Chapter XXXI.—Value of Knowledge.

“And therefore, if we desire salvation, we ought above all to seek after knowledge, being sure that if our mind remain in ignorance, we shall endure not only the evils of genesis, but also whatever other evils from without the demons may please, unless fear of laws and of the judgment to come resist all our desires, and check the violence of sinning.  For even human fear does much good, and also much evil, unknown to Genesis, as we have shown above.  Therefore our mind is subject to errors in a threefold manner:  from those things which come to us through evil custom; or from those lusts which the body naturally stirs up in us; or from those which hostile powers compel us to.  But the mind has it in its own nature to oppose and fight against these, when the knowledge of truth shines upon it, by which knowledge is imparted fear of the judgment to come, which is a fit governor of the mind, and which can recall it from the precipices of lusts.  That these things, therefore, are in our power, has been sufficiently stated.