L. That occurs oftener than I could wish.
S. What! when you are in anger, do you suffer your mind to fall under the domination of that passion?
L. No, so help me Hercules. I rather imitate Archytas, the Tarentine; who on arriving at his country house, and being greatly offended at perceiving his orders had been disobeyed, “You are a miserable wretch,” said he to his farmer, “and I would have you flogged to death if I were not angry.” “Excellent,” said Scipio. “Archytas wished to calm his anger by reflection, considering that degree of it which was not under the control of reason, to be leading on to a sort of sedition of the mind. To it add avarice, ambition, the passion for glory, and for sensual pleasures; and it will appear that there exists in the minds of men, a sort of regal controlling power, to wit, reflection. For that is the best part of the mind, and where its authority prevails, there is no room for sensuality, for anger, or for rashness.
L. So it is.
S. Do you approve therefore of a mind so disposed?
L. There is nothing I admire more.
S. Then you really do not think, reflection being driven away; that voluptuousness or the angry passions, which are without end, should have the mastery in all things.
L. Indeed I can conceive of nothing more wretched, than such a state of mind; nor of a man more debased than when under such government.
S. You prefer then all parts of the mind, to be under some government, the government of reflection?
L. I certainly prefer it.