TEMPERANZA. — A moral and cardinal virtue that moderates, according to the order of nature, tendencies, impulses, and actions—in a word, the appetites which, in the sphere of the sensible, exert a greater attraction, offer greater pleasure or a greater sum of pleasures to man, so that, yielding to their enchantment, he may not endanger his eternal salvation.
Temperance, therefore, will have as its material object, around which it is exercised, first of all the pleasures connected with the preservation of the individual and the species (sensory pleasures of food and drink, sexual pleasures of generative activity), which, because of their close connection with the sense of touch, are also called pleasures of touch. They are the primary object of temperance because they are the strongest and entail the most grievous deviations from the moral order. Secondly, temperance is exercised with regard to the pleasures of the other senses: sight, smell, hearing, and taste, insofar as the proper objects of these senses can increase the attraction and excitement toward everything pertaining to the preservation of the individual and the species (e.g., beauty, the gracefulness of the person, the pleasant taste of food, perfume, a silvery voice, etc.). Thirdly, temperance also moderates internal desires, insofar as the pleasures of which we have spoken may be desired only to the extent, in the manner, and in the way that conform to the order of reason.
The formal object of temperance, therefore, is the particular honesty found in moderating the use of these pleasures, in seeking and enjoying them according to the right measure. And the right measure is deduced from their purpose, which, with regard to food and drink, is the well-being of body and mind in relation to their activity, and the proper disposition of the soul in relation to eternal salvation; while, with regard to generative activity, it is the procreation of children and the attainment of the other ends proper to married life.
According, then, to the various fields in which temperance is exercised, and the various circumstances and degrees of its application, it has its various parts, which are called subjective, namely: abstinence (v.) with regard to the pleasures of the table; sobriety with regard to beverages, especially intoxicating ones (v. ALCOOLISMO), including also the other narcotic substances (morphine, cocaine, opium, chloroform, ether, etc.); chastity with regard to the pleasures of generative activity; and modesty with regard to its accessory elements.
The opposing vices are, respectively, gluttony, drunkenness, lust, and immodesty.
(phot. Anderson)
TEMPERANZA – The Mussico Temperance of the 13th century – Venice, Basilica of S. Marco.
subiectivis, in Coll. Brugenses, 47 (1951), pp. 38–48. Celestino Testore