Liber II, Pars II — Quod in aetate iuvenili maxime cavenda sit prava societas. Cap. XIV.

Liber II, Pars II — Quod in aetate iuvenili maxime cavenda sit prava societas. Cap. XIV.

It's not enough to know how young people should behave regarding games, gestures, and clothing; they must also understand with whom they should associate. As for the present situation, four factors seem to be inherent in young people, from which four reasons can be drawn that show why they should especially avoid bad company in their youth. First, young people are soft and impressionable. Second, they are driven by passions and inclined toward evil. Third, they are overly fond of socializing. Fourth, they are too trusting. Therefore, the first way to show that young people should especially avoid bad company is based on the fact that they are too soft and impressionable. For the soul generally follows the inclinations of the body: because our knowledge begins with the senses, and the things we perceive are more familiar to us; therefore, people generally follow their sensitive appetites. The sensitive appetite is an organic or bodily power. Therefore, one must take a measure and standard for such an appetite from the body itself. In that age when someone has a soft and more pliable body, they are more soft and more pliable in their appetites. For soft and pliable things more easily receive impressions from those with whom they are joined than hard things; thus, children and youths, because they are more soft and pliable than adults, are more easily impressed by the morals of their companions in youth than in other ages. Therefore, they must especially be kept away from bad company at that time. The second way to investigate this is based on the fact that youth is especially inclined to evil and is led by passions. For easily, one is led to that which they are inclined to. If, therefore, youths are inclined to evil, as has been shown when we determined the morals of youths; especially in youth, they must be cautious of bad company. The third way to prove this is taken from the fact that young people are overly fond of friendship. For as it is said in the second book of Rhetoric, young people are friends and lovers of companionship more than those of other ages, because they take joy in socializing. If that age pursues pleasures most eagerly, since it is very delightful to live with friends, that age delights in living in society and forming friendships. Therefore, in youth, young people must be kept away from bad company, because then they most conform to the morals of their companions, since they greatly love to live in society. For pleasure arises from the connection of what is suitable with what is suitable. No one therefore delights in living in society unless they take pleasure in conforming to their companions. The fourth way is taken from the fact that young people are too credulous. For sensual pleasures, although they may be inherently wrong and to be avoided, can still appear good according to their appearance. Young people are easily swayed because they tend to believe things readily and don't have a fully developed use of reason; they can be easily influenced by their peers and persuaded to believe that sensory pleasures are worth pursuing.