CAPUT XX. De officio primae speculationis
The Office of Dan: Judgment of Shameful and Vain Thoughts
Holy men use consideration of future torments to extinguish shameful thoughts, and also abhor vain thoughts because the Holy Spirit withdraws from thoughts without understanding.
Still, there's another reason for this name, and the more subtle it is, the more useful it may also prove: for holy men, whenever they feel themselves battered by shameful thoughts and stirred toward illicit pleasure, are in the habit of setting future torments before the mind's eye right at the very approach of temptation, and by that consideration extinguishing whatever illicit thing the mind suggests before the shameful pleasure takes hold. In this way, then, they immediately take vengeance within themselves by considering the punishment, and they condemn the enticements of guilt. Because, then, through the office of Dan we catch, reprove, condemn, and chastise alluring thoughts, we rightly call him Dan—that is, judgment. But why do we speak of this only about shameful thoughts, seeing that perfected men do not lightly abhor vain and useless ones either, because of that saying found written: "Woe to you who think of what is useless!"✦1 And this as well: "The Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from what is false, and will withdraw from thoughts that are without understanding." What, then, I ask, will become of those things we feel not without some illicit affection, when the Holy Spirit withdraws even from those that are without understanding?
The Discipline of Thoughts in Prayer and the Allegory of the Tribes
In prayer, fantasies must be rebuked sharply; the allegory of the tribes shows that every thought is judged in its own tribe, and the perfect judge even disordered thoughts, fulfilling Jacob's prophecy.
It often happens that, when we are set in prayer, we endure in the heart certain fantasies of thought that thrust themselves upon us with great insistence. But should we really neglect them without rebuking them ourselves? Shouldn't we rather rebuke them sharply, and, as has been said, by setting the punishment before us, restrain the provocation of fault and chastise them with thoughts? Hence it is written: Dan will judge his people like another tribe in Israel. Indeed, the discipline of works belongs to the sons of Zilpah; the ordering of wills to the sons of Leah; the judgment of assertions to the sons of Rachel; but the moderation of thoughts to the sons of Bilhah.2 So every thought is judged as if in its own tribe when every error is corrected by its like: when will is amended by will, when work is chastised by work, when assertion is corrected by assertion. So whenever we think something false, whenever we will something unjust, whenever we do something disordered, we immediately know full well that we are open to blame. But do all people equally judge themselves worthy of rebuke when they think something useless or disordered? Many rebuke themselves for a perverse deed or a wicked will; few are those who judge themselves for a disordered thought. But because the perfect do this, and those who want to be perfect ought to do it, Jacob therefore predicts or commands, saying: Dan will judge his people like another tribe in Israel.3
Read the original Latin
Est tamen hujus nominis alia ratio, quae forte quanto subtilior, tanto etiam invenitur et utilior: sancti etenim viri quoties se sentiunt turpibus cogitationibus pulsari, et ad illicitam delectationem incitari, toties solent in ipso etiam tentationis aditu futura tormenta ante mentis oculos ponere, et ex tali consideratione, quidquid mens illicitum suggerit, ante turpem delectationem exstinguere. Hoc igitur modo in se statim, per considerationem poenae ulciscuntur, et damnant blandimenta culpae. Quia ergo per officium Dan illecebrosae cogitationes deprehendimus, arguimus, damnamus, castigamus, recte eum Dan, id est judicium, vocamus. Sed, quid hoc de turpibus tantum cogitatibus loquimur, quandoquidem vanas et inutiles perfecti viri non leviter abominantur, propter illud quod scriptum invenitur: Vae qui cogitatis inutile! Et illud: Spiritus sanctus disciplinae effugiet fictum, et auferet se a cogitationibus quae sunt sine intellectu. Quid ergo, quaeso, fiet de his quae sentimus non sine quodam illicito affectu, quando Spiritus sanctus aufert se ab his etiam quae sunt sine intellectu? Saepe fit ut in oratione constituti, quasdam cogitationum phantasias cum importunitate se magna ingerentes corde toleremus. Sed nunquid eas sine nostra reprehensione negligere debemus?
Nonne magis eas oportet acriter arguere, et, ut dictum est, per repraesentationem poenae reprimere irritationem culpae et cogitationibus castigare? Unde scriptum est: Dan judicabit populum suum sicut alia tribus in Israel. Ad filios quippe Zelphae pertinet disciplina operum, ad filios Liae dispositio voluntatum: ad filios Rachel sententia assertionum, ad filios vero Balae moderatio cogitationum. Quaelibet ergo cogitatio quasi in sua tribu judicatur, quando omne erratum per suum simile corrigitur, quando voluntas voluntate emendatur, quando opus opere castigatur, assertio assertione corrigitur. Quoties ergo falsum aliquid sentimus, quoties injustum aliquid volumus, quoties inordinatum aliquid agimus, statim nos reprehensibiles esse minime ignoramus. Sed nunquid aeque omnes reprehensione dignos se esse judicant, quando aliquid inutile vel inordinatum cogitant? Multorum est se ipsos reprehendere de perverso opere vel prava voluntate; pauci sunt qui seipsos dijudicent de inordinata cogitatione. Sed, quia perfecti viri hoc faciunt, et facere eos oportet qui perfecti esse volunt, idcirco Jacob praedicit vel praecipit, dicens: Dan judicabit populum suum sicut alia tribus in Israel.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Mic.2.1 — Woe to those who devise iniquity and work out evil upon their beds! When the morning dawns, they do it, for they have the power to do so.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source has cogitatibus; sense requires cogitationibus ('thoughts'), which is translated here.
- 2 ↩Zelphae/Liae/Balae rendered with standard English biblical names (Zilpah, Leah, Bilhah). In Richard's allegory these maternal lines map faculties of the soul: works, wills, intellectual assertions, and thoughts.
- 3 ↩praedicit vel praecipit preserves both senses of Jacob's word over Dan: prophetic announcement and moral charge.
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