XVI. (72) Therefore now, leaving the consideration of these neighing animals, and of the parties carried by them, investigate, if you will, the condition of your own soul. For in its several parts you will find both horses and a rider in the fashion of a charioteer, just as you do in external things. (73) Now, the horses are appetite and passion, the one being male and the other female. On this account, the one giving itself airs, wishes to be unrestrained and free, and holds its head erect, as a male animal naturally does; and the other, not being free, but of a slavish disposition, and rejoicing in all kinds of crafty wickedness, devours the house, and destroys the house, for she is female. And the rider and charioteer is one, namely the mind. When, indeed, the mounts with prudence, he is a charioteer; but when he does so with folly, then he is but a rider. (74) For a fool, through ignorance, is unable to keep hold of the reins; but they, falling from his hands, drop on the ground. And the animals, immediately that they have got the better of the reins, run on in an ill-regulated and unrestrained course. (75) But the man who has mounted behind them, not being able to take hold of anything by which he may steady himself, falls, and lacerating his knees and his hands and his face, like a miserable man as he is, he bitterly weeps over his disaster; and after hanging by his feet to the chariot after he has been overturned, he is suspended, with his face upwards, lying on his back; and as the chariot proceeds, he is dragged along, and injured in his head, and neck, and both his shoulders; and then, being hurried on in this direction and in that, and being dashed against everything which lies in the way, he endures a most pitiable death. (76) He then meets with an end, such as I have been describing; and the chariot, being lightened by his fall and bounding along violently, when, at last, it is dashed to the ground in the rebound, is easily broken to pieces, so that it can never again be joined or fastened together. And the animals, being now released from everything which could restrain them, proceed at random, and are frantic, and do not cease galloping on, till they are tripped up and fall, or till they are hurried over some high precipice, and so are dashed to pieces and destroyed.
XVII. (77) In this manner, then, it seems that the whole chariot of the soul is destroyed, with its passengers; and all through the carelessness or unskilfulness of the driver. But it is desirable for them that such horses, and such drivers, and riders, so wholly without skill, should be destroyed, in order that the faculties of virtue may be roused; for when folly has fallen, it follows of necessity that wisdom must rise up. (78) On this account Moses, in his passages of exhortation, says, “If thou goest forth to battle against thy enemies, and if thou seest numbers of horses, and riders, and people, be not afraid, because the Lord thy God is with Thee.”{10}{#de 20:1.} For we must neglect anger and desire, and, in short, all the passions, and indeed the whole company of reasonings, which are mounted upon each of the passions as upon horses, even if they believe that they can exert irresistible strength; at least, all those must do so who have the power of the great King holding a shield over them, and in every place, and at every time, fighting in their defence. (79) But the divine army is the body of virtues, the champions of the souls that love God, whom it becomes, when they see the adversary defeated, to sing a most beautiful and becoming hymn to the God who giveth the victory and the glorious triumph; and two choruses, the one proceeding from the conclave of the men, and the other from the company of the women, will stand up and sing in alternate songs a melody responsive to one another’s voices. (80) And the chorus of men will have Moses for their leader; and that of the women will be under the guidance of Miriam, “the purified outward Sense.”{11}{#ex 15:20.} For it is just that hymns and praises should be uttered in honour of God without any delay, both in accordance with the suggestions of the intellect and the perceptions of the outward senses, and that each instrument should be struck in harmony, I mean those both of the mind and of the outward sense, in gratitude and honour to the holy Saviour. (81) Accordingly, all the men sing the song on the sea-shore, not indeed with a blind mind, but seeing sharply, Moses being the leader of the song; and women sing, who are in good truth the most excellent of their sex, having been enrolled in the lists of the republic of virtue, Miriam being their leader.
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