[Dicta de arbore quae dicitur Imago hominis]

Our life has three powers from the fountain of goodness. They were very good in man as instituted, but in man as destitute, because of disobedience, they have been depraved. And although even now the nutritive is necessary for the preservation of the individual, and the generative for the preservation of the species, with their work it is necessary that they be restrained under the dominion of reason. Whence, as much as they are, just as food is for the health of the individual man, so is intercourse for the health of the species and the race. Each is not without delight, which, when modified, tempered, and reduced to natural use, is not called the libido of sin. But what is in sustaining life is illicit, and what is well sought is not illicit, and thus intercourse. And just as in food taken with moderation the appetite is venial, so in intercourse taken with moderation for the sake of the appetite, it is without sin. And just as food is for the sustenance of life taken moderately, it is not a sin, so intercourse taken for the sake of generating offspring, not from the horror of the concupiscence but for the sake of eternal life, is not called a sin, because it is excused through the sacrament of matrimony. But in those who have vowed chastity to God, leading an angelic life after the image of the Son of God, generation is to be overcome by reason, and every abominable act which is from the abominable—which is more to be avoided than human reverence—must be guarded, so that a man may show the cleanliness of his heart, as well as of his body, with his members, in the obedience of the will to that member for the sake of the libido, namely the genital, which after the fault of original sin is badly secluded from all will, neither to the heart nor to the body can it show the obedience of the will. Whence Augustine: "The first parents, feeling such motions, fused with shame, made for themselves aprons" Genesis 3:7. And it is written here: "A sign of disobedience in the gate of propagation through which it is derived into descendants." The augmentative power, however, is not yet corrupted in the soul, but wounded. Let our soul be augmented, not in diminishing quantity, but in the quality of virtues. But if our soul turns itself away from the fountain of living water and from the highest good, by which alone it can be refreshed...