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There are pleasures of the soul and pleasures of the body. The
pleasures of the soul are those which are the exclusive possession of
the soul, such as the pleasures of learning and contemplation. The
pleasures of the body, however, are those which are enjoyed by soul
and body in fellowship, and hence are called bodily pleasures: and
such are the pleasures of food and intercourse and the like. But one
could not find any class of pleasures belonging solely to the body.
Again, some pleasures are true, others false. And the exclusively
intellectual pleasures consist in knowledge and contemplation, while
the pleasures of the body depend upon sensation. Further, of bodily
pleasures, some are both natural and necessary, in the absence of
which life is impossible, for example the pleasures of food which
replenishes waste, and the pleasures of necessary clothing. Others
are natural but not necessary, as the pleasures of natural and lawful
intercourse. For though the function that these perform is to secure
the permanence of the race as a whole, it is still possible to live a
virgin life apart from them. Others, however, are neither natural
nor necessary, such as drunkenness, lust, and surfeiting to excess.
For these contribute neither to the maintenance of our own lives nor to
the succession of the race, but on the contrary, are rather even a
hindrance. He therefore that would live a life acceptable to God must
follow after those pleasures which are both natural and necessary: and
must give a secondary place to those which are natural but not
necessary, and enjoy them only in fitting season, and manner, and
measure; while the others must be altogether renounced.
Those then are to be considered moral pleasures which are not bound up
with pain, and bring no cause for repentance, and result in no other
harm and keep within the bounds of moderation, and do not draw us far
away from serious occupations, nor make slaves of us.
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