Letter 912

To Priscus. It is a great thing to be sober at all times and never to be taken captive by shameful desire. But if it ever happens that you suffer some human weakness from seeing a face fair to look upon, groan at once in your turning toward God, and by beating your breast heal the pain that has come upon you, fleeing in your thoughts the imagined picture of the beauty that has wounded you, in no way willing to dwell upon it in your mind or to scrutinize that form with shameful passion. For the more frequent recollections, engraving deep impressions, ravage the soul, turning it, against its will, toward the abomination.

Μέγα μὲν τὸ διαπαντὸς νήφειν, καὶ μηδόλως ἁλῶναι ἐπιθυμίᾳ αἰσχρᾷ. Εἰ δέ ποτε συμβῇ τι παθεῖν ἀνθρώπινον, ἐκ τοῦ ἰδεῖν πρόσωπον εὔοπτον, στέναξον παραχρῆμα τῷ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν, καὶ τῇ στερνοτυπίᾳ, τὸ συμβὰν θεράπευσον ἄλγος, ἀποφεύγων τοῖς λογισμοῖς τὴν φαντασίαν τοῦ τετρωκότος σε κάλλους, μηδόλως βουλόμενος τῷ νοῖ ταύτην ἐμμελετᾶν, καὶ καταμανθάνειν τῷ αἰσχρῷ πάθει τὴν μορφήν· αἱ γὰρ συνεχέστεραι ὑπομνήσεις τύπους βαθεῖς ἐγχαράττουσαι, λυμαίνονται τὴν ψυχήν, ἄκουσαν αὐτὴν τρέπουσαι πρὸς τὸ μύσος.