On the other hand, no quantity of food void of nutritious qualities
will ever appease hunger. The same thing may be said of the kind of
thoughts with which the mind is fed; some are used less for their
sound and wholesome nutriment than for their efficiency to flatter
sensuality, inflame the passions, create new wants in the heart, and
excite a depraved curiosity. Under this regime the mind is starved
and tortured by an incessant hunger. It sadly languishes and pines in
the grip of famine; and all this in the midst of full and plenty, but
this abundance contains no nutriment, it is made up of news, whether
true or false, which amuses without satiating; still the mind enlists
the service of the senses to gather it up from all sides. The eyes,
continually gaping and watching what passes before them, present the
mind with numberless images to amuse it in its weary or lonesome
moments.
Hence that insatiable thirst to see and observe every thing, that
inconstancy and want of changing from one place to another, that
desire to read useless and frivolous books, novels, weeklies and
magazines, which for the most part enervate the mind by their
futilities, trouble and darken it by a multitude of incoherent images
and contradictory thoughts, and poison the heart by foul and filthy
images that will constantly torment the soul.
The ears are on the alert to catch every report, every murmur, all
kinds of news, detractions and calumnies, stories and scandals. I say
all kinds of news, no--I make a mistake, it is only such news as is
of an exciting or startling nature to break up the monotony of life.
Hence those indiscreet questions which provoke answers more
indiscreet still; those rash revelations made by thoughtless young
ladies, those prying efforts to discover things which only exist
perhaps in their own imagination, and of which they should live in
holy ignorance.
Hence those long conversations, discussing the vices and evil doings
of others, in which justice and charity are discarded, and iniquity
drank like water. Few forego the criminal satisfaction of
participating in those detestable conversations, and fewer still,
alas! reproach themselves at night for the detractions and calumnies
committed, permitted, or provoked during the day, and by a monstrous
union they couple with those deeds the external practices of piety.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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