על השכר והעונש ח׳On Rewards and Punishments 8
א׳
1[47] So much for his chief reward. But besides all this the Practiser receives a prize with an ill-sounding name but excellent when we consider its meaning. This prize is symbolically called the “numbing of the broad part.” By the “broad part” arrogance and pride are suggested, since the soul spreads itself inordinately in the wrong direction; by “numbing,” the contraction of the conceit which lifts itself on high and puffs itself out.
ב׳
2[48] And nothing is so profitable as that the laxity and free play of the appetites should be hampered and numbed with their vitalizing forces paralysed so that the inordinate strength of the passions may be exhausted and thus provide a breadth in which the better part of the soul may expand.
ג׳
3[49] A further question for consideration is the special suitability of the reward assigned to each of the three. Faith for him who was perfected through teaching, since the learner must believe the instructions of his teacher: to educate a disbeliever is difficult or rather impossible.
ד׳
4[50] Joy for him who through the happiness of his natural endowments arrives at virtue. For good abilities and natural gifts are a matter for rejoicing. The mind exults in the facility of its apprehension and the felicity of the processes by which it discovers what it seeks without labour, as though dictated by an inward prompter. For to find the solution of difficulties quickly must bring joy.
ה׳
5[51] Vision for him who attains wisdom through practice. For after the active life of youth the contemplative life of old age is the best and most sacred—, that life which God sends to the stern like a helmsman and entrusts the rudder into its hands as well fitted to steer the course of earthly things. For without contemplation and the knowledge which it gives no activity attains excellence.
