על שהרע נוהג לארוב לטוב מ״זThat the Worse is wont to Attack the Better 47
א׳
1[171] And this that the lawgiver prescribed is an unfailing characteristic of all wise men: they have sight purged and cleansed, hearing and every sense severely tested; yes, and they have utterance unsullied, and the impulses of sex under control.
ב׳
2[172] Each of the seven faculties shows itself in one way as male, in another way as female; for since it is either in restraint or in motion, in restraint when at rest in sleep, in motion when now awake and active—when regarded under the aspect of restraint and inaction, it is called female owing to its having been reduced to passivity; when looked at under the aspect of movement and employment of force, being thought of as in action, it is described as male.
ג׳
3[173] Thus in the wise man the seven faculties are evidently clean, but, by the law of contraries, in the worthless man all exposed to punishment. How vast a multitude must we suppose to be betrayed every day by eyes deserting to colours and forms and things that it is wrong to look at? And by ears that go after all sounds? And by the organs of smell and taste led by pleasing odours and an endless variety of other enticements?
ד׳
4[174] Need I, then, go on to remind you of the multitude of those who have been ruined by the stream that there is no stopping, flowing from an unbridled tongue, or by the deadly stimulus to sexual sins which accompanies ungoverned lust? Our cities are full of these evils; all the earth is full of them from one end to another; and out of them springs up for mankind, both as individuals and in communities, the war that is waged in time of peace, the war that has no break or pause, and is the greatest of all wars.