Let us take, for example, the case of a man in whose soul there has developed a disposition [of great avarice] on account of which he deprives himself [of every comfort in life], and which, by the way, is one of the most detestable of defects, and an immoral act, as we have shown in this chapter. If we wish to cure this sick man, we must not command him merely [to practise] deeds of generosity, for that would be as ineffective as a physician trying to cure a patient consumed by a burning fever by administering mild medicines, which treatment would be inefficacious. We must, however, induce him to squander so often, and to repeat his acts of profusion so continuously until that propensity which was the cause of his avarice has totally disappeared. Then, when he reaches that point where he is about to become a squanderer, we must teach him to moderate his profusion, and tell him to continue with deeds of generosity, and to watch out with due care lest he relapse either into lavishness or niggardliness.[1]
- ↑ Cf. H. Deot, II, 2, "How shall he cure them (the moral ills)? The sages tell the wrathful man that if he is accustomed to scold and curse he should train himself never to give vent to these feelings, and that he should continue this course a long while, until he has eradicated wrath from his heart. If he is haughty let him train himself to be humble, let him clothe himself in ragged garments which humiliate those who wear them, and let him do similar acts, until he has uprooted his pride, and
must drag ourselves away in the opposite direction, for by bending ourselves a long way back from the erroneous extreme, allowing for the recoil, as when one straightens a crooked piece of timber, we shall at length arrive at the proper mean. Punishment of sin also, according to M., forces the culprit to the other extreme of the sin committed. Thus, if a man sin as regards property, he must spend his money liberally in the service of God; if he has indulged in sinful bodily enjoyments, he must chastise his body with fasting, privation, and the like. This practice should even extend itself to man's intellectual failings, which may cause him to believe some false doctrine, a fault that is to be remedied by turning one's thoughts entirely away from wordly affairs, and devoting them exclusively to intellectual exercises, and carefully reflecting upon those beliefs in which he should have faith (Moreh, III, 46). Compare with this Aristotle's theory as regards correction, according to which the remedies are of such a nature as to be the contraries of the ills they seek to cure (Eth. Nic., II, 2).
