CAPUT XLVII. Quam sit rarum habere pudorem verum

The Rarity of True Modesty

The chapter challenges the reader to examine whether their shame is truly spiritual, blushing more at the heart's sins than at bodily exposure, and concludes that such ordered modesty is exceedingly rare.

Do you still want to understand better how rare it is to have perfectly trampled human shame underfoot, and to possess this true, well-ordered shame—which is what it means to have given birth to Dinah?^✦ Look, I'm leaving the carnal things aside for now, since for the moment my talk is only about spiritual things. Look, whoever you are, if you think you've already given birth to Dinah: if you were forced to walk naked before a crowd, could you keep from blushing?^✦ So think: are you as thoroughly thrown into confusion when an unclean thought soils your mind?¹ Why keep boasting any longer that you've given birth to Dinah and that you have well-ordered shame, if you blush less at the shameful things of the heart than at those of the body? If you fear people's faces more than the gaze of the angels? Is it really true that one should blush more at what God made well than at what you have done badly? Certainly, even those parts of the body we call private were made by God; but the shameful things of the heart—only you made those. So for anyone who carefully considers and rightly sees how rare it is—or how few there are—who have fully overcome human shame and possess only that well-ordered shame, there will be, in my judgment, no further reason for anyone to still wonder that Leah conceives or bears such offspring so late.