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| Chapter IV. The discourse of the old man on the state of the soul and its excellence.
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Chapter IV.
The discourse of the old man on the state of the soul
and its excellence.
Serenus: It is dangerous to
jump to a conclusion and lay down the law hastily on the nature of
anything before you have properly discussed the subject and considered
its true character. Nor should you, looking only at your own weakness,
hazard a conjecture instead of pronouncing a judgment based on the
character and value of the practice itself, and others’
experience of it. For if anyone, who was ignorant of swimming but knew
that the weight of his body could not be supported by water, wished
from the proof which his inexperience afforded, to lay down that no one
composed of solid flesh could possibly be supported on the liquid
element, we ought not therefore to think his opinion a true one, which
he seemed to bring forward in accordance with his own experience, since
this can be shown to be not merely not impossible but actually
extremely easily done by others, by the clearest proofs and ocular
demonstration. And so the νοῦς, i.e., the mind, is defined as
ἀεικίνητος
καὶ
πολυκίνητος,
i.e., ever shifting and very shifting: as it is thus described in the
so called wisdom of Solomon in other words: καὶ γεῶδες
σκῆνος
βρίθει νοῦν
πολυφρόντιδα
, i.e., “And the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that
museth on many things.”1437
This then in
accordance with its nature can never remain idle, but unless provision
is made where it may exercise its motions and have what will
continually occupy it, it must by its own fickleness wander about and
stray over all kinds of things until, accustomed by long practice and
daily use—in which you say that you have toiled without
result—it tries and learns what food for the memory it ought to
prepare, toward which it may bring back its unwearied flight and
acquire strength for remaining, and thus may succeed in driving away
the hostile suggestion of the enemy by which it is distracted, and in
persisting in that state and condition which it yearns for. We ought
not then to ascribe this wandering inclination of our heart either to
human nature or to God its Creator. For it is a true statement of
Scripture, that “God made man upright; but they themselves found
out many thoughts.”1438
The character
of these then depends on us ourselves, for it says “a good
thought comes near to those that know it, but a prudent man will find
it.”1439
For where
anything is subject to our prudence and industry so that it can be
found out, there if it is not found out, we ought certainly to
set it down to our own laziness or carelessness and not to the fault of
our nature. And with this meaning the Psalmist also is in agreement,
when he says: “Blessed is the man whose help is from Thee: in his
heart he hath disposed his ascents.”1440
You see then that it lies in our power to dispose in our hearts either
ascents, i.e., thoughts that belong to God, or descents;
viz., those that sink down to carnal and earthly things. And if this
was not in our power the Lord would not have rebuked the Pharisees,
saying “Why do ye think evil in your hearts?”1441
nor would He have given this charge by the
prophet, saying: “Take away the evil of your thoughts from mine
eyes;” and “How long shall wicked thoughts remain in
you?”1442
Nor would the
character of them as of our works be taken into consideration in the
day of judgment in our case as the Lord threatens by Isaiah: “Lo,
I come to gather together their works and thoughts together with all
nations and tongues;”1443
nor would it be
right that we should be condemned or defended by their evidence in that
terrible and dreadful examination, as the blessed Apostle says:
“Their thoughts between themselves accusing or also defending one
another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according
to my gospel.”1444
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