על השיכרות מ״אOn Drunkenness 41
א׳
1And so we read, “They gave their father wine to drink” (Gen. 19:33).
ב׳
2Now this is complete insensibility, that the mind should think itself competent to deliberate by itself on what is to its interests, or to assent to presentations of any kind as though they were a vehicle of solid truth, for human nature is ever quite unable, either by circumspection to discover certainty, or to choose some things as true and profitable, and to reject others as false and injurious.
ג׳
3[167] For the vastness of the darkness which overspreads the world of bodies and affairs forbids us to see the nature of each; and though curiosity or love of learning may give us the wish to force our way and peer through the curtain, we shall like blind men stumble over the obstacles before us, lose our footing and miss our object, or if our hands do lay hold of it, we are but guessing at uncertainties and it is not truth but conjecture that is in our grasp.
ד׳
4[168] For even if instruction, torch in hand, should go before the mind, shedding her own particular light to give it sight of realities, it would do more harm than good. For its little beam is bound to be extinguished by the vast darkness, and when it is extinguished all power of sight is useless.
ה׳
5[169] He who prides himself on his judgement in deliberation, or flatters himself that he is competent to choose this and shun that, should be brought to a recollection of the truth by the following thoughts. If it were always the case that the same objects produced the same impressions on the mind without any variation, it would perhaps be necessary that the two instruments of judgement which nature has established in us, sense and mind, should be held in high esteem as veracious and incorruptible, and that we should not suspend our judgement on any point through doubt but accept a single presentation of two different objects, and on the faith of this choose one and reject the other.
ו׳
6[170] But since we prove to be differently affected by them at different times, we can say nothing with certainty about anything, because the picture presented to us is not constant, but subject to changes manifold and multiform.