De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae
When It Is Right to Look Up
There are two blameless reasons to raise one's eyes: to seek help or to give it, as exemplified by David and the Lord, and the reader is praised for doing so out of genuine necessity or mercy.
There are, however, two grounds on which you may blamelessly raise your eyes: either to seek help, or to give it. David lifted his eyes to the mountains, that he might seek help; and the Lord lifted his eyes over the crowds, that he might bestow it — the one pitifully, the other mercifully, both blamelessly.✦✦1 You too, if you consider the place, the time, and the cause, and raise your eyes out of your own necessity or your brother's, I not only do not blame you — I praise you greatly. For the one is excused by misery; the other is commended by mercy.2
The Warning of Curious Eyes
If one raises the eyes not in the spirit of the Prophet or the Lord but in the manner of Dinah, Eve, or Satan, the gaze becomes blameworthy.
But if it is otherwise — if you are imitating not the Prophet, not the Lord, but Dinah or Eve, or rather Satan himself — that is what I would call you.✦✦3
Dinah's Lesson: The Cost of Idle Curiosity
Through the story of Dinah, the reader is warned that curious wandering — even when it seems harmless — invites destruction upon oneself, one's family, and even one's enemies.
Dinah goes out to pasture the kids, and while she's on her way to her father, her own virginity is seized right out from under her. O Dinah, what need was there for you to go looking at foreign women?✦ What need was there for it? What good did it do? Was it mere curiosity? Even if you seemed to be just idling. You look around curiously, but you're being watched even more curiously. Who would have believed back then that your curious idleness — or your idle curiosity — would afterward prove to be not idle at all, but so destructive to you, to your own, and to your enemies?
Read the original Latin
Duabus tamen causis inculpabiliter oculos levas, ut vel petas auxilium, vel impendas. Levavit oculos suos David in montes, ut peteret; levavit et Dominus super turbas, ut impenderet: alter miserabiliter, alter misericorditer, ambo inculpabiliter. Tu quoque si locum, tempus et causam considerans, tua vel fratris necessitate oculos levas, non solum non culpo, sed et plurimum laudo. Hoc enim excusat miseria, illud commendat misericordia. Sin alias, non Prophetae, non Domini, sed Dinae aut Evae, immo ipsius Satanae imitatorem te dixerim.
Dina namque, dum ad pascendos haedos egreditur, ipsa patri, et sua sibi virginitas rapitur, O Dina, quid necesse est ut videas mulieres alienigenas? Qua necessitate? Qua utilitate? An sola curiositate? Etsi ut otioso videris. Tu curiose spectas, sed curiosius spectaris. Quis crederet tunc illam tuam curiosam otiositatem, vel otiosam curiositate, fore post sic non otiosa, sed tibi, tuis, hostibusque tam perniciosam?
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.120.1 — A Song of Ascents. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and he answered me.
- ↩Matt.9.36;Mark.6.34 — But when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Mark.6.34 — And when he came out, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
- ↩Gen.34.1 — And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
- ↩Gen.3.6 — And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
- ↩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 ↩The first clause echoes Psalm 121 (Vulgate 120):1 — 'Levavi oculos meos in montes, unde veniet auxilium mihi.' The second clause likely alludes to Christ looking upon the multitudes with compassion (cf. Matthew 9:36; 14:14; Mark 6:34).
- 2 ↩The contrast is between raising one's eyes out of desperate need (misery excuses the act) and raising them out of compassionate generosity (mercy commends it). Both are blameless, but on different grounds.
- 3 ↩Dinah (Genesis 34) went out to see the women of the land and was seized by Shechem; Eve (Genesis 3:6) looked upon the forbidden tree with desire. Both are biblical types of curiosity leading to downfall. The contrast is between raising one's eyes in holy need or mercy versus the sinful curiosity of Dinah and Eve, which ultimately traces back to Satan.
De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae (On the Steps of Humility and Pride) companion
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