496. There are three degrees of the natural man. In the first are those who love nothing but the world, setting their heart on wealth; these are those properly designated as natural. In the second degree are those who love nothing but the pleasures of the senses, setting their heart on extravagance and indulgence of every kind; these are properly designated sensual. In the third degree are those who love nothing but themselves, setting their heart on acquiring honours; these are properly designated bodily. The reason is that they plunge into the body everything to do with the will and thus the intellect, and turning their backs on others concentrate on themselves, loving only what is their own. The sensual, however, plunge everything to do with the will and thus the intellect into the snares and fallacies of the senses, indulging in these alone. But the natural squander everything to do with the will and the intellect on the world, greedily and deceitfully acquiring wealth, and having no other aim in it or to be gained from it than its mere possession. The adulteries which have been described above put people into these degrees of degeneracy, one into this, another into that, in each case depending on what gives them pleasure, since this is what determines their character.