על החלומות, ספר ב כ״דOn Dreams, Book II 24
א׳
1[164] But we should not fail to understand that a strong drink produced by the vine does not affect all who take it in the same way; often it acts in opposite ways so that some may be reckoned as bettered by it and others worsened.
ב׳
2[165] With some it relaxes pensiveness and gloom, lightens the stress of cares, softens wrath and fears, tutors the temperament to reasonableness and makes the soul contented with itself. With others it lubricates anger, screws up grief, excites amorousness and rouses discourtesy. It unlocks the mouth and unbridles the tongue, unbars the senses, maddens the passions, and makes the mind savage and wild and flustered with everything it meets.
ג׳
3[166] Thus the condition in the former case seems to resemble still cloudless weather in the air, or unruffled calm in the sea, or undisturbed peace and tranquillity in the city; while that of the latter resembles a fierce violent blast, a stormy billowy sea or civil faction, the turmoil of which is more hateful than even uncivilized warfare.
ד׳
4[167] Thus in one of two convivial gatherings we may find nothing but laughter and sport, guests promising, expecting and conferring kindnesses, pleasant feelings and pleasant talk, cheerful faces, glad hearts and freedom from restraint;
ה׳
5[168] in the other nothing but anxiety, depression, quarrellings, revilings, woundings, while the guests snort, scowl and bark, and fight it out with neck-grips, wrestling and fisticuffs, gnawing off ears and noses or any limbs or parts of the body that come handy, and thus exhibiting their life-long inebriation and tipsiness with every kind of misconduct in this far from sacred contest.