CAPUT XXI. De utilitate primae speculationis
Dan's Vigilance over the Inner Life
Dan's careful judgment keeps the other inner powers from falling into fault.
For if Dan keeps a close watch over his people and carefully uses his judgment, the result will be that in the other tribes something that rightly deserves condemnation will rarely be found.✦ For the mind that cuts off an enticing thought immediately, right at the suggestion, is not easily swept into wicked pleasure—just as a fault that is held back before wicked consent is given never passes into action. So Dan, more than all the others, should be watchful and strict in judgment, so that the other tribes can for the most part live without dispute and contention.
The Difference Between Will and Necessity
Fault in other tribes lies in the will, but Dan's disorder often arises from necessity, as evil thoughts can come involuntarily.
Dan will always find in his own tribe something he should examine, something he may justly reprove—though among the others, it can happen that one of them is sometimes found without fault. For the fault of the others lies in the will; but the disorder of this one often lies in necessity.1 For I never approve evil, never consent to evil, never carry it through, unless I myself will it; but evil can come upon me through a thought even against my will.
Dan's Judicial Action and His Name
Dan brings rising evil thoughts to judgment and condemns them, hence his name 'Judgment' rightly describes his function.
But it is Dan's role, as soon as rising evil knocks through a thought, to bring it to judgment, examine it carefully, condemn what he has caught, strike the deceptive thought with another consideration, and put out the evils that tempt him by recalling the torments.2 You can already see, I think, how rightly this son is called Dan—that is, judgment—the one about whom alone people wonder whether he has a people to judge, when he alone, if it could be done so that the others would have nothing left to judge, should judge not only constantly but strictly.✦3
Read the original Latin
Si enim Dan populum suum districte custodiat, si judicium suum diligenter exerceat, fiet ut in caeteris tribubus raro inveniatur quod jure damnari debeat. Mens enim quae statim in ipsa suggestione praecidit illecebrosam cogitationem, non facile rapitur in pravam delectationem, sicut et culpa quae cohibetur ante pravum consensum, nunquam transit in actum. Debet ergo Dan prae caeteris omnibus vigil et districtus in judicio esse, ut detur aliis tribubus ex majori parte absque lite et disceptatione vivere. Semper inveniet Dan in sua tribu quod examinare debeat, quod juste reprehendat, quamvis in aliis possit fieri ut aliquando aliqua earum sine culpa valeat inveniri. Aliarum namque culpa est in voluntate, hujus autem exordinatio saepe est in necessitate. Nunquam enim malum approbo, nunquam malo consentio, nunquam malum perficio, nisi ipse voluero; malum autem per cogitationem occurrere potest etiam invito. Sed ad Dan pertinet exsurgens malum statim, cum per cogitationem pulsat in judicium adducere, diligenter discutere, deprehensum damnare, et deceptoriam cogitationem ex alia consideratione percutere, et tentantia mala ex tormentorum recordatione exstinguere. Vides jam, ut arbitror, quam recte hic filius Dan, id est judicium, vocetur, de quo solo dubitatur utrumnam populum suum judicare habeat, cum solus, si fieri posset, ne caeteri habeant quid judicent, non solum assidue sed et districte judicare debeat.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩exordinatio / necessitate: disordered thoughts often arise involuntarily (by necessity of human frailty), whereas the other interior powers' faults typically involve willing. Not moral fatalism—only that thought-disorder can arrive unbidden.
- 2 ↩ex tormentorum recordatione: remembering punishments (the previous chapter's 'representation of penalty') as a means of quenching temptation—not mere dread for its own sake, but the judgment-function's corrective use of that image.
- 3 ↩Dan, id est judicium: traditional etymology of Dan as 'judgment' (Hebrew root for judge). The paradox is rhetorical: of all the sons/powers, Dan alone seems doubtful as a judge of a 'people,' yet he most of all must judge constantly and strictly.
Benjamin Minor (The Twelve Patriarchs / Preparation of the Mind for Contemplation) companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent