Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/33

Rh from intemperance, in pleasure and lusts, if that faculty of the mind whereby we judge, and that whereby we covet and desire were all one and the same; but now, temperance is, when reason is able to manage, handle and govern the sensual and passionate part (as if it were a beast brought up by hand and made tame and gentle, so as it will be ready to obey it in all desires and lusts, yea, and willing to receive the bit), whereas continency is when reason doth rule and command concupiscence as being the stronger, and leadeth it, but not without some pains and trouble thereof, for that it is not willing to shew obedience, but striveth, flingeth out sidelong, and goeth crossed, insomuch as it hath enough to do for to master it with stripes of the cudgel, and with hard bits of the bridle to hold it in and restrain it, whiles it resisteth all that ever it may, and putteth reason to much agony, trouble and travail: which Plato doth lively represent unto us by a proper similitude, saying that there be two draught beasts which draw the chariot of our souls, whereof the worst doth both wince and strive against the other fellow in the same yoke, and also troubleth the coachman or charioteer, who hath the conduct of them; putting him to his shifts that he is fain always to pull in and hold his head hard, otherwhiles glad to let him slack and give him the head for fear, as Simonides saith:

Lest that his purple reins full soon Out of his hands should slip anon.

Thus you see what the reason is, why they do not vouchsafe continency the name of a perfect virtue in itself, but think it to be less than virtue. For there is not in it a certain mediocrity arising from the symphony and accord of the worse with the better: neither is the excess of passion cut away, nor yet doth the appetite yield itself obedient and agreeable to reason: but doth trouble and vex, and is troubled and vexed reciprocally, being kept down perforce and by constraint; like as in a seditious state, both parties at discord, intending mischief and war one against another, dwell together within the precinct of one wall: insomuch as the soul of a continent person for the fight and variance between reason and appetite, may aptly be compared, as Sophocles saith, unto a city.

Which at one time is full of incense sweet, Resounding mirth with loud triumphant song. And yet the same doth yield in every street All signs of grief, with plaints and groans among.

And hereupon it is also that they hold incontinency to be