Question IV: Concerning the Scrupulous

I. Scruple is said metaphorically from scrupus, which is a rough little stone hidden in the shoe of one walking, yet bringing annoyance and impediment in walking; and therefore in morals it is a spiritual stumbling-block which impedes a man from proceeding with unoffending foot and free step in the way of truth and Christian practice. Hence an empty apprehension, and the fear and anxiety arising from it, that there is sin somewhere where there is none, or that it is greater than it is, is thus called. A certain mental obsession (kwelgedachte) and hyperesthesia of sin is accustomed to accompany this apprehension; and thus scruple is now a mental disease, and indeed of the moral order: a morbid anxiety of soul concerning an obligation to be executed, or concerning sins committed or to be committed.

Therefore three elements are required for it: first, of the intellectual order, a futile reason which besets the mind and whose solution does not appear, arising indeliberately after the manner of a fixed idea, violently intruding itself, pertinaciously recurring; second, of the affective order, empty fear of sinning arising from this, which holds the attention fixed and impedes the will from turning the mind away from it and determining it to firm assent; third, the effect proceeding from both, agitation, disquiet, and disturbance of soul. It can concern the past, as if someone from a futile reason fears that he omitted some sin or circumstance in confession, that he examined himself insufficiently, that he consented to temptation; or concerning the present or future, as if someone from a similar reason fears that what he does or is going to do is sin.¹

¹ Concerning scruples cf. Pitres and Regis, Les Obsessions et les Impulsions; P. Janet, Les Obsessions et la Psychasthenie; les Nevroses; Dr. Raymond, Nevroses et Psychonevroses; Eymieu, Le Gouvernement de soi-meme, 2nd vol.; Grasset, Demi-fous et demi-responsables; Le Psychisme inferieur; Gemelli, De Scrupulis; d'Agnel and d'Espiney, Psychotherapie des troubles nerveux; Le Scrupule. Likewise Scaramelli, Directorium asceticum; Reuter, Neo-conf., nn. 255-274; Billuart, de Conscientia; St. Alphonsus, Th. M., I, nn. 11-19; Praxis conf., nn. 95-98; Raphael of St. Joseph, Institutiones fundamentales Theologiae moralis, de Conscientia; Durois, L'Ange conducteur des ames scrupuleuses; Pere Raymond, Le Guide des Nerveux et des Scrupuleux; Grimes, Traite des Scrupules; Beaudoin, Tr. de Conscientia; and other authors in this treatise, as Ballerini, Lehmkuhl, Theol. Mechl., Prummer, and Vermeersch; Leroux in the periodical Revue Eccl. de Liege, May, June, and Nov. 1912; Legrand in the periodical Coll. Brugenses, Nov.-Dec. 1922, March-April 1923.

II. Scrupulous conscience. - From what has been said it is now understood what scrupulous conscience in the proper sense is: namely, it is a dictate of the practical intellect founded on scruples; hence it is a conscience which with anxiety doubts, suspects, or probably thinks and fears, on account of light and contemptible reasons, that a work here and now to be placed is evil, when it is not, or that it is worse than it is, e.g., that it is mortal when it is venial.

Therefore from scrupulous conscience properly so called, or formed by scruples, must be distinguished:

a) scrupulosity, that is, a habit or state of so irrationally fearing sin, which nevertheless they often call, but in an improper sense, scrupulous conscience. For it is not conscience, that is, an actual judgment of the intellect, but a habitual disposition by which we are inclined and prone to scruples and to having a scrupulous conscience;

b) a conscience agitated by scruples, or tortured and vexed, which judges an act to be licit, although from light causes it fears somewhat and is anxious lest it be illicit: mere scruple or apprehension, imagination, and anxiety of itself is not conscience or a dictate of reason, but a shadow and likeness of conscience, and can remain while the judgment of a certain conscience despising scruples stands;

c) a fearful conscience, which reasonably with tranquility fears sin from filial fear by which it would not wish to offend God even in the least thing;

d) a tender or delicate conscience, which adverts and judges the smallest defects, but according to the norm of truth.

