The Metaphorical Definitions of Vices and Virtues

the weakness of fasting, the muzzle of asceticism, the terror of contemplation, the portrait of foods, the sketch of seasonings, a loose foal, unbridled madness, a vessel of disease, the envy of health, the dam of the pipes, the groaning of the bowels, the end of insults, the partner of fornication, the filth of the mind, the weakness of the body, burdensome sleep, a smileless death. Self-control is the bridle of the belly, the whip of insatiability, the measure of proportion, the muzzle for gluttony, the renunciation of rest, the compact of hardship, the tamer of thoughts, the eye of wakefulness, the quenching of burning, the pedagogue of the body, the tower of labors, the wall of ways, the restraint of character, the checking of passions, the mortification of the limbs, the revival of souls, the imitation of the resurrection, the commonwealth of sanctification.

Fornication is the offspring of gluttony, the softener of the heart, the furnace of burning, the bridesman of idols, an unrelated deed, a shadowed form, an imagined embrace, a bed of dreams, an insensible intercourse, the deceit of the eyes, the shamelessness of the gaze, the disgrace of prayer, the shame of the heart, the guide of ignorance. Temperance is the robe of truth, the axe of licentiousness, the charioteer of the eyes, the overseer of thoughts, the circumcision of intention, the excision of licentiousness, the counter-plant of nature, the opponent of burning, the tiller of works, the fellow-worker of self-control, the lamp of the heart, the touchstone of prayer.

Chapter 3. Love of money is the poorhouse of idols, the prophecy of the crowd, the vote of the Sphinx, the reckoning of depositors, the wealth of captivity, the offspring of injustice, the fatness of diseases, the prophet of many years, the chant of industry, the counselor of wakefulness, the poverty of the belly, the cheapness of foods, insatiable madness, anxious vice. Non-possession is