Disputation I: On the Virtue of Temperance

THAT Temperance is a Cardinal, and at the same time a Moral virtue, is sufficiently clear from what was just said; since Virtue is in the mean, and moral matters are chiefly regarded in the mode, and in both, TEMPERANCE, not like the other virtues, ought not to be turned into doubt by anyone, that it is no common virtue; of which Bl. Bernard says excellently, in the holy Doctor, in the place to be cited presently: "Hold the mean, if you do not wish to lose the measure," indicating that both the mean and the measure are to be specially kept in it; which can also be said with equal right of the other virtues annexed to it: for the bashful man is suffused with a beautiful blush of shame, the presence of a shameful thing pressing upon him; Modesty likewise so composes the graceful voice, and countenance, with gestures and garments, that it may express the adornment of the soul in the body, and so avoid excess of adornment in all things that it affects nothing but what befits it: Say the same of Humility, Mildness, Clemency, and the other virtues which temper excess and sedulously keep the mean, of which I shall treat below in their proper places; in the meantime I shall inquire what, and of what sort, this virtue is, which is here disputed; then, with some things premised, I shall spread myself more broadly, discoursing on the precept of fasting; and last of all I shall weigh, with my usual brevity, Chastity with the manifold vice opposed to it.