And the priestess spoke again and said:
Speak to us of Reason and Passion.
And he answered, saying:
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon
which your reason and your judgment wage
war against your passion and your appetite.
Would that I could be your peacemaker
in your soul, that I might turn the discord
and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.
But how shall I, unless you yourselves be
also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?
Your reason and your passion are the rudder
and the sails of your seafaring soul.
If either your sails or your rudder be broken,
you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill
in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining;
and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns
to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion,
that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason,
that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection,
and like the phoenix rise above it own ashes.
I would have you consider your own judgement
and your appetite even as you would two
loved guests in your house.
Surely you wouldn’t honor one guest above the other;
for he who is more mindful of one loses
the love and the faith of both.
Among the hills, when you sit in the cool
shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace
and serenity of distant fields and meadows
then let your heart say in silence,
"God rests in reason".
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind
shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning
proclaim the majesty of the sky, then let your heart
say in awe, "God moves in passion."
And since you are a breath in God’s sphere,
and a leaf in God’s forest, you too
should rest in reason and move in passion.
–Gibran Khalil Gibran, The Prophet, on Reason and Passion
