על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר ב כ׳On the Special Laws, Book II 20
א׳
1[96] Foolish, foolish people, I would say to them, have you not first learnt the lesson which you teach, or are you competent to induce others to shew pity, even with the cruellest actions before them, when you have exscinded all kindly and humane feelings from your own souls? And this you have done, though you had no lack of good advisers, particularly in our laws, which have relieved even the land from its yearly tolls and provided it with a rest and respite.
ב׳
2[97] This land, though to all appearance a lifeless thing, is put into a condition to make its requital and to repay a boon which it received as a free gift but is now eager to return. For the immunity which it has during the seventh year and its rest from labour and complete freedom during the whole annual cycle give it a fertility in the next year which causes it to bear twice as much or even many times as much as in the previous years.
ג׳
3[98] We may also note that the trainers of athletes take much the same line in dealing with their pupils. When they have thoroughly drilled them by an unbroken course of exercises, before they reach the point of exhaustion, they give them a fresh lease of life by providing relaxations, not only from the labour of the training itself but from the dietary regulations as to food and drink, the hardships of which they abate in order to make the soul cheerful and the body comfortable.
ד׳
4[99] And we must not suppose that here we have the professional trainers to hard work appearing as instructors in slackness and luxury; they are following a scientific method by which further strength and power is given to what is already strong and powerful, and vigour enhanced as though it were a harmony by alternating relaxation with tension.
ה׳
5[100] This truth I have learnt from the never-failing wisdom of nature who, knowing how toil-worn and weary our race becomes, divided our time into day and night, giving the hours of wakefulness to one and of sleep to the other.
ו׳
6[101] For, most careful of mothers, her anxious thought was that her children should not be exhausted. In the daylight she wakens our bodies and stimulates them to carry out all the offices and demands of life, and reproaches those who are making it their practice to loiter through life in an idle and voluptuous way. But at night she sounds the recall as in war and summons them to repose and take care of their bodies.
ז׳
7[102] And men casting off all the sore burden of affairs which has lain heavy upon them from morn till eve, turn homewards and betake themselves to rest, and in the deep sleep which falls upon them cast off the distempers of their daylight troubles, and then again unwearied and full of fresh vigour hasten eagerly each to his own familiar occupation.
ח׳
8[103] This double course nature has assigned to men by means of sleeping and waking with the result that by alternating activity with inaction they have increased readiness and nimbleness in the various parts of their bodies.