Laudator Temporis Acti

Jerome, Letters 21.13.2 (to Pope Damasus; Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. 54, p. 121; tr. Charles Christopher Mierow):

The food of demons is drunkenness, luxury, fornication, and all the sins. These are persuasive and lascivi­ous; they soothe the senses with pleasure; and immediately upon their appearance they provoke a man to use them.

daemonum cibus est ebrietas, luxuria, fornicatio et universa vitia. haec blanda sunt et lasciva et sensus voluptate demulcent statimque, ut apparuerint, ad usum sui provocant.

Id. 21.13.4 (CSEL, vol. 54, p. 122):

The food of the demons is the songs of poets, secular wisdom, the display of rhetorical language. These delight all with their sweetness; but while they captivate the ears with fluent verses of charming rhythm, they penetrate the soul as well and bind the inmost affections. But when they have been read with the greatest enthusiasm and effort, they afford their readers nothing more than empty sound and the hubbub of words. No satisfaction of truth, no refreshment of justice is found. They who are zealous for these things continue to hunger for truth, to lack virtue.

daemonum cibus est carmina poetarum, saecularis sapientia, rhetoricorum pompa verborum. haec sua omnes suavitate delectant et, dum aures versibus dulci modulatione currentibus capiunt, animam quoque penetrant et pectoris interna devinciunt. verum ubi cum summo studio fuerint ac labore perlecta, nihil aliud nisi inanem sonum et sermonum strepitum suis lectoribus tribuunt: nulla ibi saturitas veritatis, nulla iustitiae refectio repperitur. studiosi earum in fame veri, in virtutum penuria perseverant.