Symposium (The Banquet of the Ten Virgins) 12

EUBOULION: Thecla deservedly carried off the first of the prizes, Gregorion. GREGORION: Deservedly indeed. EUBOULION: What about the stranger from Telmessus? Tell me, was she not listening even from outside? For I wonder whether she kept quiet on learning of this banquet, and did not at once fly, like a bird to food, to hear what was being said. GREGORION: No; for the story is that she was present with Methodius, who was questioning Arete about these very things. But it is a fine and blessed thing to have such a teacher and guide as Arete. EUBOULION: But, Gregorion, which shall we say are better: those who do not feel desire but master desire, or those who feel desire and remain virgins? GREGORION: Those who do not feel desire and remain virgins, since these have their mind and their perception undefiled and are wholly uncorrupted, having sinned in nothing. EUBOULION: Well said, by self-control, Gregorion, and wisely. But I am not hindering you, am I, if I take up your words, so that I may learn more firmly, and no one may refute me hereafter? GREGORION: Take them up wherever you like; for I am well able, Euboulion, to teach you that one who does not desire is better than one who desires, and no one will refute you. EUBOULION: Bravo! I rejoice that you answer me so grandly and show how rich you have become in wisdom. GREGORION: You seem to be a chattering sort of person, Euboulion. EUBOULION: Why so? GREGORION: Because you say these things mocking me rather than speaking the truth. EUBOULION: Hush, my dear; I greatly admire your understanding and high repute. I said this because you say that you not only know, but even pride yourself on teaching others, things about which many wise people often dispute among themselves. GREGORION: Tell me truly: are you really in doubt whether those who do not desire differ at all from those who desire and practise continence? Or are you just teasing me? EUBOULION: How could I be testing you in what I confess I do not know? But come, tell me, most wise, in what way those who do not desire and are chaste differ from those who desire and remain virgins. GREGORION: First, in that they have the soul itself pure, and the Holy Spirit always dwells in it, since it is not dragged about and clouded by imaginings and thoughts of incontinence, so as ever to be harmed even through thought; but these are wholly incapable of receiving desire in both flesh and heart, enjoying calm from the passions. But those who are lured from outside by imaginings through the sight, and receive desire flowing like a stream into the heart, are often no less defiled, even if they think they are contending and fighting against pleasures, being defeated in their thoughts. EUBOULION: Shall we say, then, that those who enjoy calm and are not troubled by desire are pure? GREGORION: Most certainly. For God, who by the beatitudes makes even gods of those who believe in him without hesitation, declares boldly that such people ‘will see God,’ because they bring nothing that darkens or disturbs the eye of the soul to the divine contemplation, but, having got wholly outside worldly appetites, they keep not only the flesh pure of intercourse, as I said, but also the heart incapable of receiving thoughts of incontinence, in which above all the Holy Spirit dwells and rests as in a temple. EUBOULION: Wait (for I think we shall go more rightly from here toward finding out who are truly better), and tell me: do you call someone a good pilot? GREGORION: I do. EUBOULION: The one who has brought the ship safely through great and desperate storms, or the one who has done so in calm and still weather? GREGORION: The one in great and desperate storms. EUBOULION: Shall we not say, then, that a soul that is flooded by the waves of the passions and does not grow weary or faint, but nobly steers its ship, the flesh, into the harbour of self-control, is better and more approved than one that sails in fair weather? GREGORION: We shall. EUBOULION: For to be ready for the onsets of the blasts of the evil spirit, and not to be cast away or overcome, but, looking up to Christ in everything, to fight steadfastly against pleasures, earns greater praise than to remain a virgin easily and without storm. GREGORION: So it seems. EUBOULION: And what of the Lord? Does he not seem to show that one who desires and practises continence excels one who does not desire and remains a virgin? GREGORION: Where? EUBOULION: Where, comparing the prudent man to a house well founded, he declares it cannot fall, being unable to be thrown down by the rain and the rivers and the winds; likening, it seems, the storms to the desires, and the rock to the unmoved and unfailing resolve of the soul for chastity. GREGORION: You seem to speak the truth. EUBOULION: And what of a doctor? Do you not call the best the one already proved in great diseases, who has healed many? GREGORION: I do. EUBOULION: And the one who has done nothing yet, and has never had the sick in his hands at all, is surely still less approved? GREGORION: Yes. EUBOULION: Must we not say, then, that a soul that bears with a moister body and calms its diseases concerning pleasures with the drugs of self-control is more skilled in healing than one that has been allotted a healthy and passionless body to govern? GREGORION: We must say so. EUBOULION: And what about wrestling? Is the better wrestler the one who has great and strong opponents and is always wrestling without being thrown, or the one who has no opponents? GREGORION: Clearly the one who has them. EUBOULION: In wrestling, then, the athlete who has opponents is more approved? GREGORION: Necessarily. EUBOULION: Then, necessarily, a soul that contrives against the attacks of desire and is not dragged down, but pulls against it and opposes it, appears stronger than one that does not desire? GREGORION: True. EUBOULION: And what about holding out steadfastly against the impulses of base appetites, Gregorion? Does it seem to you to belong rather to courage? GREGORION: Very much so. EUBOULION: And this courage is a power of virtue? GREGORION: Clearly. EUBOULION: Then, if endurance is a power of virtue, the soul that is troubled and holds out against desires appears more powerful than the one that is not troubled? GREGORION: Yes. EUBOULION: And if more powerful, also better? GREGORION: Yes. EUBOULION: Then, from what has been agreed, the soul that desires and practises continence is better than the one that does not desire and practises continence. GREGORION: What you say is true, and I shall want to discuss these things with you still more fully. So, if you like, I will come again tomorrow to hear about them. For now, as you see, it is time to turn at last to caring for the outer man.