Miscellanies 6.14.112

Just as those unskilled in playing the lyre should not touch lyres, nor those unskilled in playing the pipe touch pipes, so neither should those take matters in hand who have not received knowledge and do not know how to use them throughout their whole life. The contest for freedom, at any rate, is fought not only in wars by the athletes of war, but also at banquets, in bed, and in the law courts by those anointed by the Word, who are ashamed to become captives of pleasure: “Never will I exchange virtue for unjust gain.” And unjust gain, plainly, is pleasure and pain, longing and fear, and, in a word, the passions of the soul, whose delight for the moment is painful afterward. “For what is the profit,” it says, “if you gain the world but lose your soul?” It is clear, then, that those who do not perform good actions do not know what is profitable for themselves either. And if so, they are not able to pray rightly to receive good things from God, not knowing what is truly good; nor, if they received them, would they perceive the gift or enjoy worthily what they did not know, both through inexperience in using well what is given and through excessive lack of learning, not yet knowing how divine gifts are to be used. And lack of learning is the cause of ignorance.