BE not a Hercules furens abroad, and a Poltron within thy self. To chase other Enemies out of the Field, & be led captive by our Vices; to beat down our Foes, and fall down to other Concupiscences; are Solecisms in Moral Schools, and no Laurel attends them. To well manage our Affections, and wild Horses of Plato, are the highest Circenses; and the noblest Digladiation is in the Theater of our selves: for therein our inward Antagonists, not only like common Gladiators, with ordinary Weapons and down right Blows make at us, but also like Retiary and Laqueary Combatants, with Nets, Frauds, and Entanglements fall upon us. Weapons for such combats are not to be forged at Lipara:
Vulcan's Art doth nothing in this internal Militia: wherein not the Armour of Achilles, but the Armature of St. Paul, gives the Glorious day, and Triumphs not Leading up into Capitols, but up into the highest Heavens.
And therefore while so many think it the only valour to command & master others, study thou the Dominion of thy self, & quiet thine own Commotions.
Let Right Reason be thy Lycurgus, and lift up thy hand unto the Law of it; move by the Intelligences of the superiour Faculties, not by the Rapt of Passion, nor merely by that of Temper and Constitution. They who are merely carried on by the Wheel of such Inclinations, without the Hand and Guidance of Sovereign Reason, are but the Automatous part of mankind, rather lived than living, or at least underliving themselves.
