On Reason & Passion | |
And the priestess spoke again and said: | |
"Speak to us of Reason and Passion." | |
And he answered saying: | |
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite. | |
Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody. | |
But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements? | |
Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. | |
If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. | |
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction. | |
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing; | |
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes. | |
I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house. | |
Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both. | |
Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows - then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason." | |
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, - then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion." | |
And since you are a breath In God's sphere, and a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion. |