Prudence

161. Give heed to reason, that you may perform that which it dictates to you in the way of God : and it will serve you more than all good works heedlessly done, and all the spiritual sweetness you aim at.

162. Blessed is he who, setting his own tastes and inclinations aside, looks at things according to reason and justice, in order to accomplish them.

163. He who acts according to reason is as one who eats strong and substantial food ; but he who in his works seeks the satisfaction of his own will, is as one who eats poor and unripe fruit.

164. No creature may transgress the limits which God has set for it in the order of its nature : and as He has appointed for man's governance certain natural and rational laws, the transgression thereof, by seeking knowledge in a supernatural way, is neither holy nor becoming : moreover, God is displeased ; and if at any time He vouchsafes an answer, it is out of condescension to the soul's weakness.

165. Man knows not how to order his joy and grief reasonably and prudently, because he knows not the distance between good and evil.

166. We know not how to distinguish between our right hand and our left : for at every step we take evil for good and good for evil, and if this be as it were natural to us, what must it be if desire be added to our natural blindness.

167. The desire, as desire, is blind, because in itself it regards not reason, which is that which ever guides and directs the soul aright in its operations : so the soul, whenever it is guided by its desires, is blind.