CAPUT LVIII. Quomodo per nimiam afflictionem mens quandoque usque ad impudentiam effrenatur
The Vigor of the Mind and the Discipline of the Body
The chapter opens by identifying the man as the mind's vigor and the wall as bodily discipline, setting up the allegorical framework.
What does the man mean if not the vigor of the mind? What is understood by the wall if not the discipline of the body?✦
The Destruction of Dinah's Lover and the Wall
Through excessive affliction, the mind's vigor is exhausted and the spirit falls into shamelessness, while the wall of discipline is broken down by immoderate abstinence.
So that man, Dinah's lover, is truly killed when, through excessive affliction, the mind's vigor is exhausted and the spirit is driven all the way to open shamelessness. Then Dinah's lover without a doubt dies by the sword when, through excess of affliction, the vigor of the mind fails so far that he cannot restrain himself from his excesses, as has been said—not even for the sake of human modesty. Then the wall is destroyed when, through immoderate abstinence, the rigor of former discipline is completely broken down.✦
The Stubbornness of the Warriors
These warriors refuse all counsel and experience, are cursed for their stubbornness, and are restrained only by impossibility.
But what is most astonishing in warriors of this kind—or rather, more than anything detestable—is that they never yield to the counsel of any man, no matter how prudent; they don't even give way to their own experience, not even when they already begin both to fail in body and to waste away in heart. Their stubbornness is struck by the dart of the curse when, through Jacob, it is said to them: Cursed be their fury, because it is stubborn, and their indignation, because it is hard.✦1 Marvelous stubbornness—but no lesser madness—that they can be held back from the rush of their course and from the wanderings of their error only by the sole bridle of impossibility.
All for Dinah: The Cost of Human Shame
The chapter concludes by summarizing that all these violent actions—circumcision and death—are done for Dinah, that is, for human shame.
See how these warring vessels of iniquity know how to fight—see what they do, see what is done for Dinah.✦ For Dinah, the males are circumcised; for Dinah, the circumcised are put to death. All of this is done for Dinah—all of it for human shame.2
Read the original Latin
Quid per virum nisi vigor mentis? quid per murum nisi disciplina intelligitur corporis? Vir itaque ille amator Dinae tunc veraciter occiditur, quando per afflictionem nimiam vigore mentis exhausto, usque ad apertam impudentiam animus effrenatur. Tunc amator Dinae absque dubio gladio perit, quando per afflictionis nimietatem vigor mentis eo usque deficit, ut a suis, ut dictum est, excessibus pro humana saltem verecundia se temperare non possit. Tunc murus destruitur, quando per immoderatam abstinentiam rigor prioris disciplinae penitus dissipatur. Sed hoc est in hujusmodi bellatoribus prae omnibus admirabile, imo supra omnia detestabile, quod nullius unquam quamlibet prudentis viri consilio acquiescunt, imo nec propriae saltem experientiae cedunt, nec tunc quidem cum jam incipiunt et corpore deficere, et corde tabescere. Quorum pertinacia maledictionis jaculo percutitur, cum ad illos per Jacob dicitur: Maledictus furor eorum, quia pertinax, et indignatio corum, quia dura. Mirabilis pertinacia, sed non minor insania, ab impetu cursus sui, a devio erroris sui, nonnisi solo impossibilitatis freno posse retineri.
Ecce quomodo praeliari norunt vasa iniquitatis bellantia, ecce quanta faciunt, ecce quanta fiunt pro Dina. Pro Dina masculi circumciduntur, pro Dina circumcisi perimuntur. Totum hoc fit pro Dina, totum pro humana verecundia.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.49.6 — Let my soul not enter their council; let my honor not join their assembly; for in their anger they killed men, and in their self-will they hamstrung oxen.
- ↩Gen.49.6 — Let my soul not enter their council; let my honor not join their assembly; for in their anger they killed men, and in their self-will they hamstrung oxen.
- ↩Gen.49.7 — Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was harsh; I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
- ↩Gen.49.5;Gen.49.7 — Simeon and Levi are brothers—instruments of violence are their swords. Gen.49.7 — Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was harsh; I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source has 'indignatio corum'; almost certainly a corruption of Vulgate 'indignatio eorum' (Gen 49:7). Translated as 'their indignation'.
- 2 ↩humana verecundia: in this allegory Dinah figures ordered modesty/shame; rendered as human shame to keep the moral restraint force plain and to match the prior section's pro humana…verecundia. Could also be human modesty.
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