CAPUT LI. Quomodo verecunda mens ab intentionis suae rectitudine dejicitur
The Corruption of Dinah by Shechem
The modest mind, when it goes out, is overpowered by vain glory through praise, struggling but eventually forced into base delight.
So this is that Shechem who meets Dinah as she goes out, overpowers her, and corrupts her. So the integrity she might perhaps have kept within, she loses once she has gone outside. For since the charm of modesty is recommended, praised, and loved by nearly everyone, when Dinah goes out, leaves her inmost life behind, and quickly forgets the memory of her weakness that used to keep her humble, people's praises suddenly greet her—and while they soothe her with favors, they corrupt her.1 For when she delights in the praise offered her, what else is happening but that she is corrupted through Shechem—that is, through love of vain glory? Still, at that point Dinah suffers the harm of her corruption more by a kind of force than by free will, since she struggles as hard as she can against the flattering pull of wicked delight. For Shechem overpowers her as if against her will every time he drags the mind—blushing at the shame of its corruption and therefore fighting hard—even unwilling, all the way into base delight.
The Cause and Process of Wandering Out
The mind leaves its interior because of shame over weaknesses and curiosity about others, leading to comparison and eventual yielding to vainglory.
But what cause do you think drove her to abandon her inmost life and wander out to exterior things, if not this: that often, when we blush too much over our weaknesses, we start wondering whether others might feel the same weaknesses in themselves—and it seems we've found a kind of comfort if we discover that at least in our fall we have companions?2 From that it comes about that we begin to pry more curiously into other people's pursuits, to scan again and again now a face, now a gesture, and the bearing of the whole body, and gladly learn their secrets from what others report. So while Dinah strives to read the state of other souls from outward signs, what else is she doing but abandoning her own interior, going out to look at the women, and wandering outside?✦ So as Dinah looks curiously over the women's forms, she finds some much more beautiful and others less so. And while she often quietly compares with herself how many she far outstrips by the greatness of her beauty, is it any wonder if the craving for vain glory strikes her harder? And when she isn't strong enough to push that assault back by resisting, what else happens but that she is overcome by Sichem's strength and gives way?3
Read the original Latin
Hic itaque est ille Sichem qui egredienti Dinae occurrit, oppressamque corrumpit. Integritatem ergo quam intus fortassis conservare potuit, egressa amittit. Nam quoniam verecundiae venustas ab omnibus fere commendatur, laudatur, amatur, Dinam egredientem et intima sua deserentem, et quae eam humiliare consueverat infirmitatis suae memoriam cito obliviscentem, subito hominum laudes excipiunt, et eam, dum favoribus demulcent, corrumpunt. Dum enim in oblata laude delectatur, quid aliud quam per Sichem (amorem videlicet vanae gloriae) corrumpitur? Verumtamen tunc Dina corruptionis suae damna violentia quadam potius quam voluntate patitur, cum blandienti pravae delectationi quantum potest reluctatur. Toties enim Sichem quasi nolentem opprimit, quoties mentem corruptionis suae confusionem erubescentem, et idcirco fortiter reluctantem, etiam invitam usque ad turpem delectationem trahit. Sed quid putas causae accidit quae eam sua intima deserere, et ad exteriora vagari compulit, nisi quod saepe dum infirma nostra nimis erubescimus, unde forte alii easdem infirmitates in se sentiant, mirari incipimus, et videtur nobis quoddam solatii genus invenisse, si deprehendamus nos in nostra saltem dejectione vel socios habere? Inde fit ut incipiamus aliorum studia curiosius quaerere, nunc vultum, nunc gestum, totiusque corporis habitum frequenter circumspicere, eorum occulta ex aliorum relatu libenter addiscere.
Dum igitur Dina in aliis animarum statum ex signis exterioribus deprehendere nititur, quid aliud quam sua deserens ad videndas mulieres foras egreditur, forisque vagatur? Dum ergo Dina mulierum formas curiose circumspicit, alias multum, alias minus pulchras nimirum invenit. Et dum secum tacita saepe comparat, quam multas pulchritudinis suae magnitudine longe antecedat, quid mirum si appetitus eam vanae gloriae vehementius pulsat? Cujus impetum dum resistendo repellere non sufficit, quid aliud quam viribus Sichem victa succumbit?
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.34.1 — And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
Notes
- 1 ↩verecundiae venustas rendered as 'charm of modesty'; verecundia is the modest, shamefaced disposition, not mere social shyness.
- 2 ↩dejectione rendered as 'fall' (interior downfall/cast-down state); could also be 'low estate' or 'dejection'.
- 3 ↩In the chapter's allegory, Sichem is the love of vain glory; her collapse under his strength is consent under pressure of vainglory, not a separate agent.
Benjamin Minor (The Twelve Patriarchs / Preparation of the Mind for Contemplation) companion
A daily portion of stillness
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