III. The signs and manifestations of a scrupulous conscience are: 1) pertinacity in the argumentation of one's arguments and in judgment, by which someone out of fear of sin acquiesces in the judgment of no one; - 2) on the contrary, timidity at the same time in conclusions, and therefore frequent change in judgment from a light appearance, so that he is unable to pronounce definitively; and distrust of self, by which someone suspects defects either of the intellect in grasping or interpreting responses, or of words in proposing difficulties, or of memory in retaining counsels given or positive precepts, indeed or even of his own facts, so that he doubts concerning a door closed by himself, concerning a light extinguished, concerning hours recited, concerning Mass heard; - 3) desire of consulting books or asking new confessors; - 4) reflections, accusations, or impertinent, prolix, or repeated questions concerning several circumstances which were present in the action or could have been present, or concerning the response of the confessor; - 5) disturbed and inordinate manners and gestures in avoiding sins or handling affairs, and a manner as if coerced of rushing into an action concerning which he was anxiously inquiring, and as if blind of proceeding in external works; - 6) fear of sin in those things which by all are held as licit; - 7) excessive disquiet and anxiety concerning past actions, e.g., confession, recitation of the breviary, made with moral diligence, and consequently the will of repeating the same again and again; - 8) inconstancy and defect of firmness in the purpose of preserving peace, being silent concerning scruples, omitting a new inquiry into the matter, or simply obeying.

IV. Causes of scruples are all those things which weaken the nervous system and diminish the energy of the soul.

1. Internal causes: a) mediate on the part of the body: a melancholic disposition or temperament prone to suspecting evil and to sadness, which can also come from heredity or from a certain degeneration;² solitude or flight from every human conversation and recreation; and weakness of the head, even arising from immoderation in abstinences, vigils, and studies; or from a weak and infirm constitution, insufficient nutrition and disturbance of nutritive functions, depressing emotions, bodily disease gravely weakening, or also psychasthenia, which scarcely permits a more intense attention of the soul for forming an equitable judgment concerning practical matters;

² Melancholy is numbered among the causes because melancholics everywhere are sharp in talent and suspicious by nature, and tenacious of the things which they apprehend; thus they are prone to every suspicion of evil, wish to scrutinize even the smallest things, and with difficulty acquiesce in others; all these things predispose to scruples.

b) immediate on the part of the soul, whether in the intellect: subtlety of talent which easily finds reasons for doubting, or in all things seeks mathematical certitude; weakness of mind and defect of judgment, women are more often scrupulous than men; weakness and inconstancy of soul by which it follows vivid imaginations rather than mature judgment; - or in the affection: hidden pride tenaciously adhering to its own judgment; pusillanimity which does not know how to contemn fears and casts down the soul.

Therefore there is a twofold genus of the scrupulous: some are rather intellectual, others excessively sensitive and timid from a certain phobia. In each case there is a defect both 1) of practical judgment or prudence in estimating particular circumstances, and 2) of energy or fortitude, perseverance, or constancy of the will, which does not command the intellect to be content with practical certainty and certainty improperly so called, or does not moderate the imagination and sensitive appetite and thus does not move to a serene examination free from the influence of imagination and anxiety.³

³ Some, such as Grasset and Leroux, reduce scruples to diseases of the will; nevertheless their first cause seems to be defect of practical judgment which precedes the exercise of the will. Grasset himself confesses: "The fixed idea takes over the will an unjust and undeserved dominion, uncoercible, irresistible, disproportionate, senseless." Moreover there does not seem to be a sickness of the will which does not depend on a mental sickness, since the act of the appetitive power follows cognition and is essentially proportioned to it. Cf. Vermeersch, Th. M., I, n. 34, citing St. Thomas, I-II, q. 10, a. 1. But if sickness of practical judgment is called sickness of the will, the speech is not correct, but the question will be about the name.

2. External causes are: a) God, by not granting light or strength, permitting scruples as a punishment of sin, amendment of conscience, liberation from tepidity, exercise of humility, greater generosity of soul, exercise in virtue and confidence, horror of sin, increase of merit, mystical probation, etc.; or even on account of the good of others, that we may learn to direct the scrupulous;

b) the devil exciting scruples in the imagination and sensitive appetite for torturing the pious, especially by nourishing sadness, so that they become weary in virtue, seek external consolations until they are led to desperation concerning salvation, by which they decline to laxity, indeed to all vices, or even inflict death on themselves;

c) education too constricted or harsh, or too soft, conversation with the scrupulous and reading of rigid books, or of books treating of the moral matter, by one who does not know how to judge them rightly.⁴

⁴ Concerning the distinction of scruples, whether they are from God, from the devil, or from the corruption of nature, see Reuter, o. c., nn. 258-260.

