Liber II, Pars II — Qualiter instruendi sunt pueri, ut se habeant circa potum, circa venerea, et circa coniugia contrahenda. Cap. XII.

Liber II, Pars II — Qualiter instruendi sunt pueri, ut se habeant circa potum, circa venerea, et circa coniugia contrahenda. Cap. XII.

After we discussed in the previous chapter how one can go wrong regarding food, it remains to discuss how one can go wrong regarding drink. It was previously stated that youth is particularly prone to excess, so since caution should always be exercised where greater danger is present, we must be careful in youth to avoid becoming intemperate. Temperance should be practiced in three areas: regarding food, drink, and sexual matters. For it is not only improper consumption of food that causes intemperance, but also of drink. Therefore, young people should not only be abstinent so they do not become gluttonous from eating, but they should also be sober so they do not become drunk from drinking. For wine, when consumed excessively (as far as the present situation is concerned), causes three evils. First, because it provokes lust. When the body is heated, it increases the urge for sexual acts; wine, which generates heat, when consumed excessively, incites excessive lust. Therefore, the consumption of wine, in as much as it provokes lust, should be avoided more in youth than in old age, since youth is more prone to lust than other ages. The second evil that arises from excessive wine consumption is the dulling of reason. For when the vapors of wine rise to the head, the brain is disturbed; when disturbed, our reason is dulled in regard to its actions, because we cannot use reason freely. Excessive consumption of wine thus impedes the use of reason to the extent that it disturbs the brain. Therefore, some are more easily offended by wine than others because they have a weaker head and their brain is disturbed more quickly. Young people should be prohibited from excessive wine consumption because, due to the weakness of their brains, they are more easily offended by wine. The third evil that arises from wine is strife and discord; for when the brain is disturbed from excessive wine consumption and the use of reason is lost, it easily breaks forth into disordered words, and strife and quarrels arise. Indeed, because it arises from the inflammation of the blood, wine, which inflames the blood due to its heat, makes a person bold and irritable; and when this happens, it more easily leads to disputes and quarrels. Young people, therefore, because they are lovers of insults, as the Philosopher says. According to the Rhetoricians, they should be prohibited from excessive drinking, through which one is provoked to disputes and insults. In every age, therefore, one must avoid excess in food and immoderation in drink; however, because we more easily cling to those things we have been accustomed to since childhood, it is fitting for all fathers, especially kings and princes, to be concerned about the upbringing of their children, so that from early childhood they may be raised to be abstinent and sober. Next, we must see how young people should conduct themselves regarding food and drink. It remains to see how they should behave regarding sexual matters and the marriages they are to enter into. For indeed, luxury arises from gluttony, as a daughter from a mother. If, therefore, we have said that young people should be instructed not to be gluttonous, it remains to say how they should be instructed so that they are not lascivious. Since every sexual act, except for marriage, goes against the dictates of reason, a father should be concerned about his children in such a way that they are virtuous, and young people who do not want to hold back should be guided to be content with their own spouse. In what age, however, should they engage in marriage? The philosopher shows this. Poli. It is stated that for a woman, the age required is eighteen years, and for a man, thirty: in such an age, according to him, children are conceived more perfectly. But since the generative power (as we said above) is too corrupt, it would suffice for young people to abstain from sexual union for the entire period of growth, which generally lasts until the twenty-first year; if they engage in marriage before that time, they are provoked to lust, and their growth is hindered, as the philosopher says in the same Poli. Thus, marriage should be engaged in if our concupiscible power were not too corrupt; however, it is timid regarding the corruption of concupiscence, if the teachers of youth perceive that young people cannot wait such a long time, that time may be anticipated as they see fit. However, how young people should behave with a wife already taken, and what should be considered in taking a wife: we have discussed more extensively above when we spoke about the governance of marriage.