LIKE sorcery in the power of procreation, infatuation and hatred are caused in the will. It is a good idea to trace, first, its cause and, then, the remedies for it, to the extent that this is possible.

Infatuation or irregular love on the part of one sex towards the other can arise from three causes: sometimes merely from incautious looking, sometimes only from a temptation made by demons, and sometimes from the sorcery of nigromantics and sorceresses together with demons.

Regarding the first, it says in James 1[:14-15], “Every single person is tempted, being led astray and enticed by his lustful desiring. Then, when his lustful desiring has conceived, it gives birth to sin. When the sin is consummated, it begets death.” In this way, after Sichem saw Dinah as she was going out to visit the women of the area, he fell in love with her, seized her and slept with her, his soul becoming glued to her (Gen. 34[:4]). According to the gloss, “This is what happens to a sick soul when it places less importance on its own affairs and looks after another's. It is led astray by habit and in single unity an agreement with unlawful acts is made.”

The second cause arises from temptation originally made by demons. In this way, Ammon fell in love with his very beautiful sister Tamar and became so completely besotted with her that he grew sick because of his love for her (2 Chron. 13[:1-2]). He could not have been so entirely corrupted in his mind as to rush into the very great crime that is incest if he had not been severely tempted by the Devil. The Book of the Saintly Fathers is also full of stories of this kind of love. It reports that certain Fathers who had removed every temptation towards carnal love from themselves in the wilderness were still sometimes tempted more than can be believed by the love of women.