CAPUT LXVII. Quomodo, vel quam sero oriatur discretio cum sit prima proles rationis
The Late Birth of Discretion
Discretion is the beloved virtue born late in the soul, acquired only through long practice and hard experience of falling and rising.
This is the Joseph who is born late, to be sure, but is loved by his father more than the rest.✦ For who doesn't know that the true goods of the soul can neither be acquired nor kept without discretion? So it's right that this virtue is loved in a singular way—the one without which no virtue is gained, none is perfected, and none is kept. But we scarcely deserve to receive such a son even late, because we are not schooled to the perfection of discretion without long practice, and only through hard experience. We first have to be trained in each of the virtues and find out by experience what we can do in each one, before we can gain full knowledge of them all and judge each of them well enough.1 We do learn a great deal about discretion by reading, a great deal by listening, and a great deal from the judgment of reason planted in us; yet we are never fully trained in it without the school of experience. The one who has to judge about everything must come after everyone else. So the first thing is that we work hard to give each virtue frequent, steady attention. And while we do that, we will necessarily fall fairly often. So we have to rise again often, and through falling again and again learn what watchfulness and what caution it takes to gain the goods of the virtues—or to keep them.2
Discretion Born from Reason
Through disciplined practice, counsel, and the shame of failure, the soul learns discretion, which is the proper fruit of reason alone.
In the same way, while the discipline of the virtues is learned through long practice, the mind, long trained, is at last led to full discretion in conduct, and it rightly rejoices as if over the birth of Joseph. Before his birth, while his brothers still do everything without discretion, the more they presume to do many things beyond their strength, the more often they fall, the worse and more shamefully. That's why, as we've already said, Dinah is born after them: because the confusion of shame often accompanies an ugly fall.✦ But after Dinah is born, and as if through the disgrace of that confusion, her brothers discover and learn from experience that nothing is better than to be ruled by counsel: for a prudent man is better than a strong man.✦ For a prudent man speaks of victories, and whoever does everything with counsel will never regret it.✦ So when the necessary usefulness of counsel is learned through experience, and is sought more carefully through earnest effort and is found, Joseph is in a way born—through whom the virtue of discretion is understood. But the reason is clear why none of the handmaids—not even Leah herself—but only Rachel could bear such a son: for it belongs not to sense, not to imagination, and not even to affection itself, but to reason alone both to discern and to understand.✦3 If, then, we take Rachel to mean reason, we more readily see why Joseph can be born only of Rachel: because we hardly doubt that discretion arises from reason alone. Such a child from such a mother. Joseph from Rachel; discretion from reason.
Read the original Latin
Hic est ille Joseph qui quidem sero nascitur, sed a patre plus caeteris amatur. Quis enim nesciat vera bona animi sine discretione nec posse acquiri, nec posse conservari? Merito ergo illa virtus singulariter diligitur sine qua nulla conquiritur, nulla consummatur, nulla conservatur. Sed vix sero talem filium accipere meremur, quia ad discretionis perfectionem non sine magno usu, nonnisi per magna experimenta erudimur. Prius non oportet in singulis virtutibus exerceri, et quid in unaquaque possimus experiri, quam possimus de omnibus plenam scientiam percipere, et de singulis sufficienter judicare. Multa quidem de discretione legendo, multa discimus audiendo, multa ex insito nobis rationis judicio: verumtamen nunquam de hac ad plenum erudimur sine experientiae magisterio. Post omnes sequi oportet qui de omnibus judicare debet. Primum ergo est ut satagamus singulis virtutibus studium frequens impendere, quod dum facimus, necesse est nos saepius cadere: oportet ergo nos saepe resurgere, et per frequentem lapsum addiscere qua vigilantia, qua cautela oporteat virtutum bona aquierere vel custodire.
Sic sic dum longo usu virtutum disciplina addiscitur, quandoque mens diu exercitata ad plenam morum discretionem perducitur, et quasi de nato Joseph jure laetatur. Ante hujus nativitatem ejus fratres dum adhuc omnia sine discretione agunt, quanto ultra vires suas multa praesumunt, tanto saepe deterius, atque deformius ruunt. Unde est, sicut jam diximus, quod post eos Dina nascitur, quia frequenter deformem lapsum pudoris confusio comitatur. Sed post natam Dinam et quasi per confusionis ignominiam fratres sui inveniunt, et per experimentum addiscunt, nihil melius esse quam consilio regi: Quia melior est vir prudens viro forti. Vir enim prudens loquitur victorias, et qui cum consilio cuncta agit, in aeternum non poenitebit. Cum igitur consilii necessaria utilitas per experimentum cognoscitur, et per studium attentius quaeritur et invenitur, Joseph quodammodo nascitur, per quem virtus discretionis intelligitur. Patet autem ratio cur ancillarum nulla, cur nec ipsa quidem Lia, sed Rachel sola potuerit talem filium gignere, siquidem non est sensualitatis, non imaginationis, non denique ipsius affectionis, sed solius est rationis discernere sicut et intelligere. Si igitur per Rachel rationem intelligimus, cur nonnisi de Rachel Joseph nasci possit citius invenimus, quia quod de sola ratione discretio oriatur minime dubitamus.
Talis proles de tali matre. Joseph de Rachele, discretio de ratione.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.30.22-Gen.30.24 — Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. Gen.30.23 — She conceived and bore a son and said, "God has taken away my disgrace." Gen.30.24 — She named him Joseph, saying, "May the LORD add to me another son."
- ↩Gen.30.21 — Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.
- ↩Prov.16.32 — Better a patient person than a warrior, one who controls their spirit than one who captures a city.
- ↩Prov.21.28 — A false witness will perish, but the one who listens will speak forever.
- ↩Gen.30.22-Gen.30.24 — Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. Gen.30.23 — She conceived and bore a son and said, "God has taken away my disgrace." Gen.30.24 — She named him Joseph, saying, "May the LORD add to me another son."
Notes
- 1 ↩Latin reads "Prius non oportet... quam...". The neighboring argument requires training before full judgment; rendered as the pedagogical sequence "first we must train... before we can judge." If "non" is retained strictly, the sense would invert.
- 2 ↩Source reading "aquierere" treated as "acquirere" (to acquire/gain).
- 3 ↩affectio rendered as affection per lexeme policy (inner affective power in Richard's anthropology, not mere sentimentality).
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