על החלומות, ספר ב כ״בOn Dreams, Book II 22
א׳
1[150] And yet this hunger for peace, assuaged as it is by yearning and desire, is a lighter ill than thirst; but when in our eagerness to quench our thirst we have to drink of another fountain whose water is muddy and noisome, we must needs, replete with bitter-sweet pleasure, lead the life which is not worth living, pursuing the harmful as though it were profitable in our ignorance of our own interest.
ב׳
2[151] And the stream of these evils becomes most grievous when the unreasoning forces of the soul attack and overpower the forces of reason.
ג׳
3[152] Whilst the herd obeys its herdsman, or the flocks of sheep or goats obey the shepherd or goatherd, all goes well with them; but, when the controlling herdsmen prove weaker than their charges, everything goes awry. Arrangement gives way to disarrangement, order to disorder, steadiness to disturbance, organization to confusion, since the lawful control no longer subsists. For if it ever existed it is now destroyed.
ד׳
4[153] What follows? Must we not believe that, since the troop of unreason has made the soul its province, we have within ourselves a herd of brute cattle and a herdsman too, the ruling mind? But while the mind is strong and capable of playing the herdsman, all things are managed with justice and profit;
ה׳
5[154] but when weakness befalls the king, the subject element must suffer also, and it is just when the victim thinks he is most at liberty that he becomes the easiest of prizes, which whoso would win needs but little preparation for the contest. For it is the nature of anarchy to plot mischief and of government to bring salvation, and chiefly so where law and justice are honoured, and that means government based on reason.