29
And reasoning, the universal husbandman, purging, and pruning these severally, and binding round, and watering, and transplanting, in every way improves the materials of the morals and affections.
30
For reasoning is the leader of the virtues, but it is the sole ruler of the passions. Observe then first, through the very things which stand in the way of temperance, that reasoning is absolute ruler of the passions.
31
Now temperance consists of a command over the lusts.
32
But of the lusts, some belong to the soul, others to the body: and over each of these classes the reasoning appears to bear sway.
33
For whence is it, otherwise, that when urged on to forbidden meats, we reject the gratification which would ensue from them? Is it not because reasoning is able to command the appetites? I believe so.
The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.