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it makes him cowardly, the temperate man licentious; it knows not justice, it destroys prudence. For just as water is an enemy to fire, so the immoderation of wine extinguishes reason. For this reason I was hesitant to say anything against drunkenness, not as though it were some small evil or worthy of being overlooked, but as though the argument offered no benefit. For if the drunkard is out of his mind and is in darkness, he who rebukes him harps in vain to one who does not listen. To whom then shall we speak? since the one who needs the exhortation does not hear what is said; but the one who is temperate and sober does not need the help of discourse, being pure of the passion. What use then shall I make of the present circumstances, if discourse is useless, and silence is at a loss? Shall we overlook the care? But neglect is dangerous. But shall I utter something against drunkards? But we sound into dead ears. Perhaps then, as in the case of pestilential diseases the healers of bodies secure the healthy with preventative aids, but do not attempt to treat those who are overcome by the passion; so also for you the discourse has its use by half: showing protection to those free from passion, not deliverance and healing to those overcome by the passion. In what do you differ from the irrational, O man? Is it not by the gift of reason, which you received from your Creator, that you became ruler and lord of all creation? He therefore who has deprived himself of prudence through drunkenness, *He is compared to the mindless cattle, and is made like them.*

Indeed, I would say that those in a state of drunkenness are even more irrational than cattle; since all quadrupeds and wild beasts have ordered impulses for mating, but those whose soul is possessed by drunkenness, and have filled their body with unnatural heat, are driven at every season and every hour toward impure and shameful unions and pleasures. And not only does this produce irrationality in them, 31.449 but the perversion of their senses also shows the drunkard to be worse than any beast. For what beast sees amiss or hears amiss like the drunkard? Do they not fail to recognize their own kin, but often run up to strangers as to their acquaintances? Do they not often leap over shadows as if they were ditches or ravines? Their ears are filled with echoes and noises, as if from a surging sea; the earth seems to rise up vertically, and the mountains to run around in a circle. These men at one time laugh without stopping, at another time they are in pain and weep inconsolably. And now they are bold and fearless, now terrified and