8
A man, therefore, who regulates his course by the law, even if he be a lover of money, straightway puts force upon his own disposition; lending to the needy without interest, and cancelling the debt of the incoming sabbath.
9
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.
10
For the law conquers even affection toward parents, not surrendering virtue on their account.
11
And it prevails over marriage love, condemning it when transgressing law.
12
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.
13
And think it not a strange assertion that reasoning can in behalf of the law conquer even enmity.
14
It alloweth not to cut down the cultivated herbage of an enemy, but preserveth it from the destroyers, and collecteth their fallen ruins.
15
And reason appears to be master of the more violent passions, as love of empire and empty boasting, and slander.
16
For the temperate understanding repels all these malignant passions, as it does wrath: for it masters even this.
17
Thus Moses, when angered against Dathan and Abiram, did nothing to them in wrath, but regulated his anger by reasoning.
18
For the temperate mind is able, as I said, to be superior to the passions, and to transfer some, and destroy others.