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.