V. Harmful effects of scruples. - The harmful effects are many, and very great temporal and spiritual damages can come from scruples to which consent is given, from whatever cause they arise. And indeed:

1. in bodily life, agitation and anxiety attenuate the powers, exasperate the nerves, weaken and disturb the nervous system, and prepare the way for neurasthenia, hysteria, and other diseases;

2. in intellectual life, they disturb rectitude of judgment; indeed they lead to insanity if they are universal, to monomania if they turn about one object;

3. in social life, they diminish consideration of the neighbor, take away aptitude for exercising social relations authoritatively or mercifully, and render one gravely troublesome to others;

4. especially in spiritual life, they cause loss of time in attacking empty phantasms, negligence and inequality for the duties of state, dry up devotion and turn one away from prayer and reception of the sacraments, excite distrust toward God and pusillanimity of spirit, whence sadness, dejection of soul, and desperation arise, which sometimes leads to suicide or unbridled lust.

VI. Remedies of scruples are: 1. To remove or diminish their internal causes: melancholy and solitude by comforts and cheerful recreations; weakness of the head by the counsels of a wise physician; defect of judgment by practical instruction of conscience; pride by humility and submission of judgment; inconstancy and weakness of soul by exercise and strengthening of the will; timidity and pusillanimity by meditation on the goodness of God and confidence in God, etc.

In species, intellectual scrupulous persons should be persuaded that in moral matters mathematical certitude is not to be sought, that attention is not to be given to all things which can happen, but only to those which likely occur, and that anxiety of the appetite is to be carefully discerned from the judgment or state of the intellect. But the timid should learn to act firmly in every matter, strongly neglect the anxiety which they experience in acting, trust in the goodness of the divinity, and keep in mind and often renew a firm purpose of sharp struggle against scruples.⁵

⁵ Thus for strengthening the will; concerning this cf. Eymieu, who methodically describes the process of cure according to which 1) sensations not only sad but merely passive and emotional are to be avoided; 2) physiological care is to be instituted from the things sought: rest, sleep, distractions, placid tranquility without fatigue, and leaving behind the environment in which ordinary life is turned; 3) activity is to be exercised and the will educated by various means by which the scrupulous person learns to will, to consent, to attend to physical or intellectual labor, to apply efforts, and to will strongly, firmly, and constantly under uniform and unconquered discipline, malgre tout.

2. To avoid external causes, namely scrupulous persons or writings which are an occasion for them, and excess of intellectual labor.

3. To flee idleness and carefully apply oneself to labor, especially that which delights more, namely for avoiding empty thoughts.

4. To act with a great and mortified soul against scruples, repelling them as evil and harmful thoughts, especially indirectly, by contemning them and applying the soul to other things, and never consenting to them, not even once.

5. To act as other pious and God-fearing men act.

6. Especially: to obey the superior or confessor, who is to be chosen not as scrupulous, but prudent, even rather than holy, in a humble, blind, and perfect manner, and rather often to ask this obedience from God with great confidence; this is almost the only efficacious remedy.

VII. Special principles according to which the scrupulous are to be directed:

1. The scrupulous person cannot be ruled by his own judgment, because his reason is powerless for this; therefore nothing remains except that he be governed by the reason of others, e.g., of the superior or confessor, who should say that he is scrupulous and in what matter,⁶ and that in this matter he can and must follow the judgment of the superior, and that by obeying he cannot sin, unless he is altogether certain both that sin is present and that the judgment of the superior cannot be applied here and now; indeed even if he is certain, or if he says that he everywhere has evidence of obligation and sin, provided it is established that he is so scrupulous that phantasy fashions for him that he is certain. For although by acting thus the scrupulous person may sometimes err, nevertheless he will not sin by reason of the obedience which he owes to the superior or confessor.

⁶ For in other matters he is rather often lax. "From pusillanimity it follows that someone is drawn back from works of virtues on account of fear of sinning. Indeed sometimes for avoiding light sins he is carried to graver ones. This happens especially to one laboring under a scrupulous conscience concerning a special matter, for example concerning the recitation of the Hours, celebration of Mass, etc. For often other things are reputed as nothing, and with a scrupulous conscience a lax one is nourished. It is no wonder, since they proceed from the same root, namely from smallness and lightness of soul; e.g., not rarely it happens that one who anxiously repeats the words of consecration does not care concerning the cleanliness of vessels or corporal, nor look to other duties of his office." Beaudoin, Tr. de Conse., q. 4.

