Saint Augustine believes that love is triggered by the desire to reach the beauty, truth, and good of God. Yet, it must be recognized that God "is the Life of the life of my soul," and that He created the form and spirit of the human body. Consequently, God "assigned its own place and its own function" (Augustine 213) for the body and the soul, and using the senses for enjoyment rather than for the objective

As Augustine discusses praise, this pleasure can grow to be negative in two ways: lack of praise causes people to become offensive and spiteful, while too much praise causes people to become conceited and arrogant. Augustine demonstrates this as he declares, "I am sometimes sorry, too, to hear my own praises, either when others commend me for qualities which I am not glad to possess, or when they value in me, more highly than their due, qualities which may be good, but are of little importance" (Augustine 246). Thus, receiving praise is considered sinful, while giving praise is considered glorious. Also, people need to learn how to praise others before they can praise God since these actions show love for others before love for God.

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I was not myself the truth; that is, the power by which I did it was not the truth; for you, the Truth, are the unfailing Light from which I sought counsel upon all these things, asking whether they were, what they were, and how they were to be valued. But I heard you teaching me and I heard the commands you gave. (Augustine 249)

Next, Augustine goes on with the pleasure of knowledge. He believes that the search for knowledge solely for the purpose of knowing is worthless. Augustine voices this to God as he says:

Souls in deadly sin look to nothing but how they might find nourishment in the earth. Their appetite is insatiable, but they are never satisfied. They are insatiable and insupportable to their very selves ... and will on what will give them nothing but emptiness (Catherine 173).

The Dialogue reemphasizes the pleasures of the body mentioned by Augustine, yet with less detail. For example, Catherine discusses taste in a similar manner since an insatiable appetite is sinful, and this never-ending desire will only provide emptiness. According to God:

Finally, the last pleasure of the body is sight. God has created all beautiful things, which in turn, means that they are all good. But if these beautiful things divert our attention from focusing on God, they have become evil temptations since "they are paltry trifles in comparison with the worth of God's blessed treasures" (Augustine 48). Augustine pleads to God for assistance as he says, "Though I say this and see that it is true, my feet are still caught in the toils of this world's beauty. But you will free me, O Lord ... I am caught and need your mercy, and by your mercy you will save me from the snare" (Augustine 241). As a result, the pleasures of the body need to be applied only toward God in order to reach virtuous love.

Catherine carries on by using the same principles as the pleasures of the mind, but in a process of spiritual stages and tears. First of all, she examines pity in a discussion with God. He talks about pity by describing people who

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Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)