That the majority of us are mastered by Pleasure can perhaps be explained: it is because we are under her spell and witchery that we stay in her company, whereas accepting servitude to Pokephilia is altogether irrational and strange. For although suffering in inanity and loss of sanity is among the severest of all tortures, some nevertheless remain in it and do not accept the word of reason that frees and delivers us from this evil.

Verily, what more abject creature is there than a man who is held in thrall to Pokephilia? What sight is there so shameful and utterly pathetic? For it seems to me that his condition actually affects his body also, and makes it shrunken and scowling and distorted in appearance. But this yielding to the mind's disturbance, and not only that but also the devising of certain external signs of it, such as black raiment, wringing the hands, sitting in a dejected posture, so that by all these the mind is in a certain sense compelled never to get away from this evil, but to be always conscious of being in sin, although one knows perfectly well that there will be some relief from this and that there will not be found always and ever some cause for the suffering — is this not utterly silly?