Chapter II. On the Parts of Temperance in General

646. In temperance there are integral, subjective, and potential parts.

1. The integral parts of temperance are two, namely, shamefacedness and honorableness; for the complete office of temperance consists in two things: in flight from turpitude, toward which shamefacedness assists, and in love of comeliness, toward which honorableness assists. The following things are to be noted briefly concerning these integral parts.

a) Shamefacedness¹¹⁸⁸ is fear of disgrace. It is not a virtue properly so called, but a laudable passion, which therefore is sometimes called a virtue in the broad sense. For shamefacedness is a certain imperfection consisting in fear of reproach on account of those things which are held as base by men. Thus many are ashamed of poverty and of bodily defects; this shamefacedness is a sign of a weak mind. Others are ashamed of honorable acts themselves because they are mocked for them by the impious; this shamefacedness is evil. But if a man is moved to shamefacedness according to right reason, namely, because he has committed something base or because he fears lest something base occur, this shamefacedness is good and disposes toward virtue, because it instills horror of turpitude. Since sins against temperance are very base, as they render man like the brute animals, shamefacedness, which withdraws one from these base things, can rightly be called an integral part of temperance. Therefore St. Thomas¹¹⁸⁹ says: "Shamefacedness is not a part of temperance as though entering into its essence, but as disposing one toward it; whence Ambrose says that shamefacedness lays the first foundations of temperance, insofar, namely, as it instills horror of turpitude." Since the virtue of temperance, and especially of chastity, is most necessary for virgins, the Creator therefore implanted great shamefacedness in them so that they might better preserve virginity.

b) Just as shamefacedness is flight from turpitude, so honorableness¹¹⁹⁰ is the love and pursuit of comeliness. Honorableness accepted in this sense is likewise an integral part of temperance. Whence St. Thomas¹¹⁹¹ teaches: "Honorableness is a certain spiritual beauty. But the base is opposed to the beautiful. Opposites chiefly manifest one another. And therefore honorableness seems to pertain especially to temperance, which repels that which is most base for man, namely, brutal pleasures. Whence even in the very name of temperance there is understood chiefly the good of reason, whose office it is to moderate and temper depraved desires. Thus, therefore, honorableness, insofar as it is attributed to temperance by a certain special reason, is posited as its integral part, not indeed as a subjective part or as an annexed virtue, but as an integral part of it, as a certain condition of it."

Note. These two virtues of shamefacedness and honorableness must be cultivated as much as possible in the education of boys and girls; for they are, as it were, guardians of chastity and temperance. But if these guardians are dead, man is accustomed to rush headlong into every filthiness of lust and intemperance.

¹¹⁸⁸ Scham, Scheu, pudeur, honte [shame, reserve, shamefacedness].

¹¹⁸⁹ S. theol. 2, 2, q. 144, a. 4 ad 4.

¹¹⁹⁰ Anstandsgefühl [sense of propriety].

¹¹⁹¹ L.c., q. 145, a. 4.

647. 2. Four subjective parts of temperance are enumerated by St. Thomas, namely, abstinence, sobriety, chastity, and pudicity.

"The subjective parts of a virtue are called its species; but the species of virtues must be diversified according to the diversity of matter or object. Now temperance concerns the pleasures of touch, which are divided into two genera. For some are ordered to nourishment; and among these, as regards food there is abstinence, and as regards drink properly there is sobriety. Others, however, are ordered to the generative power; and among these, as regards the principal pleasure of coitus itself there is chastity; but as regards the surrounding pleasures, such as those which are in kisses, touches, and embraces, pudicity is considered."¹¹⁹² The individual parts will be treated more fully in the following chapter.

¹¹⁹² S. theol. 2, 2, q. 143, a. un.

648. 3. The potential parts of temperance are five, namely, continence, humility, meekness, modesty, and moderation.

As is clear from what was said above, the potential parts of a principal virtue are called those secondary virtues which have the same formal object quo as the principal virtue, but nevertheless concern less principal and less difficult matters. It pertains to temperance to moderate the pleasures of touch, which are most difficult to moderate; whence any virtue which imports a certain moderation in some less difficult matter and restrains the appetite tending inordinately toward something pleasurable can be posited as a potential part of temperance or a virtue annexed to it. An inordinate appetite is found in three objects, namely: 1. in interior movements of the soul; 2. in exterior movements and acts of the body; 3. in exterior things. As regards the first, besides the movement of the concupiscence of touch, which temperance moderates and restrains, three movements tending toward something are found in the soul. The first is the movement of the will stirred by the impetus of passion; and continence¹¹⁹³ restrains this movement, from which it results that, although the lower part of man suffers immoderate movements of concupiscence, the will is not conquered. The second interior movement is the movement of hope tending inordinately toward one's own excellence; and humility moderates or restrains this movement. The third interior movement is the movement of anger tending toward vengeance; and meekness or clemency moderates or restrains this movement. Modesty introduces due moderation into exterior bodily movements. Finally, as regards exterior things, moderation is posited, which rejects both superfluous things and does not require things that are excessively exquisite. Modesty and moderation are again subdivided by certain authors.¹¹⁹⁴

¹¹⁹³ Selbstbeherrschung, maîtrise de soi-même [self-mastery].

¹¹⁹⁴ Cf. S. theol., l.c.