Section 20

“Since we have already begun and set out on the path of virtue, let us strive still more to reach what lies ahead. Let no one turn back to what is behind, like Lot’s wife, especially since the Lord has said: ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven.’ To look back is simply to regret one’s course and become worldly-minded again.

“Do not be afraid when you hear about virtue, and do not regard its name as something strange. Virtue is not far from us, nor does it exist outside us. It is within us, and the task is easy if only we are willing.

“The Greeks travel abroad and cross the sea in order to acquire learning. But we have no need to leave home for the kingdom of heaven, nor do we need to cross the sea in pursuit of virtue. The Lord has already said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is within you.’ Virtue, then, requires only our willing choice, since it is within us and takes shape from us.

“Virtue exists when the rational faculty of the soul remains in its natural condition. It remains in its natural condition when it stays as it was created—and it was created good and perfectly upright. For this reason Joshua the son of Nun exhorted the people, ‘Make your heart straight toward the Lord God of Israel,’ and John said, ‘Make his paths straight.’ The soul’s uprightness consists in its rational faculty remaining in the natural condition in which it was created. When it turns aside and is twisted away from what accords with nature, this is called vice of the soul.

“So the matter is not difficult. If we remain as we were made, we are in virtue; but if we give ourselves to base thoughts, we are judged evil. If virtue had to be acquired from outside ourselves, the task really would be difficult. But since it is within us, let us guard ourselves from filthy thoughts. And since we have received the soul as a deposit entrusted to us, let us preserve it for the Lord, so that he may recognize his own work as the same as he made it.”