Of Virtues.
I.--There is a difference between the virtues of the citizen, those
of the man who essays to rise to contemplation, and who, on this
account, is said to possess a contemplative mind; those of him who
contemplates intelligence; and finally those of pure Intelligence,
which is completely separated from the soul.
1. The civil virtues consist of moderation in passions, and in
letting one's actions follow the rational laws of duty. The object
of these virtues being to make us benevolent in our dealings with
our fellow-human beings, they are called civil virtues because they
mutually unite citizens. "Prudence refers to the rational part of our
soul; courage, to that part of the soul subject to anger; temperance
consists in the agreement and harmony of appetite and reason; finally
justice, consists in the accomplishment, by all these faculties, of the
function proper to each of them, either to command, or to obey."
2. The virtues of the man who tries to rise to contemplation consist in
detaching oneself from things here below; that is why they are called
"purifications."[323] They command us to abstain from activities which
innervate the organs, and which excite the affections that relate to
the body. The object of these virtues is to raise the soul to genuine
existence. While the civil virtues are the ornament of mortal life,
and prepare the soul for the purificatory virtues, the latter direct
the man whom they adorn to abstain from activities in which the body
predominates. Thus, in the purificatory virtues, "prudence consists
in not forming opinions in harmony with the body, but in acting by
oneself, which is the work of pure thought. Temperance consists in not
sharing the passions of the body; courage, in not fearing separation
therefrom, as if death drove man into emptiness and annihilation; while
justice exacts that reason and intelligence command and be obeyed."
The civil virtues moderate the passions; their object is to teach us
to live in conformity with the laws of human nature. The contemplative
virtues obliterate the passions from the soul; their object is to
assimilate man to the divinity.
There is a difference between purifying oneself, and being pure.
Consequently the purificatory virtues may, like purification itself,
be considered in two lights; they purify the soul, and they adorn the
purified soul, because the object of purification is purity. But "since
purification and purity consist in being separated from every foreign
entity, the good is something different from the soul that purifies
itself. If the soul that purifies herself had possessed the good before
losing her purity, it would be sufficient for the soul to purify
herself; but in this very case, what would remain to her after the
purification would be the good, but not the purification. But the soul
is not the good; she can only participate therein, and have its form;
otherwise the soul would not have fallen into evil. For the soul, good
consists in being united to her author, and her evil is to unite with
lower things."[324]
Of evil, there are two kinds; the one, is to unite with lower things;
the other is to abandon oneself to the passions. The civil virtues
owe their name of virtues and their value to their releasing the soul
from one of these two kinds of evil (of the passions). The purificatory
virtues are superior to the former, in that they free the soul from
her characteristic form of evil (that is, union with lower things).
Therefore, when the soul is pure, she must be united to her author; her
virtue, after her "conversion," consists in her knowledge and science
of veritable existence; not that the soul lacks this knowledge, but
because without her superior principle, without intelligence, she does
not see what she possesses.[325]
3. There is a third kind of virtues, which are superior to the civil
and purificatory virtues, the "virtues of the soul that contemplates
intelligence." "Here prudence and wisdom consist in contemplating
the "beings" or essences contained by intelligence; justice consists
in the soul's fulfilling of her characteristic function; that is, in
attaching herself to intelligence and to direct her activity thither.
Temperance is the intimate conversion of the soul towards Intelligence,
while courage is the impassibility by which the soul becomes
assimilated to what she contemplates, since the soul's nature is to be
impassible.[326] These virtues are as intimately concatenated as the
other (lower forms)."
