CAPUT XLVIII. Quid sit proprium pudoris
The Judgment That Shames
The inner judgment of conscience condemns and shames the soul, and this paradox is worthy of wonder.
But so that we may not seem to have silently skipped past the meaning of the name, Dinah is interpreted as this judgment. This, then, is that judgment by which each person is arraigned by their own conscience, convicted, condemned, and punished with a fitting penalty of shame.1 For if a person were not conscious of fault within, there would certainly be nothing they ought to blush at. And if shame were no punishment at all, there would be no reason why anyone should detest it so much, or take such care to avoid it. In a remarkable way, then, each person's mind, convicted by its own conscience and cast down by a fitting shame, at one and the same time pronounces sentence against itself and takes vengeance on itself. This, then, is that judgment in which the one who judges and the one who is judged are one and the same; the very same person who condemns and who is condemned; one and the same who is punished and who punishes. So it was not without reason that Sacred Scripture wanted to name a judgment of this kind not without demonstration.2 For that always means demonstration, and what else does this addition do but stir the hearer's mind into wonder? This is truly an astonishing judgment, worthy of wonder and rightly named by that emphatic label — a judgment in which the more fiercely a person loves himself, the more fiercely he rages against himself; and the more intensely he longs to be spared, the less he spares himself; because the more he dreads his own shame, the more bitterly that shame torments him.3
Why Modesty Is Portrayed as a Woman
The virtue of modesty is represented as female because it softens strength, just as women have less fortitude for works of virtue.
But perhaps someone finds it surprising that, if this is rightly counted among the other virtues, it is expressed through the female sex rather than through the male.4 But we all know that in women, more than in men, though the beauty of form is greater, the steadfast strength for the works of virtue is still less. Who doesn't know how much even honorable modesty softens the heart's strength, and how often it holds people back from brave deeds, while a person's spirit goes too far in trying to avoid shame?5 So Dinah is not a man but a woman, not a son but a daughter.
Read the original Latin
Sed ne de nominis ratione tacite praeteriisse videamur, Dina judicium istud interpretatur. Hoc itaque est illud judicium quo quisque a propria conscientia convenitur, convincitur, condemnatur, et digna confusionis poena multatur. Si enim sibi conscius non esset, non esset utique unde erubescere deberet. Et confusio quidem si nulla poena esset, non esset unde eam quisquam tam detestari, vel tantum devitare debuisset. Miro itaque modo mens cujusque de propria conscientia convicta, et condigna confusione dejecta, uno eodemque tempore ipsa contra seipsam dictat sententiam, ipsa de seipsa sumit vindictam. Hoc itaque est illud judicium in quo unus idemque est ille qui judicat, et ille qui judicatur; idem ipse qui condemnat, et idem ipse qui condemnatur; unus idem qui punitur et ipse qui punit. Non ergo sine causa fuit quod hoc tale judicium Scriptura sacra non sine demonstratione nominare voluit. Istud enim demonstrationem semper significat, et quid aliud haec adjectio quam animum audientis in admirationem excitat?
Verum judicium mirabile dignumque admiratione, digneque pronuntiandum cum demonstratione, in quo quidem judicio quanto quisque seipsum ardentius diligit, tanto in seipsum acrius saevit; et quo parci sibi vehementius cupit, tanto minus ipse sibi parcit; quia quo amplius suam confusionem formidat, eo acerbius sua quemque confusio vexat. Sed hoc fortassis cuiquam mirandum videtur si haec inter alias virtutes digne annumeratur, cur per femineum, et non potius per virilem sexum exprimitur? Sed scimus omnes quia in feminis quam in viris, quamvis sit forma pulchritudinis major, est tamen ad opera virtutum constantia fortitudinis minor. Quis nesciat verecundia quantumlibet honesta cordis robur quantum emolliat, et quam saepe fortia opera praepediat, dum animus hominis ultra modum confundi devitat? Est itaque Dina non vir sed femina, non filius sed filia.
Notes
- 1 ↩confusio here is moral shame/confusion of face under conscience's verdict, not mere social embarrassment or mental bewilderment.
- 2 ↩demonstratio here is rhetorical/emphatic pointing-out, not a formal logical proof; the next sentence treats it as an addition that stirs wonder.
- 3 ↩confusio here is the interior shame of a conscience-struck mind (not mere social embarrassment); demonstratione picks up the previous section’s point that Scripture names this judgment with a demonstrative of wonder.
- 4 ↩haec refers to the virtue of shame/modesty (pudor) allegorized as Dinah; the question is why Scripture figures it as a daughter rather than a son.
- 5 ↩verecundia is the sense of shame/modesty continuous with confusio and pudor in this chapter; rendered 'modesty' to keep the honorable side of the virtue in view.
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
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