Kitap 2
9
Take care, then, to do nothing like a wild beast; otherwise you have destroyed the man; you have not fulfilled what your nature promises. Take care too, to do nothing like cattle; for thus likewise the man is destroyed.
9
In what do we act like cattle?
9
When we act gluttonously, lewdly, rashly, sordidly, inconsiderately, into what are we sunk? Into cattle. What have we destroyed? The rational being.
9
When we behave contentiously, injuriously, passionately, and violently, into what have we sunk? Into wild beasts.
9
And further, some of us are wild beasts of a larger size; others little mischievous vermin, such as suggest the proverb, Let me rather be eaten by a lion.
9
By all these means, that is destroyed which the nature of man implies.
9
For when is a conjunctive proposition sustained? When it fulfils what its nature implies. So then the sustaining of such a proposition consists in this, that its several parts remain a series of truths.
9
When is a disjunctive proposition sustained? When it fulfils what its nature implies.
9
When is a flute, a harp, a horse, or a dog, preserved in existence? While each fulfils what its nature implies.
