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And what wonder? if the lusts of the soul, after participation with what is beautiful, are frustrated,
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on this ground, therefore, the temperate Joseph is praised in that by reasoning, he subdued, on reflection, the indulgence of sense.
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For, although young, and ripe for sexual intercourse, he abrogated by reasoning the stimulus of his passions.
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And it is not merely the stimulus of sensual indulgence, but that of every desire, that reasoning is able to master.
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For instance, the law says, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor anything that belongs to thy neighbor.
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Now, then, since it is the law which has forbidden us to desire, I shall much the more easily persuade you, that reasoning is able to govern our lusts, just as it does the affections which are impediments to justice.
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Since in what way is a solitary eater, and a glutton, and a drunkard reclaimed, unless it be clear that reasoning is lord of the passions?
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A man, therefore, who regulates his course by the law, even if he be a lover of money, straightaway puts force upon his own disposition; lending to the needy without interest, and canceling the debt of the incoming Sabbath.
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And should a man be parsimonious, he is ruled by the law acting through reasoning; so that he does not glean his harvest crops, nor vintage: and in reference to other points we may perceive that it is reasoning that conquers his passions.
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For the law conquers even affection toward parents, not surrendering virtue on their account.
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And it prevails over marriage love, condemning it when transgressing law.
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And it lords it over the love of parents toward their children, for they punish them for vice; and it domineers over the intimacy of friends, reproving them when wicked.
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And think it not a strange assertion that reasoning can in behalf of the law conquer even enmity.
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It alloweth not to cut down the cultivated herbage of an enemy, but preserveth it from the destroyers, and collecteth their fallen ruins.
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And reasoning appears to be master of the more violent passions, as love of empire and empty boasting, and arrogance, and loud boasting, and slander.
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For the temperate understanding repels all these malignant passions, as it does wrath: for it masters even this.
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Thus Moses, when angered against Dathan and Abiram, did nothing to them in wrath, but regulated his anger by reasoning.
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For the temperate mind is able, as I said, to be superior to the passions, and to transfer some, and destroy others.
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For why, else, does our most wise father Jacob blame Simeon and Levi for having irrationally slain the whole race of the Shechemites, saying, Cursed be their anger.
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For if reasoning did not possess the power of subduing angry affections, he would not have spoken thus.
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For at the time when God created man, He implanted within him his passions and moral nature.
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And at that time He enthroned above all the holy leader mind, through the medium of the senses.
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And He gave a law to this mind, by living according to which it will maintain a temperate, and just, and good, and manly reign.
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How, then, a man may say, if reasoning be master of the passions, has it no control over forgetfulness and ignorance?