Volume III, Treatise IV, Chapter II

That to Live Chaste, We Must Necessarily Mortify Ourselves, and Keep a Strict Watch Over Our Senses, Particularly Our Eyes

“THE ancient fathers, taught by long experience”, says Cassian, “thought it impossible for religious, especially the younger sort, to subdue concupiscence, unless they had first been accustomed to mortify their will by obedience”. St. Basil and other holy fathers prove that the practice of all the other virtues is necessary in order to obtain and preserve chastity in its perfection, because in effect they all contribute to it and are its guardians. But as this is sufficiently treated of throughout this work, and chiefly in the second volume, I shall only speak at present of such means as are in a particular manner conducive to this end. The first is, that if we desire to acquire chastity in perfection, and to keep it in the same degree, we must guard very diligently all the avenues of our soul, and chiefly our eyes, the ordinary and most common passage of evil to our heart.

St. Gregory, writing on that passage of Isaias, ‘who are these that fly like clouds, and sit at their windows like doves?”—Isai., lx, 8,-—says, that the just are compared to clouds, because they are above all Earthly things; and to pigeons, which retire to the dove-cot, because being recollected within themselves, and not carried away by the consideration of exterior things, they are thus prevented from even desiring them. But it is not so with those who give a liberty to their eyes; for they frequently desire what they see, as David did, who, though he had frequently raised himself as a cloud to Heaven, and employed much time in divine contemplation, yet by one glance of his eye consented to very unlawful desires. “Death”, says Jeremiah, “has entered by my windows” (Jeremias 9:21); “and my soul is become a prey to mine eyes’ (Lamentations 3:51) And St. Gregory gives us this wholesome counsel, “never to cast our eyes upon what is forbidden us to desire”; for it is much to be feared that the object will captivate our hearts by means of our curiosity, and that when we -least think on it we will be unfortunately surprised.

This was the reason why Job took so great precaution that he said, “I have made a league with my eyes not even to think on a virgin”’ (Job 31:1); and on these words St. Gregory the Great starts this objection: What kind of treaty would he make with his eyes in order to thinking? Methinks he should rather lave made it with his understanding and imagination; for only shut your eyes, and there needs no further treaty with them. In reply, however, to himself, this holy doctor commends this league of Job as a very wise and rational one. Job knew, says he, that the eyes were the inlets to all the malice of the heart, and that if he kept a strict guard upon them and the avenues of his senses, his interior would be secure and out of danger. If you therefore wish to prevent all evil thoughts, let your eyes be modestly reserved, and make a league with them never to look upon anything which is not permitted you to desire. Who would not be astonished, says St. Chrysostom, writing upon the same passage, that so great a man as Job, who had made head against the Devil, fought hand to hand with him, and triumphed as well over all his stratagems as his power, should not dare to look a woman in

a the face? He did this, adds the same holy father, to teach the greatest proficients in virtue to keep a restraint and guard over themselves.

St. Ephrem prescribes temperance, silence, and a modest custody of the eyes, as extremely conducive to the preservation of chastity in its purity. For though you practise the two first, yet a neglect of the last will endanger your chastity. And as water is lost when the conduit pipe is broken, which, instead of keeping it, lets it out, so when the soul sallies forth through the eyes, and wanders abroad, chastity will quickly be lost. Another saint compares the sight of a woman to a poisoned arrow, whose every wound reaches the heart; and also to a spark of fire, which lighting upon a straw, unless immediately put out, sets it all on fire. In like manner the evil thoughts caused by the sight of a woman, bring along with them nothing but fire and confusion into the soul, unless timely stifled and prevented.

Surius says, that Hugh, bishop of Grenoble, heard women’s confessions every day for above fifty years together, and conversed with all sorts of persons, who addressed themselves to him concerning their affairs by reason of his great sanctity, and jy‘; that he never looked any woman so much in the face as to know her by sight, except one, and this so slightly that he did not know whether she was old or young, handsome or ugly. This saint used to say, that we ought to be extremely cautious in this point; for if we once give scope to our eyes, we shall never be able to deny admittance to bad thoughts into our hearts.

St. Bernard one day stood still to look upon a woman, without reflecting upon the action; but, taking himself in the fact, he conceived such indignation against himself, that he immediately went and stood up to the neck in a frozen lake, where he remained till he was taken out half dead.

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