them from eternal perdition, if they were to lose their bodily sight. To such individuals one might say what St. Severinus once said to a monk who implored him to ask of God the restoration of his sight. "My son," he said, "do not trouble yourself about the eyes of your body, but rather about those of your soul." To many young persons the saying of the prophet is applicable: "Death is come up through our windows (the eyes), it is entered into our house (the soul)." The enemy of purity enters into the human heart through the eye.
2. With what did the first sin begin in paradise? With a longing look Eve gazed at the luscious fruit which hung on the forbidden tree; that look excited a wish to taste the fruit; she yielded to the wish, gathered and ate the forbidden fruit, and gave some of it to her husband; thus was the first sin committed. And if at a period when as yet no evil concupiscence had stirred within the human breast, the eyes could work irretrievable ruin, how great, how terrible must be the result after the fall, when the enemy in our eyes works in concert with the enemy in our heart! When we see what came of a mere love of eating we may judge what a much stronger passion will do - unchaste, sensual desire kindled by bold, unguarded glances, and suffered to burst into fierce flames.
3. Experience teaches that unchaste looks very frequently lead men to a terrible end.
