Chapter XVII.

The duties of youth, and examples suitable to that age, are next put forth.

65. Since it has been made sufficiently plain that there will be punishment for wickedness and reward for virtue, let us proceed to speak of the duties which have to be borne in mind from our youth up,81    Cic. de Off. I. 34. that they may grow with our years.82    Thus the Benedictine edition reads; most others have: “accrescant simul studia bonorum actuum.” A good youth ought to have a fear of God, to be subject to his parents, to give honour to his elders, to preserve his purity; he ought not to despise humility, but should love forbearance and modesty. All these are an ornament to youthful years. For as seriousness is the true grace of an old man, and ardour of a young man, so also is modesty, as though by some gift of nature, well set off in a youth.

66. Isaac feared the Lord, as was indeed but natural in the son of Abraham; being subject also to his father to such an extent that he would not avoid death in opposition to his father’s will.83    Gen. xxii. 9. Joseph also, though he dreamed that sun and moon and stars made obeisance to him, yet was subject to his father’s will with ready obedience.84    Gen. xxxvii. 9. So chaste was he, he would not hear even a word unless it were pure; humble was he even to doing the work of a slave, modest, even to taking flight, enduring, even to bearing imprisonment, so forgiving of wrong as even to repay it with good. Whose modesty was such, that, when seized by a woman, he preferred to leave his garment in her hands in flight, rather than to lay aside his modesty.85    Gen. xxxix. 12. Moses,86    Ex. iv. 10. also, and Jeremiah,87    Jer. i. 6. chosen by the Lord to declare the words of God to the people, were for avoiding, through modesty, that which through grace they could do.

CAPUT XVII.

Adolescentis officia, et exempla eidem aetati accommoda proponuntur.

65. Quoniam igitur et poenam improbitati, et virtuti fore praemium satis claruit, de Officiis aggrediamur dicere; quae nobis ab adolescentia spectanda sunt, ut cum aetate accrescant simul. Est igitur bonorum adolescentium timorem Dei habere, deferre parentibus, honorem habere senioribus, castitatem tueri, 19 non aspernari humilitatem, 0042D diligere clementiam ac verecundiam, quae ornamento sunt minori aetati. Ut enim in senibus gravitas, in juvenibus alacritas; ita in adolescentibus 0043A verecundia, velut quadam dote commendatur naturae.

66. Erat Isaac Dominum timens, utpote Abrahae indoles, deferens patri usque adeo, ut adversus paternam voluntatem nec mortem recusaret (Gen. XXII, 9 et seq.). Joseph quoque cum somniasset quod sol et luna et stellae adorarent eum, sedulo tamen obsequio deferebat patri (Gen. XXXVII, 6 et seq.): castus ita ut ne sermonem quidem audire vellet nisi pudicum: humilis usque ad servitutem, verecundus usque ad fugam, patiens usque ad carcerem, remissor injuriae usque ad remunerationem. Cujus tanta verecundia fuit, ut comprehensus a muliere, vestem in manibus ejus fugiens mallet relinquere, quam verecundiam deponere (Gen. XXXIX, 8 et seq.). Moyses 0043B quoque et Hieremias electi a Domino, ut oracula Dei praedicarent populo, quod poterant per gratiam, excusabant per verecundiam (Exod. IV, 10; Jerem. I, 6).