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Those who wonder how it is that this part is irrational, yet subservient to reason, do not seem to me to reflect thoroughly upon the power of reason, How great it is, how far it penetrates,Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 2, p. 648, Euripides, Frag. 898. through its mastery and guidance, not by harsh and inflexible methods, but by flexible ones, which have a quality of yielding and submitting to the rein which is more effective than any possible constraint or violence. For, to be sure, even our breathing, our sinews and bones, and the other parts of the body, though they are irrational, yet when an impulse comes, with reason shaking the reins, as it were, they all grow taut and are drawn together in ready obedience. So, when a man purposes to run, his feet are keyed for action; if he purposes to throw or to grasp, his hands fall to their business. And most excellently does the PoetHomer, Od., xix. 208-212; cf.Moralia, 475 a, 506 a=b, and De Vita et Poesi Homeri, 135 (Bernardakis, vol. vii. p. 409). portray in the following words the sympathy and conformity of the irrational with reason: Thus were her fair cheeks wet with tears, as she Wept for her lord, though he sat by. In heart Odysseus pitied his lamenting wife, But kept his eyes firm-fixed within their lids Like horn or iron: with guile he hid his tears. Under such subjection to his judgement did he keep his breathing and his blood and his tears.
