KINDS OF SIN 61 



tion. If this condition is annexed to a desire 

 against the natural law, as 'I should like to steal if 

 it were lawful/ or 'I should like to commit forni- 

 cation if it were not forbidden/ the condition does 

 not remove all the malice of the vicious will, for 

 the very tendency of the will toward such objects 

 is against right reason. Such conditional de- 

 sires then are sinful, unless they indicate a mere 

 propensity towards such sins without any volun- 

 tary affection of the will. In any case, however, 

 they are dangerous, and should not be indulged 

 or expressed." 18 



c) A sin of thought, lastly, is a complete sin, 

 divided from the external act only by an accident, 

 if there is present an efficacious desire (deside- 

 rium pravum efficax) and a definite intention to 

 take the necessary means to accomplish the de- 

 sired end (decretum peccandi) , 19 



Sins of word, taken generically, receive a specific malice 

 when they are accompanied by deeds, as in contumely, 

 lust, and the like, or when they give scandal. 



St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, and other Fa- 

 thers compare the evolution of sin from thought through 

 word to deed with the three different ways in which our 

 Lord raised the dead to life. 20 The analogy is striking 

 and offers food for meditation. 



18 Th. Slater, S.J., A Manual of 19 Cfr. Ex. XX, 17; Matth. V, 28. 



Moral Theology, Vol. I, p. 150. — 20 Cfr. St. Augustine, De Serm. 



Cfr. Gen. Ill, 6; 1 Cor. X, 6; Gal. Dom. in Monte, I, c. 12, n. 35 



V, 24. (Migne, P. L., XXXIV, 1247); 



