Every Vice Must Be Rooted Out

It is impossible for the fiery impulses of the body to be put out before the incitements of the other chief vices have been rooted out completely. We will speak of these, God willing, each in its proper place, in separate books. But now we have to deal with gluttony, that is, the craving of the palate, against which our first battle is fought. He will never be able to check the impulses of burning lust who cannot restrain the desires of the appetite. The chastity of the inner man is shown by the perfection of this virtue. For you will never feel sure that a man can stand against the attack of a stronger enemy when you have seen him overcome by weaker ones in a higher conflict. [a]

For all the virtues have one and the same nature, though they seem to be divided into many different kinds and names, just as there is only one substance of gold, though it may seem to be spread through many different kinds of jewelry by the goldsmith’s skill. So a man is shown to possess no virtue perfectly when he is known to have broken down in some part of them. For how can we believe that a man has put out the burning heats of lust, which are kindled not only by bodily stimulus but by a vice of the mind, when he could not soothe the sharp stings of anger, which break out from lack of self-control of heart alone? Or how can we think he has subdued the wanton desires of flesh and spirit, when he has not been able to conquer the simple fault of pride? Or how can we believe that someone has trampled underfoot a wantonness ingrained in the flesh, when he has not been able to renounce the love of money, which is something external and outside our own substance? How will he triumph in the war of flesh and spirit, who has not been man enough to cure the disease of dejection?

However great a city may be, and however well protected by the height of its walls and the strength of its closed gates, it is laid waste if a single back gate, however small, is given up. For what difference does it make whether a dangerous enemy makes his way into the heart of the city over high walls and through the wide spaces of the gate, or through secret and narrow passages?