CAPUT LXVI. Quomodo virtutes in vitia vertantur nisi per discretionem moderentur
The Danger of Unmeasured Affections
All affections become dangerous when they exceed right measure, as shown by the example of Simeon and Levi and the cascade of vices that follow from immoderate fear, sorrow, hope, love, joy, and anger.
We should believe the same about our other affections: they are truly dangerous unless we keep them within the bounds of right measure. We can easily see how harmful it is for sorrow and hope to exceed their proper measure by looking at the story of Simeon and Levi, of whom Jacob said: "Cursed is their fury, because it is stubborn, and their indignation, because it is harsh."✦ Therefore, we must keep a careful watch over all of them, ensuring they are not only ordered correctly but also kept within their proper limits. For too much fear often leads to despair, too much sorrow to bitterness, unbridled hope to presumption, excessive love to flattery, empty joy to looseness, and unrestrained anger to fury.
Discretion as the Guardian of Virtue
Virtues turn into vices without discretion, which alone preserves their true character.
That is how virtues turn into vices if they aren't moderated by discretion. Do you see how all the rest require the virtue of discretion so they don't lose their status as virtues?
Read the original Latin
Sic et de aliis affectibus credere debemus, periculosos quidem esse, nisi eos intra aequitatis metas coerceamus. Certe quam malum sit dolorem et spem modum excedere ex praedicto Simeonis et Levi facto facile possumus advertere: de quibus per Jacob dicitur: Maledictus furor eorum quia pertinax, et indignatio eorum quia dura. Caute ergo circa omnes debet custodiri, ut non solum sint ordinati, sed etiam moderati. Timor enim nimius saepe cadit in desperationem, dolor nimius in amaritudinem, spes immoderata in praesumptionem, amor superfluus in adulationem, laetitia supervacua in dissolutionem, ira intemperata in furorem. In hunc itaque modum virtutes in vitia vertuntur, si per discretionem minime moderentur. Videsne quemadmodum caeterae omnes virtutem discretionis requirant, ne virtutis nomen amittant.
Scripture echoes
- ↩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.
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