On the Shows 15

Moreover, we noted above, concerning the condition of places, that they do not defile us by themselves but by what is done there, and that, once they have drunk in the defilement, they then spew it out on others too. Let the chief heading, then, idolatry, as we said, stand on its own; let us set all the other qualities of the things themselves against them, as things contrary to God. God has commanded that the Holy Spirit, as being tender and delicate by the goodness of his nature, be treated with tranquillity, gentleness, quiet, and peace, not disturbed with frenzy, bile, anger, or grief. How can he agree with the shows? For no show is without agitation of the spirit. For where there is pleasure, there is also eagerness, which gives pleasure its savor; where there is eagerness, there is also rivalry, which gives eagerness its savor. And where there is rivalry, there too are frenzy, bile, anger, and grief, and the rest that follow from them, which, like them, are incompatible with discipline. For even if someone enjoys the shows modestly and decently, as befits his rank, his age, or even his nature, still he is not unmoved in mind nor without a silent passion of the spirit. No one comes to pleasure without feeling; no one experiences feeling without its ups and downs. Those very ups and downs are incitements to feeling. On the other hand, if feeling ceases, there is no pleasure, and then he is already guilty of vanity, going where he gains nothing. But I think vanity too is foreign to us. What of the fact that he condemns himself by taking his place among those whom he confesses he detests by not wishing to be one of them? It is not enough for us not to do such things ourselves, unless we also keep from the company of those who do them. “If you saw a thief,” it says, “you ran along with him.” Would that we did not even live in the world together with them! Yet in the things of the world we are separated from them, because the world is God's, but worldly things are the devil's.