Strong's G3806 πάθος (pathos)

My harp also has been turned into mourning, And my song into my weeping.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

As I am going to demonstrate a most philosophical proposition, namely, that religious reasoning is absolute master of the passions, I would willingly advise you to give the utmost heed to philosophy.

If, then, reasoning appears to hold the mastery over the passions which stand in the way of temperance, such as gluttony and lust,

it surely also and manifestly has the rule over the affections which are contrary to justice, such as malice; and of those which are hindrances to manliness, as wrath, and pain, and fear.

How, then, is it, perhaps some may say, that reasoning, if it rule the affections, is not also master of forgetfulness and ignorance? They attempt a ridiculous argument.

For reasoning does not rule over its own affections, but over such as are contrary to justice, and manliness, and temperance, and prudence; and yet over these, so as to withstand, without destroying them.

I might prove to you, from many other considerations, that religious reasoning is sole master of the passions;

For all these, contemning pains even unto death, by this contempt, demonstrated that reasoning has command over the passions.

The question, therefore, is, whether reasoning be absolute master of the passions.

Let us determine, then, What is reasoning? and what passion? and how many forms of the passions? and whether reasoning bears sway over all of these?

The leading one of these is prudence; by whose means, indeed, it is that reasoning bears rule over the passions.

Of the passions, pleasure and pain are the two most comprehensive; and they also by nature refer to the soul.

And there are many attendant affections surrounding pleasure and pain.

Wrath is an affection, common to pleasure and to pain, if anyone will pay attention when it comes upon him.

And there exists in pleasure a malicious disposition, which is the most multiform of all the affections.

And reasoning, the universal husbandman, purging, and pruning these severally, and binding round, and watering, and transplanting, in every way improves the materials of the morals and affections.

For reasoning is the leader of the virtues, but it is the sole ruler of the passions. Observe then first, through the very things which stand in the way of temperance, that reasoning is absolute ruler of the passions.

For the affections of our appetites are resisted by the temperate understanding, and bent back again, and all the impulses of the body are reined in by reasoning.

For, although young, and ripe for sexual intercourse, he abrogated by reasoning the stimulus of his passions.

Now, then, since it is the law which has forbidden us to desire, I shall much the more easily persuade you, that reasoning is able to govern our lusts, just as it does the affections which are impediments to justice.

Since in what way is a solitary eater, and a glutton, and a drunkard reclaimed, unless it be clear that reasoning is lord of the passions?

And should a man be parsimonious, he is ruled by the law acting through reasoning; so that he does not glean his harvest crops, nor vintage: and in reference to other points we may perceive that it is reasoning that conquers his passions.

And reasoning appears to be master of the more violent passions, as love of empire and empty boasting, and arrogance, and loud boasting, and slander.

For the temperate understanding repels all these malignant passions, as it does wrath: for it masters even this.

For the temperate mind is able, as I said, to be superior to the passions, and to transfer some, and destroy others.

For at the time when God created man, He implanted within him his passions and moral nature.

How, then, a man may say, if reasoning be master of the passions, has it no control over forgetfulness and ignorance?

The argument is exceedingly ridiculous: for reasoning does not appear to bear sway over its own affections, but over those of the body,

For reasoning is not an eradicator, but an antagonist of the passions.

For the temperate mind has power to conquer the pressure of the passions, and to quench the fires of excitement,

and to wrestle down the pains of the body, however excessive; and, through the excellency of reasoning, to abominate all the assaults of the passions.

Confessedly, therefore, religious reasoning is master of the passions.

For had the passions been superior to reasoning, I would have given them the witness of this mastery.

But now, since reasoning conquered the passions, we befittingly award it the authority of first place.

The reasoning of our father Eleazar, like a first-rate pilot, steering the vessel of piety in the sea of passions,

For father Eleazar, projecting his disposition, broke the raging waves of the passions as with a jutting promontory.

Of such a character ought those to be who perform the duties of the law at the risk of their own blood, and defend it with generous sweat by sufferings even unto death.

O aged man of more power than tortures, elder more vigorous than fire, greatest king over the passions, Eleazar!

If, then, an old man, through religion, despised tortures even unto death, confessedly religious reasoning is ruler of the passions.

But perhaps some might say, It is not all who conquer passions, as all do not possess wise reasoning.

But they who have meditated upon religion with their whole heart, these alone can master the passions of the flesh:

and knowing that it is a blessed thing to endure all kinds of hardships for virtue, would not, for the sake of religion, master his passion?

For the wise and brave man only is lord over his passions.

If then, the seven brethren despised troubles even unto death, it is confessed on all sides that righteous reasoning is absolute master over the passions.

For just as if, had they as slaves to the passions eaten of the unholy, we should have said that they had been conquered by them;

now it is not so: but by means of the reasoning which is praised by God, they mastered their passions.

And it is impossible to overlook the leadership of reflection: for it gained the victory over both passions and troubles.

so that seven-towered right reasoning of the young men, securing the harbor of religion, conquered the intemperance of passions.

And more than this, they even urged them on to this ill-treatment; so that they not only despised pains themselves, but they even got the better of their affections of brotherly love.

O reasoning of the sons, lord over the passions, and religion more desirable to a mother than progeny!

O in what way can I describe ethically the affections of parents toward their children, the resemblance of soul and of form engrafted into the small type of a child in a wonderful manner, especially through the greater sympathy of mothers with the feelings of those born of them!

O holy nature and parental feeling, and reward of bringing up children, and unconquerable maternal affection!

But religious reasoning, having strengthened her courage in the midst of sufferings, enabled her to forego, for the time, parental love.

so thou, the guardian of the law, when surrounded on every side by the flood of passions, and straitened by violent storms which were the torments of thy children, didst bear up nobly against the storms against religion.

If, then, even a woman, and that an aged one, and the mother of seven children, endured to see her children’s torments even unto death, confessedly religious reasoning is master even of the passions.

I have proved, then, that not only men have obtained the mastery of their passions, but also that a woman despised the greatest torments.

But with the reasoning of religion the mother quenched passions so great and powerful.

Knowing that religious reasoning is lord of the passions, and those not only inward but outward.