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In his Confessions, St Augustine states that he used to derive pleasure from crime for its own sake. He also asks whether it is possible that he used to derive pleasure from illegal activities because they were illegal. These are, however, two separate things: (1) to derive pleasure from crime for the sake of itself, and (2) to derive pleasure from crime because it is illegal. Augustine moreover continues to say that what he actually loved in the crime was the company of his fellows in crime, and that bad company leads to bad actions. Nevertheless when he discusses how his friend Alypius was fascinated by gladiator games (with an "incomprehensible passion'), he describes how Alypius succumbed to the pleasure of the games and the lust for the spectacle of killing. Alypius was forced to attend the games by his friends, and closed his eyes, but not his ears. And thus, the aisthesis, the door through which evil enters the mind, was not properly closed, and Alypius was seduced by the lust for the bloody fight for its own sake.

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