Namely the presumption stands for the confessor as for the superior, who must be obeyed unless it is certainly established that he errs in prescribing a rule and cannot impose such a rule, and that obedience is illicit. And the scrupulous person can follow such a universal rule, as morally altogether necessary to his sound life, even if from this in a particular case error or material sin can follow. That effect can be considered as accidental and legitimately permitted on account of a proportionate cause. For he has the right of applying efficacious means which of themselves are honorable for being healed.

2. The scrupulous person easily exaggerates or fears sin; hence with him a grave doubt, which in others would be reasonable, "that in the case sin is present," is judged empty and to be spurned; and a light doubt "that in the case there is not sin" is judged founded.

Let him not carefully examine these doubts so that he may arrive at certitude: for he cannot arrive at this, and no one is bound to the useless. Hence he must be told that he can act freely unless he is altogether certain that sin is present; indeed if he is certain, provided it is established that he is so scrupulous in this or that matter that phantasy fashions for him that he is certain.

3. A positive obligation, namely of an affirmative precept, e.g., of confessing sins integrally, examining conscience, saying the Hours, making fraternal correction, does not oblige with great inconvenience; hence the scrupulous person can more easily be exempted from it.

VIII. A scrupulous conscience is not a rule of acting prudently, both because it is uncertain and because it is vincibly erroneous; but it is to be put aside, at least by a judgment from indirect principles handed down by the confessor, e.g., in the following manner: Whatever may be the case concerning the material liceity or illicitness of this action, it is certain that in such doubts one must obey the confessor; that I can and must act as the confessor said; that I can neglect my doubt or judgment; that by obeying I cannot sin, etc. But in the case such a doubt or such an apprehension is present. Therefore...⁷

⁷ You will find this proposed among theologians in various formulas. Thus, for example, Lessius: "Although I, as regards myself, would rather judge this to be sin, nevertheless because my confessor says the contrary, I can and will do this which he told me, since he is for me the interpreter of the divine will." And Reuter, o. c., n. 263, remedy 2: "Although I judge this to be sin, nevertheless because my judgment is fallible, and the confessor told me that this is licit for me, I can and will do what he told me must be done, and I am certain that I do well, because God wills that I obey him"; and remedy 7: "In rightly forming conscience there is no difficulty or danger. Only think: 1) that it is the will of God that I contemn scruples; theologians indicate this to me..., my confessor who bears the place of God; but by following the will of God I cannot sin, and if it should happen that I erred materially, this cannot be imputed, since I follow directors given by God. 2) Besides, by yielding to scruples I harm body and soul, I render myself inept for God's service and become burdensome to the neighbor: I will live in perpetual torture... God does not oblige me to these things. For what brings excessive difficulty is morally impossible, nor does God oblige to it... 3) What I see prudent and upright persons do or contemn as trifles, this is licit also for me; I see prudent and upright persons do this or contemn it as trifles; therefore, etc."

Hence, although to act against a scrupulous conscience is not licit, nevertheless one can act against scruples; indeed, lest he incur grave damage, sometimes he is bound to do so even under grave obligation. Not indeed if he remains in full doubt, for to act with a doubtful conscience is illicit, but provided that he in some way puts this aside and forms for himself a certain conscience, by judging, e.g., from the judgment of the confessor, that it is a scruple and by contemning it. For a scruple, because it is an empty apprehension of phantasy, does not render the doubt serious, and does not impede the judgment of conscience previously formed from being practically certain. Lessius, de Prud., c. 1, n. 2, is to the point:

"Prudence is not always able to exclude scruple totally. For this often perseveres with the judgment of prudence; nevertheless in order that then the judgment be prudent, it must be reputed a scruple, and thus prudence also in a certain way excludes the scruple. For although the imagination of sin perseveres with a certain anxiety, nevertheless through prudence it is reputed a shadow, not truth."

But one need not always actually remember the principles and rules handed down above and by them form for oneself an actual dictate concerning the honesty of the action, because this is often morally impossible for the scrupulous person. As St. Alphonsus says, Th. M., l. I, n. 19:

"Nor is there need that in each particular act he form this judgment... for it is enough that from the judgment once formed he act against the scruple; because on account of past experience that judgment exists virtually or habitually in his conscience, although obscured by darkness. Moreover while the scrupulous person operates in that confusion, often he does not operate with scruple or deliberate fear, for ordinarily he would not wish to omit what he knew to be pleasing to the divine will."

