On the Twelve Abuses of the World, with extracts from On the Soul and its Origin and On the Divination of Demons against the Pagans

grow old, the strengths of the mind, the members of the inner man, do not gain increments of vigor. For it is appropriate to devote all effort to religion, which the flourishing age of the present world has deserted, exhausted. For just as in trees, the tree itself is rejected which does not exhibit ripe fruits for its cultivator in place of flowers, so too in men, he is rejected who has abandoned the flower of youth, and yet in the old age of his body, he neglects to bring forth the ripe fruits of good works. For what can be done more foolishly than if the mind does not strive to hasten toward perfection, when the state of the entire body, affected by old age, strives toward nothingness? While the eyes grow dim, the ear hears with difficulty, the hair falls, the face changes to pallor, the teeth themselves diminish in number, the skin dries, the breath does not smell sweet, the chest suffocates, the nose runs, the knees tremble, swelling inflates the ankles and feet, even the inner man who does not grow old is burdened by all these things, and all things announce that the house of the body is already failing. What remains, then, but that while this defect of life appears, one should think of nothing else than how one might grasp the entrance to the future life? Let every old man desire this. For the uncertain limit of this life hangs over the young; for the old, the exit from this life is agreed upon by all as near. Two things, therefore, must be guarded against by man, which do not grow old in his flesh and which drag the whole man with them into sin: the heart and the tongue. For the heart never ceases to plot new thoughts, and the tongue speaks tirelessly of those things which the heart has sensed. Let old age therefore beware lest these youthful parts deceive the harmony of the whole, and the rest of the body’s gravity be mocked by these parts. For it must be considered by each person what is worthy of the age impending, so that he may do this, lest life, age, or ministry become vile.

A decorative red initial 'T' begins the final paragraph.
The third degree: An adolescent without obedience.
The third degree of abuse is if an adolescent is found without obedience, by which the world is depraved from the straight order of reason. How will they hope to minister to themselves in old age, who have consistently refused to show obedience to their elders in adolescence? Hence it is held in the proverbs among the ancients: he cannot rule who has first refused to offer servitude to another. For which reason, even the Lord Jesus, in the times of his flesh,