxi. 11).

Accordingly, all the just and those perfect in the whole sanctity of their morals, without any superfluous Stoic distinction, fear and are cautious, will and desire, are glad and rejoice, are saddened and grieve; but it matters much what they fear or are cautious of, what they will or desire, whence they are glad or rejoice, over what they are saddened or grieve. They fear to lose the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom; they desire to attain to the heavenly fatherland; they grieve when tempted, they rejoice at being freed from temptations: and on this account, a right mind has right affections, a perverse mind perverse ones. 6.

The holy bishop Augustine—keen in talent, sweet in eloquence, skilled in secular literature, laborious in ecclesiastical labors, illustrious in daily disputations, composed in all his action, catholic in the exposition of our faith, acute in resolving questions, circumspect in refuting heretics, and cautious in explaining the canonical Scriptures—he therefore, whom in these little books I have followed as far as I was able, determines this question of which we treat in this manner, saying: These movements, these affections, coming from the love of good and from holy charity, if they are to be called vices, let us allow that those things which are truly vices be called virtues.

But since these affections follow right reason when they are applied as they ought to be, who then would dare to call them diseases or vicious passions (Augustine, On the City of God, book XIV, chapter 9)? And to show that these affections beset us by reason of our mortal condition, and that they are necessary to this life and not to the life to come, that same teacher adds a little later and says: 'Even when we have these affections rightly and according to God, they belong to this life and not to that life which we hope is to come (ibid.).'