cowardly. For them, sleep is heavy and hard to throw off and suffocating, and in reality a neighbor to death, but their waking hours are more insensible than their sleep. For life is a dream to them, who, having no cloak, nor anything to eat for the morrow, rule as kings and command armies in their drunkenness, and build cities, and distribute money. Wine, boiling over, fills their hearts with such fantasies and so much deceit. But others are led into the opposite passions. They are despairing, and dejected, and mournful, and tearful, and afraid of noise, and easily startled. The same wine, in different bodily constitutions, produces different passions in souls. For those in whom it causes a diffusion of blood and a flush to the surface, it makes them cheerful and pleasant and beaming; but those whose constitution it weighs down by its heaviness, constricting and suppressing their blood, it leads them to the opposite disposition. And what need is there to speak of the crowd of the remaining passions? The difficulties of character? The irritability? The fault-finding? The quick temper of the soul? The shouting? The uproar? The being easily led into every deceit? The unreservedness towards anger? But incontinence towards pleasures is borne directly as if from a fountain of wine, and the disease of licentiousness falls in with the intemperate, making every madness of beasts for the female second to that of

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δειλὸν ἀποδείκνυσι, τὸν σώφρονα ἀσελγῆ· δικαιοσύνην οὐκ οἶδε, φρόνησιν ἀναιρεῖ. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ὕδωρ πολέμιόν ἐστι πυρὶ, οὕ τως ἀμετρία οἴνου λογισμὸν κατασβέννυσι. ∆ιό περ ὤκνουν τι λέγειν κατὰ μέθης, οὐχ ὡς περὶ μι κροῦ τινος κακοῦ ἢ παροφθῆναι ἀξίου, ἀλλ' ὡς οὐδὲν ὄφελος παρεχομένου τοῦ λόγου. Εἰ γὰρ ὁ μεθύων παραφρονεῖ καὶ ἐσκότωται, εἰκῆ ῥαψῳδεῖ ὁ ἐπιπλήτ των τῷ μὴ ἀκούοντι. Τίσιν οὖν διαλεχθῶμεν; εἴπερ ὁ μὲν χρῄζων τῆς παραινέσεως οὐκ ἀκούει τῶν λεγο μένων· ὁ δὲ σωφρονῶν καὶ νήφων οὐ δεῖται τῆς ἐκ τοῦ λόγου βοηθείας, καθαρεύων τοῦ πάθους. Τί οὖν χρήσομαι τοῖς παροῦσιν, εἰ καὶ ὁ λόγος ἄχρη στος, καὶ ἡ σιωπὴ ἄπορος; Παρίδωμεν τὴν ἐπιμέ λειαν; Ἀλλ' ἐπικίνδυνος ἡ ἀμέλεια. Ἀλλὰ φθέγξομαί τι κατὰ τῶν μεθυόντων; Ἀλλ' εἰς νεκρὰς ἀκοὰς ἐνηχοῦμεν. Μήποτε οὖν, ὡς ἐπὶ τῶν λοιμικῶν νοση μάτων οἱ τῶν σωμάτων θεραπευταὶ τοὺς μὲν ὑγιαί νοντας τοῖς προφυλακτικοῖς βοηθήμασιν ἀσφαλίζον ται, τοῖς δὲ κεκρατημένοις ὑπὸ τοῦ πάθους οὐκ ἐγχειροῦσιν· οὕτω καὶ ὑμῖν ἐξ ἡμισείας ἔχει ὁ λόγος τὸ χρήσιμον· φυλακὴν ὑποδεικνὺς τοῖς ἀπα θέσιν, οὐκ ἀπαλλαγὴν καὶ ἴασιν τοῖς ὑπὸ τοῦ πάθους κεκρατημένοις. Τίνι διενήνοχας τῶν ἀλόγων, ὦ ἄνθρωπε; Οὐ τῇ δωρεᾷ τοῦ λόγου, ἣν λαβὼν παρὰ τοῦ κτίσαντός σε, ἄρχων καὶ κύριος ἐγένου πάσης τῆς κτίσεως; Ὁ τοίνυν ἀφελόμενος ἑαυτοῦ τὴν φρόνησιν διὰ τῆς μέ θης, Παρασυνεβλήθη τοῖς κτήνεσι τοῖς ἀνοήτοις, καὶ ὡμοιώθη αὐτοῖς.

Μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ τῶν βοσκημά των φαίην ἂν ἔγωγε ἀλογωτέρους εἶναι τοὺς ἐν τῇ μέθῃ· εἴπερ τὰ μὲν τετράποδα πάντα καὶ τὰ θηρία τεταγμένας ἔχει τὰς πρὸς τὴν μίξιν ὁρμὰς, οἱ δὲ ὑπὸ τῆς μέθης τὴν ψυχὴν κατεχόμενοι, καὶ τὸ σῶμα τῆς παρὰ φύσιν θερμότητος ἀναπλήσαντες, πάντα καιρὸν καὶ πᾶσαν ὥραν πρὸς τὰς ἀκαθάρτους καὶ ἀσχήμονας συμπλοκὰς καὶ ἡδονὰς συνελαύνον ται. Καὶ οὐ τοῦτο μόνον τὴν ἀλογίαν αὐτοῖς ἐμποιεῖ, 31.449 ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ τῶν αἰσθήσεων παρατροπὴ χείρονα παν τὸς κτήνους ἀποδείκνυσι τὸν μεθύοντα. Ποῖον γὰρ βόσκημα οὕτω παραβλέπει καὶ οὕτω παρακούει ὡς ὁ μεθύων; Οὐκ ἀγνοοῦσι μὲν τοὺς οἰκειοτάτους, προστρέχουσι δὲ πολλάκις τοῖς ἀλλοτρίοις ὡς τοῖς συνήθεσιν; Οὐ τὰς σκιὰς διαπηδῶσι πολλάκις ὡς ὀχετοὺς ἢ φάραγγας; Ἤχων δὲ αὐτοῖς καὶ ψό φων, οἱονεὶ θαλάσσης κυμαινούσης, τὰ ὦτα πεπλή ρωται· ἡ δὲ γῆ πρὸς τὸ ὄρθιον διανίστασθαι δοκεῖ, καὶ τὰ ὄρη περιτρέχειν ἐν κύκλῳ. Οὗτοι ποτὲ μὲν γελῶσιν ἄπαυστα, ποτὲ δὲ ὀδυνῶνται καὶ κλαίουσιν ἀπαρηγόρητα. Καὶ νῦν μὲν θρασεῖς εἰσι καὶ ἀπτόη τοι, νῦν δὲ κατάφοβοι καὶ δειλοί. Τούτοις ὕπνοι μὲν βαρεῖς καὶ δυσανάφοροι καὶ πνιγώδεις, καὶ τῷ ὄντι θανάτου γείτονες, αἱ δὲ γρηγορήσεις τῶν ὕπνων ἀναισθητότεραι. Ἐνύπνιον γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐστιν ὁ βίος, οἵ γε, ἱμάτιον οὐκ ἔχοντες, οὐδὲ τί φάγωσιν εἰς τὴν αὔριον, βασιλεύουσι καὶ στρατοπέδων ἄρχου σιν ἐν τῇ μέθῃ, καὶ πόλεις οἰκοδομοῦσι, καὶ χρή ματα διανέμουσι. Τοιούτων φαντασιῶν καὶ ἀπάτης τοσαύτης περιζέων ὁ οἶνος τὰς καρδίας αὐτῶν πλη ροῖ. Ἕτεροι δὲ εἰς τὰ ἐναντία περιάγονται πάθη. ∆υσέλπιδές εἰσι, καὶ κατηφεῖς, καὶ ὀδυνηροὶ, καὶ δακρυώδεις, καὶ ψοφοδεεῖς, καὶ εὐπτόητοι. Ὁ αὐτὸς οἶνος ἐν διαφόροις σωμάτων ἕξεσι διάφορα τὰ πάθη ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἐργαζόμενος. Οἷς μὲν γὰρ ἂν διάχυσιν τοῦ αἵματος ἐμποιήσας πρὸς τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν ἐξαν θήσῃ, φαιδροὺς καὶ ἡδεῖς καὶ γεγανωμένους αὐτοὺς ἀποδείκνυσιν· ὧν δ' ἂν ὑπὸ τοῦ βάρους καταπιλήσῃ τὴν ἕξιν, συστέλλων αὐτῶν καὶ καταπιέζων τὸ αἷμα, πρὸς τὴν ἐναντίαν αὐτοὺς περιάγει διάθεσιν. Καὶ τί δεῖ λέγειν τῶν λοιπῶν παθῶν τὸν ὄχλον; τὰς δυσκο λίας τοῦ ἤθους; τὸ εὐπαρόξυντον; τὸ μεμψίμοιρον; τὸ ὀξύῤῥοπον τῆς ψυχῆς; τὴν κραυγήν; τὸν θόρυβον; τὸ πρὸς πᾶσαν ἀπάτην εὐπαράγωγον; τὸ πρὸς τὰς ὀργὰς ἀταμίευτον; Ἡ δὲ πρὸς τὰς ἡδονὰς ἀκρασία ἄντικρυς ὥσπερ ἐκ πηγῆς τοῦ οἴνου φέρεται, καὶ συνεισπίπτει τῷ ἀκράτῳ τῆς ἀσελγείας ἡ νόσος, πᾶσαν βοσκημάτων μανίαν ἐπὶ τὸ θῆλυ δευτέραν τῆς τῶν