Traité de la concupiscence

"Tabby's travels" by Lucy Ellen Guernsey is a novel written in the late 19th century. Likely aimed at young readers, it appears to follow a protagonist named Tabby through a series of journeys that blend everyday adventure with moral lessons and gentle Christian reflection. The opening of the provided text is an editor’s introduction to a French spiritual classic, Bossuet’s Treatise on Concupiscence, situating it among accessible “popular yet critical” editions and explaining its origin (a 17th‑century exhortation drawn from 1 John 2:15–17: “Love not the world”), its Augustinian roots, its oratorical style, and its complex publication history; the editor then explains why this edition follows the 1731 text. The treatise itself begins by defining “the world” as attachment to passing, visible things and unfolds Saint John’s triad—concupiscence of the flesh, concupiscence of the eyes, and pride of life. Early chapters argue that pleasures of the senses enslave the soul, that human frailty after the Fall weighs down reason, and that even lawful goods (food, marriage, comfort) demand strict temperance, with virginity praised as an ideal. Next, “concupiscence of the eyes” is treated as vain curiosity and ostentation: craving news, poring over history for show, dabbling in superstition, reading to excess, prying into divine mysteries, hoarding art or riches, and delighting in spectacles—instead of contemplating God’s works and adorning his house. Finally, the text introduces “pride of life” as self‑love that displaces God, contrasting Augustine’s two cities—love of God to self‑contempt versus love of self to contempt of God—and showing how such pride makes the soul weak and perversely enticed by what is forbidden. (This is an automatically generated summary.)