.—Concerning Pleasures.
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.