From this certain conclusions for practice can be noted with Fr. Vermeersch, Th. mor. I, n. 382:

1. After he has been admonished by the confessor concerning scruples, the consents which he says he has given, whether into an interior depraved suggestion, or into a purpose here and now of acting even if it is evil, or into a purpose of sinning, are to be ascribed to the phantastic order. For the scrupulous person imagines himself to say: I will this, or: thus I will do, whether it is good or evil, or I will sin and then expiate the sin by confession. But phantasy represented an assent of this kind to him, so that he seemed to himself as if to behold himself thus acting. Nevertheless, not otherwise than in a dream, he gave no free consent to those suggestions or purposes; and perhaps he made this use of the foreseen confession, that from it he might become more courageous for acting against scruples. Therefore for the scrupulous person who, e.g., from the counsel of the confessor, knows habitually that his doubts must be contemned by himself, it is lawful to act while the scruple remains. For that knowledge provides him a certain conscience...

2. It can happen that in the process of his doubts and little reasonings the scrupulous person labors for a long time, and is thus wearied and disturbed from the struggle, so that he rushes into the action in a blind manner: then he is deprived of true liberty necessary at least for sinning gravely.

3. Similarly, promises, vows, and blasphemies which some imagine they have often, indeed almost daily, made or said can be held as fictitious. Let the confessor simply refuse to hear or esteem these things.

4. Although the obligation of acting against scruples can be grave, since from them grave damage can be feared in spiritual progress, abandonment of spiritual exercises, desperation, suicide, or in nervous depression and health of body or mind, nevertheless the scrupulous person scarcely incurs subjective fault provided that with his infirm will he wishes to strive against scruples in general; indeed often it is not expedient to insist, lest a new disturbance and perplexity arise, and danger of desperation, which is especially to be feared in the sensitive.

IX. Applications. - There is especially a threefold class of the scrupulous:

1. Some are distressed by depraved thoughts concerning faith, chastity, charity, e.g., from rash judgment or a sense of aversion, or concerning future things to be done under condition, or by blasphemies internally uttered, to which they often fear that they have assented.

It must altogether be imposed on them a) that they not fight directly against these thoughts, e.g., by eliciting an act of faith, etc.; for this would excite them more and would be a great inconvenience; but b) that they despise scruples, because not depraved thoughts but only consents, not fictitious consents but only voluntary ones, are sin; and c) that they not examine themselves concerning them or write them on paper; indeed d) it can fittingly be imposed that they abstain from confessing them unless they knew with such certainty that they had consented that they could swear it. For the very fear of consent is a sign of resistance or of non-consent.

2. Others are anxious concerning duties already fulfilled:

A. Either on account of the integrity or contrition of past confessions. To these, if they have sometimes made a general confession or for a notable time have diligently made confessions, it must be imposed that they no longer think of all these things nor speak a word in confession, unless they continue to fear and can affirm these three things without any doubt, even with an oath: that the sin certainly was committed, that in their mind when they committed it it was mortal, and that they certainly forgot it. But if they do not immediately affirm or swear, they are no longer to be heard; and even if they swear, they are not on that account to be believed.

B. Or concerning the hearing of Mass or the recitation of the Hours. To these it must never be permitted to hear another Mass or to repeat the Hours, or a part.

C. Moreover, those who suffer perpetual and grave anxieties concerning these things, on account of the great inconveniences of scruples, are excused from material integrity of confession or of the Hours, so that they are not held to spend more time on the Hours than is customarily spent by upright men, and can omit the rest; indeed also sometimes part or the totality of the office could be prohibited to them, or a determined space of time assigned, or recitation suspended for a time.

B. Likewise some are scrupulous concerning duties to be fulfilled:

a) Concerning the integrity or contrition of confession to be instituted. To these there must be imposed a moderate examination of conscience, or even the time of examination must be determined, accusation concerning a few points or concerning external sins alone, and the simple recitation of the act of contrition.

b) Concerning fraternal correction. These must suppose themselves not to be held to it, unless they are altogether certain.

c) Concerning the intention of Mass, of the Hours, of a Sacrament, etc. These can elicit no intention, but begin absolutely and materially, and continue without hesitation and delay, without haste, strain of the head, or anxious solicitude: the very fear that the intention has been lost or not renewed is a certain sign that the intention is present; - moreover, there is not required the intention of satisfying, but of saying the office, hearing Mass, etc.; and it is as if impossible that one using reason would not have such an intention.

d) Concerning Holy Communion. Let them approach it with certitude that they would not sin even if they were in the state of sin; indeed then accidentally they would obtain grace.

