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BOOK III, CHAPTER V 67

en reformation! (c) Pourquoi non dea? Socrates estoit homme; et ne vouloit ny estre ny sembler autre chose.

(4) Philosophy does not at all contend against natural pleasures, provided due measure be kept; (c) and it preaches moderation in them, not avoidance; (4) the force of its resis- tance is exerted against unwonted and counterfeit ones. It says that the appetites of the body ought not to be aug- mented by the mind, and wisely warns us (¢) to avoid arous- ing our hunger by gluttony; not to desire to stuff instead of filling the stomach; to shun all enjoyment that brings us to want, and (4) all food and drink that makes us thirsty and hungry; ? as, in the service of love, it * bids us take an object which simply satisfies the needs of the body, and does not arouse the mind, which should not attend to its own duty, but merely follow the body and assist it. Mais ay-je pas raison d’estimer que ces preceptes, qui ont pourtant d’ail- leurs, selon moy, un peu de rigueur, regardent un corps qui face son office, et qu’a un corps abattu, comme un estomac prosterné, il est excusable de le rechauffer et soustenir par art, et, par l’entremise de la fantasie, luy faire revenir l’ap- petit et l’allegresse, = que de foy il l’a perdue? ;

May we not say that there is nothing in us while we are in this earthly prison that is either purely corporeal or purely spiritual, and that we wrongfully dismember a living man? and that it seems to be reasonable that we should conduct ourselves toward the enjoyment of pleasure as favourably as we do toward pain? Pain, for example, was violent to the point of perfection in the soul of the saints by the practice of penance; the body naturally had a share therein by virtue of their connection, and yet could have small share in the cause; still, they were not content that it should barely follow and assist the afflicted soul; they af- flicted the body itself with atrocious and suitable torments, to the end that the soul and the body should die with each other in plunging men into suffering, the more severe, the more salutary. (¢) In like manner is it not unjust in respect - to the pleasures of the body to chill the soul regarding them, and to say that she must be dragged to them as to some en-

1 See Xenophon, Memorabilia, I, 3; Plutarch, of Curiosity.

That is, philosophy.