4. There is a fourth kind of virtues, the "exemplary virtues," which
reside within intelligence. Their superiority to the virtues of the
soul is the same as that of the type to the image; for intelligence
contains simultaneously all the "beings" or essences which are the
types of lower things. "Within intelligence, prudence is the science;
wisdom is the thought, temperance is the conversion towards oneself;
justice is the accomplishment of one's characteristic function;
courage is the identity of intelligence, its perseverance in purity,
concentrated within itself, in virtue of its superiority."[327]
We thus have four kinds of virtues: 1, the exemplary virtues,
characteristic of intelligence, and of the "being" or nature to which
they belong; 2, the virtues of the soul turned towards intelligence,
and filled with her contemplation; 3, the virtues of the soul that
purifies herself, or which has purified herself from the brutal
passions characteristic of the body; 4, the virtues that adorn the
man by restraining within narrow limits the action of the irrational
part, and by moderating the passions. "He who possesses the virtues of
the superior order necessarily (potentially) possesses the inferior
virtues. But the converse does not occur."[328] "He who possesses
the superior virtues will not prefer to practice the lower virtues
because of the mere possession thereof; he will practice them only
when circumstances will invite (it). The objects, indeed, differ with
the kind of virtues. The object of the civil virtues is to moderate
our passions so as to conform our conduct to the laws of human nature.
That of the purificatory virtues is to detach the soul completely from
the passions. That of the contemplative virtues is to apply the soul
to intellectual operations, even to the extent of no longer having to
think of the need of freeing oneself from the passions. Last, that of
the exemplary virtues is similar to that of the other virtues. Thus
the practical virtues make man virtuous; the purificatory virtues
make man divine, or make of the good man, a protecting deity; the
contemplative virtues deify; while the exemplary virtues make a man
the parent of divinities. We should specially apply ourselves to
purificatory virtues believing that we can acquire them even in this
life; and that possession of them leads to superior virtues. We must
push purification as far as possible, as it consists in separating (the
soul) from the body, and in freeing oneself from any passional movement
of the irrational part. But how can one purify the soul? To what limit
may purification be pushed? These are two questions that demand
examination.
To begin with, the foundation of purification is to know oneself, to
realize that he is a soul bound to a foreign being, of a different
nature (or, "being").
Further, when one is convinced of this truth, one should gather
oneself together within himself, detaching himself from the body,
and freeing himself entirely from the passions. He who makes use
of his senses too often, though it be done without devotion or
pleasure, is, nevertheless, distracted by the care of the body, and
is chained thereto by sensation. The pains and the pleasures produced
by sense-objects exercise a great influence on the soul, and inspire
the soul with an inclination for the body. It is important to remove
such a disposition from the soul. "To achieve this purpose, the soul
will allow the body only necessary pleasures, that serve to cure her
of her sufferings, to refresh her from her exhaustions, to hinder her
from being importunate. The soul will free herself from pains;[327]
if this be beyond her powers, the soul will support them patiently,
and will diminish them, while refusing to share them. The soul will
appease anger so far as possible; she will even try to suppress them
entirely; at least, if that be impossible, she will not voluntarily
participate therein, leaving the non-reflective excitement to another
(animal) nature, reducing the involuntary motions as far as possible.
The soul will be inaccessible to fear--having nothing further to
risk; even so, she will restrain every sudden movement; she will pay
attention to fear only insofar as it may be nature's warning at the
approach of danger. Absolutely nothing shameful will be desired; in
eating and drinking, she will seek only the satisfaction of a need,
while remaining essentially alien thereto. The pleasures of love will
not even involuntarily be tasted, at least, she will not allow herself
to be drawn beyond the flights of fancy that occur in dreams. In the
purified man, the intellectual part of the soul will be pure of all
these passions. She will even desire that the part that experiences
the irrational passions of the body should take notice of them without
being agitated thereby, and without yielding to them. In this way, if
the irrational part should itself happen to experience emotions, the
latter will be promptly calmed by the presence of reason. Struggles
will have been left behind before any headway will have been made
to purification. The presence of reason will suffice; the inferior
principle, indeed, will respect the higher one to the extent of being
angry with itself, and reproaching itself for weakness, in case it
feels any agitation that disturbs its master's rest." So long as the
soul experiences even moderate passions, the soul's progress towards
impassibility remains in need of improvement. The soul is impassible
only when she has entirely ceased to participate in the passions of the
body. Indeed, that which permitted the passions to rule was that reason
relaxed the reins as a result of her own inclination.