In all these matters moderate diligence is to be employed.

3. Others fear sinning in every action.

On these it must be imposed

a) that they act freely, without deliberation and according to the first glance, despise scruples and operate against them where evident sin does not appear, indeed even against evidence if they were so scrupulous that phantasy fashioned for them that they had such evidence;

b) and it must be prescribed that they conquer scruples, lest they become insane or altogether useless for acting;

c) and concerning such actions in confession let them abstain from accusing themselves: for although they can sometimes err, nevertheless they do not sin, by reason of the obedience which they owe to the confessor.

But if they fear sin only in a certain genus, let the same hold for this genus.

X. Admonitions for the confessor. - 1) Before the confessor treats a penitent as scrupulous, let him inspect with great circumspection whether he is truly scrupulous: for there are those who are anxious concerning many things, but not without a just and reasonable cause, e.g., concerning restitution because they proceeded laxly; concerning past confessions because they approached without due preparation; concerning past sins which they wish more to expiate, as in new converts; concerning grave sins committed for the first time or as recidivists and not yet confessed; concerning lighter sins in which from tenderness of conscience someone now does not wish to offend God, etc.

2. When he has recognized him as scrupulous, let him seek perfect obedience, asking the penitent whether he trusts him and wishes constantly to obey him in all things; otherwise let him send him away.

3. Let him carefully examine in what matters the penitent is scrupulous: for ordinarily because of defect of judgment he is scrupulous in some matters, but rather lax in others; and therefore also to be treated partially as lax. Hence let him tell him that he is scrupulous, and in what matter; for a scrupulous person who persuaded himself that he was not scrupulous is incurable.

4. Let him try to know the cause of the scruples, that he may remove it, after the manner of a physician who first investigates the disease and its cause before he applies medicines.

5. That the scrupulous may obey more easily, let him try to win their confidence by fatherly long-suffering; therefore let him sympathize with their miseries with great kindness, act with them in much patience, and show that he has theological knowledge and competent knowledge of scruples. Generally they are to be treated with gentleness and mildness, especially if they are sensitive, but nevertheless with firmness; and they are not to be rebuked except because of disobedience, and, if necessary, strongly and with severity and rigor, e.g., by depriving them of communion, yet not excessively. On this point, namely, they are to be treated as if they were not scrupulous. But if they are altogether unwilling to obey, let the confessor dismiss them and send them to another, saying that he can no longer procure their good.

6. Let him inculcate the reasons why one must act against scruples, e.g., the dangers to which the scrupulous person exposes himself: of losing peace, wasting time, neglecting serious care of spiritual progress, remaining destitute of all fortitude, causing annoyance to others by his moroseness and becoming unfit for labors useful to the neighbor; and the other things set forth above.

7. Let him show firmness of countenance and speech to the scrupulous, and respond without any hesitation, and hand down a few general rules, without many particular distinctions; for otherwise they will always doubt that these rules hold for the occurring case. Let the response be clear, distinct, and brief. Let him not be prolix in explaining counsels, lest among the alleged motives something less solid be found; let him always say the same thing; nor let him render the reasons for the response, because they will inquire and doubt concerning their value, and thus they will be led not by another's judgment but by their own. Let him abstain from repeating the exposition which they made of their difficulty, lest diversity be detected; nor let him inquire much concerning the circumstances of scruples as if they had importance. Nor let him permit them often to have recourse to him, or to consult many others or books, or to consign to writing declarations made to them.

8. Sometimes let him gently mock the penitent when he proposes unfounded doubts; and let him order him to think what he himself would wish to respond if he were asked concerning such a thing by another, and let him tell him to do the very same.

9. Let him gradually lead him to solving his cases by himself, forbidding him to propose doubts more often, but, for example, once in a week or in a month, and not to recite more than two or three; suggesting that he act in the manner in which he would judge others to act. Let the scrupulous person cast away every manner which others hold as ridiculous.