Augustine is a very blunt and logical character, bringing up counter-argument after counter-argument to battle Petrarch's stance. In Dialogue Two, the characters begin to approach Petrarch's depression head on. Augustine brings up several valid causes of depression through out Dialogue Two, such as temptation, holding onto your pain, and subservience. “Think how many temptations urge your mind to perilous and soaring flights. They make you dream of nobleness and forget your frailty; they choke your faculties with fumes of self-esteem, until you think of nothing else; they lead you to wax so proud and confident in your own strength that at length you hate your creator. So you live for self pleasing and imagine that great things are what you deserve.” pg. 38, Augustine. Petrarch may argue that he has no temptation, but that doesn't make it any less of a cause for depression. Temptation can lure us into believing we have more then we do, or that we can do more then we actually can. It can convince us that we aren't doing enough to obtain true happiness, and that we have to try harder to get it. The idea that one can never achieve what it is that tempts them so badly can lead to depression in several ways. The person could become self-depreciating, constantly hating themselves for not being able fulfill…show more content… Rather then attempt to try and make themselves feel better, many people will anchor themselves to their pain and suffering, whether it be the fear of change (“Stick with the devil you know”) or to gain sympathy others. When offered help, or when an intervention from a friend or family member is made, these people chain themselves even tighter to their suffering. People will tell themselves just about anything to avoid facing the fact that they're just plunging the knife of unhappiness further into
