Laudator Temporis Acti

John Cassian, Conferences 14.12 (tr. Colm Luibhéid):

Leaving aside those things in general which imprison the soul, leaving aside the distractions which come battering from without against souls that are weak, I feel that a particular obstacle to my salvation is the very slight knowledge I seem to have of literature. The insistence of my teacher and my own urge for continuous reading have so softened me that at this point my mind is, as it were, infected by those poetic works, worthless stories, tales of war in which I was steeped from the beginning of my basic studies when I was very young. I think of them even when I am praying. When I am singing the psalms or else begging pardon for my sins the shameful memory of poems slips in or the image of warring heroes turns before my eyes. And the conjuring up of such fantasies makes such a sport of me that my mind is unable to aspire to the contemplation of heavenly things, and my daily tears are unable to drive them out.

quippe cui praeter illas generales animae captivitates, quibus non dubito infirmos quosque pulsari extrinsecus, speciale impedimentum salutis accedit per illam quam tenuiter videor attigisse notitia litterarum, in qua me ita vel instantia paedagogi vel continuae lectionis maceravit intentio, ut nunc mens mea poeticis velut infecta carminibus illas fabularum nugas historiasque bellorum, quibus a parvulo primis studiorum imbuta est rudimentis, orationis etiam tempore meditetur, psallentique vel pro peccatorum indulgentia supplicanti aut impudens poematum memoria suggeratur, aut quasi bellantium heroum ante oculos imago versetur, taliumque me phantasmatum imaginatio semper inludens ita mentem meam ad supernos intuitus aspirare non patitur, ut cotidianis fletibus non possit expelli.