Chapter I.
To the discipline of virtues and the necessary restraint of passions, it is necessary to have prudent speech and a mind focused on reason; and although reason cannot completely eliminate desire, it can still moderate even the strongest impulses.
1. Necessary for good discipline is a speech filled with wisdom and prudence; and the mind, focused on reason, precedes virtues and restrains passions. For virtue is teachable. Indeed, it is acquired through study and learning, and it is lost through dissimulation. Otherwise, if a necessary good speech were not for correction, the Law would never say: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' (Exod. XX, 14). But because naked speech is useful for warning, it is weak for persuading, therefore the consideration of right reason must be applied; so that what a good speech prescribes, reasoned discussion may fully persuade. For we are not bound to obedience by a slavish necessity, but by voluntary choice, whether we lean towards virtue or incline towards fault. And therefore either a free inclination leads us into error, or the will calls us back, following reason. However, the most serious passion of fault is concupiscence, which reason softens and suppresses. It can soften, but it cannot eradicate; because the mind, which is capable of reason, is not the master of its own passions, but their suppressor. For it is impossible for one who is easily provoked not to become angry; but it is possible for one to restrain oneself with reason, to control one's anger, and to refrain from seeking revenge; just as the Prophet teaches us, saying: Be angry, and do not sin (Psalm 4:5). He allows what is natural; he condemns what is sinful.
Therefore, all temperance derives its origin from others, not from itself, and therefore it is secondary. For it is either acquired from natural things or from useful things. Therefore, it either regulates natural things or advocates for usefulness. Ultimately, it does not suppress desire; instead, it prevents us from being slaves to desire. For who is so great that they can remove bodily movement, unless it is only he who was able to say about the unfruitful fig tree, that is, the wickedness of the Jews: Behold, three years have passed since I came seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I do not find any; cut it down then. To which the servant replied: 'Leave it for this year also, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' (Luke 13:7-9). He rightly referred the matter to the Lord, for he could not claim for himself the power to remove the temporary decline, but he reserved it for the Lord.
Finally, whom among men shall we consider better and stronger than the holy David, who could not take for himself the water he desired from the Bethlehem lake, which was cut off by the enemy army, but could he mitigate it? For we cannot find that it was lacking for others. That is, with so great a number of soldiers, when he certainly could have had much less water shortage than the king from other sources; having endured a certain irrational desire, he desired that water which was surrounded by the enemy's fortification, from which it could not easily be brought without great danger. Therefore he said, 'Who will give me a drink from the well that is in Bethlehem at the gate?' And when the three men were found who had cut through the enemy's camp and brought the water that he had desired so eagerly, knowing that the same water had been obtained at the risk of others' lives, he poured it out to the Lord, so that it would not seem that he was drinking the blood of those who had brought it. This incident shows that desire indeed comes before reason, but reason resists desire. Therefore, David underwent suffering so that he might desire irrationally. But that is praiseworthy, which he wisely thwarted with a rational remedy. While I praise men who blushed at the desire for their king and preferred to bring an end to their own modesty or the danger to their own safety, I praise him even more who blushed at his own desire and purchased the blood of a dubious fate with a worthy price, as if he poured out water to the Lord with his victorious desire restrained, so as to show that he could restrain his desire with the comforting word.
Therefore, the sober mind can restrain and suppress impressions of even the most severe emotions, and cool down the fervor of intense desires, redirecting its motions and spurning passions through the guidance of right reason. For when God created man and implanted in him customs and senses, He then imposed on his motions the kingly rule of the mind, so that all the senses and motions of man would be governed by its strength and power. He added as a favor to his creation, that he would inform their mind with divine teachings and instruct them in wisdom, by which they could recognize what should be avoided and choose what should be embraced. Therefore, the mind, holding true to the discipline of wisdom, is instructed in the Law through which it learns which passions it should subject itself to.