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10. There is a desirableness in all beautiful bodies, and in gold,
and silver, and all things; and in bodily contact sympathy is
powerful, and each other sense hath his proper adaptation of body.
Worldly honour hath also its glory, and the power of command, and of
overcoming; whence proceeds also the desire for revenge. And yet to
acquire all these, we must not depart from Thee, O Lord, nor
deviate from Thy law. The life which we live here hath also its
peculiar attractiveness, through a certain measure of comeliness of its
own, and harmony with all things here below. The friendships of men
also are endeared by a sweet bond, in the oneness of many souls. On
account of all these, and such as these, is sin committed; while
through an inordinate preference for these goods of a lower kind, the
better and higher are neglected, -even Thou, our Lord God,
Thy truth, and Thy law. For these meaner things have their
delights, but not like unto my God, who hath created all things; for
in Him doth the righteous delight, and He is the sweetness of the
upright in heart.
11. When, therefore, we inquire why a crime was committed, we do
not believe it, unless it appear that there might have been the wish to
obtain some of those which we designated meaner things, or else a fear
of losing them. For truly they are beautiful and comely, although in
comparison with those higher and celestial goods they be abject and
contemptible. A man hath murdered another; what was his motive? He
desired his wife or his estate; or would steal to support himself; or
he was afraid of losing something of the kind by him; or, being
injured, he was burning to be revenged. Would he commit murder
without a motive, taking delight simply in the act of murder? Who
would credit it? For as for that savage and brutal man, of whom it is
declared that he was gratuitously wicked and cruel, there is yet a
motive assigned. "Lest through idleness," he says, "hand or heart
should grow inactive." x And to what purpose? Why, even that,
having once got possession of the city through that practice of
wickedness, he might attain unto honours, empire, and wealth, and be
exempt from the fear of the laws, and his difficult circumstances from
the needs of his family, and the consciousness of his own wickedness.
So it seems that even Catiline himself loved not his own villanies,
but something else, which gave him the motive for committing them.
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