The last of the four earthly or cardinal virtues is that of Temperance, which we will consider this week.   According to Thomas Aquinas, “Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.”  An old fable may help to illustrate:

“A slam, thin-gutted fox made a hard shift to wriggle his body into a hen-roost, and when he had stuff’d his guts well, he squeez’d hard to get out again; but the hole was too little for him. There was a weazle a pretty way off, that stood fearing at him all this while. “Brother Reynard,” says he, ‘Your belly was empty when you went in, and you must e’en stay till your belly be empty again before you come out.’”

The moral of this fable is recorded as follows:

Temperance keeps the whole man in order, and in a good disposition, either for thought or action, but the indulging of the appetite brings a clog, both upon the body and mind.

It may be tempting to think of the Fox as intemperate, only because he ate so much.  And, so he was.  But that is merely the evidence of his intemperance.  The Fox was intemperate, first of all, when in determining his course, he let his stomach rather than his mind choose his actions.  From that, everything else followed.  First his appetite clogged his thinking; then it clogged his escape. 

Few of us are at risk of eating so much chicken that we can’t get out the door.  But do you have a ravenous appetite for something else—not just food—that clogs your thinking?  Just remember: Temperance starts with your mind; and it “keeps the whole man in order.”

Have a wonderful day.