40. What shall I say of her sobriety?
Temperance, indeed, is the virtue of women. When the men were
intoxicated with wine and buried in sleep, the widow took the sword,
put forth her hand, cut off the warrior’s head, and passed
unharmed through the midst of the ranks of the enemy. You notice,
then, how much drunkenness can injure a woman, seeing that wine so
weakens men that they are overcome by women. Let a widow, then,
be temperate, pure in the first place from wine, that she may be pure
from adultery. He will tempt you in vain, if wine tempts you
not. For if Judith had drunk she would have slept with the
adulterer. But because she drank not, the sobriety of one without
difficulty was able both to overcome and to escape from a drunken
army.