The Works of Philo (complete)

But we hear by the number two ; for the breath being sent from the dominant part of us through the artery called the trachea, is formed in the mouth by the tongue, as by a kind of workman, and being borne outward, and mingled with its kindred air, and having struck it thus harmoniously, completes the mixture of the two • Paalm IxL 12. powers ; for that whicli sounds together by a combination of different noises is at first adapted to a divisible duad, having one sharp and one flat tone : very beautifully, therefore, did he oppose one just reason to the multitude of unjust reasons, less indeed in number, but superior in power, in order that the worse of the two might not, like a weight put in a scale, weigh down the other ; but that, by the power of the weight of the better one in the opposite scale it might have its lightness detected, and so be weakened.

But what is the meaning of the sentence, " Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord God ?" Let us now couBider this : of those who find anything, some are finding what they formerly had and have lost ; and some are discovering what they never had before, and now possess for the first time. Accordingly, those men who occupy themselves with the investigation of appropriate names, are accustomed to call the latter kind finding (sDfscr/s), and the former kind re-finding (aviv^icng).

Of the former species we have a conspicuous example afforded us in Hie injunctions given about the great vow.* Now a vow is a request for good things from God ; and the spirit of the great vow is to believe that God himself is the cause of good things from himself, without anyone else ever co-operating with him, of the things which may appear to be beneficial, neither the earth as fruitful, nor the ram as helping to promote the growth of seeds and plants, nor the air as calculated to nourish man, nor agriculture as the cause of production, nor the skill of the physician as the cause of health, nor marriage as the cause of the procreation of children : for all these things receive changes and alterations through the power of God, to such a de^^ree and in such a way as often to have effects contrary to their usual ones.

Moses, therefore says, that this man is " holy who nourishes the hair of his head ;" the meaning of which is, that he is holy who promotes the growth in the principal portion of himself of the principal shoots of the doctrines of virtue, and who in a manner prides himself and takes delight in these doctrines : but sometimes he loses them, a sort of whirlwind, as it were, suddenly darting down upon the soul, and carrying off everything that was good out of it ; and this whirlwind is an involuntary change, which pollutes the mind in a moment, which Moses calls death.f But nevertheless, when he has ON THE DNCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD. 3C1 afterwards got rid of this and become purified, he recovers and recollects again, what for a time, he had forgotten, and finds what he had lost, so that the days of his former change are not included in the computation, either because such change is a matter which cannot be reduced to calculation, inasmuch as it is inconsistent with right reason and has no partnership with prudence, or because it does not deserve to be taken into calculation; "for of such things," some ancient writer says, " there is no account nor calculation taken."*

And we have often met with such things as previously we had never seen even in a dream ; like a husbandman whom some persons say while digging a hole for the purpose of planting some fruit-bearing tree, found a treasure, meeting with good fortune which he had never hoped for. Therefore Jacob, the wrestler with God, when his father asked him the manner in which he had acquired this knowledge, saying, " How didst thou find this so quickly, my son ?" answered and said, " Because the Lord my God brought it before me."t For when God bestows on any one the treasures of his own wisdom without any toil or labour, then we, without having expected such things, suddenly perceive that we have found a treasure of perfect happiness. And it often happens to those who seek with great labour, that they miss that for which they are seeking ; while others, who are seeking without any diligence, find with great ease even things that they never thought of finding.

For those who are dull and slow in their souls, like men bereft of their eyesight, find the labour which they devote to the contemplation of objects of science useless and wasted ; while others, through the richness of their natural endowments, find out immeasurable things without any investigation at all, by the help of felicitous and well directed conjectures ; so that it would seem that they attain their objects not in consequence of any labour of their own, but because the things themselves do of their own accord come to meet them and hasten to present themselves to their view, and so give them the most accurate comprehension of them. " Alluding probably to Theocritus here, who says — 'A/i^tQ S' ovre Xoyov rivog d^ioi, oiiS^ api9/i;jrot. — xiv.17. t Genesis xxvii. 20. 36-3 PHILO JUD.EUS.

To these men the law-giver says were given, •' Great and beautiful cities, which they had not built ; houses full of good things, ^v'hich they had not filled ; cisterns cut out of the solid rock, which they had not hewn ; vineyards and olive gardens, which they had not planted.*" Now, by cities and houses, he here symbolically sketches out the generic and specific virtues ; for genus resembles a city, because it is marked out in larger circumferences, and because it is common to many individuals ; and species resembles a house, because it is more contracted and avoids community ; and cisterns prepared before-hand intimate the rewards which fall to the lot of some for their labour, while they are given spontaneously to others, being channels of heavenly and wholesome waters and well prepared treasures for the preservation of the virtues beforementioned, by means of which joy is shed over the perfect heart, irradiating it all over with the light of truth.

Again, when Moses speaks of the vineyards, he means them as an emblem of cheerfulness, and the olive gardens as a symbol of light Happy, therefore, are they who, suffering something like those persons who awoke up out of deep sleep, on a sudden, without any labour or exertion on their part, behold the world before them ; and miserable are they to whom it happens to be eagerly contentious for objects to which they are not fitted by nature, being full of a contentious spirit, which is the most grievous of diseases. For, in addition to failing in the object which they are desirous of attaining, they do further incur great disgrace with no slight injury, like ships which are attempting to make their way by sea against opposing winds ; for they, in addition to being unable to proceed in their course towards the point to which they are hastening, are very often upset with their crews and their cargoes, and so cause pain to their friends and pleasiure to their enemies.

Therefore the law says that some persons, having made a violent effort, went up to the mountain, " And the Amorites came forth who dwell on that mountain, and wounded them, as bees might have done, and pursued them from Seir even to Hormah."t For it follows of necessity that those persons who, being by nature unfitted for the comprehension of arts, if by making violent efforts they do something in them, not only fail of attaining their end, but also incur disgrace ; and those who voluntarily, but still without any deliberate consent of their mind, do something that they ought to do, putting a sort of constraint on their own voluntary principle, do not succeed, but are wounded and harassed by their own consciences. So also those who restore deposits of small value in the hope of having larger deposits entrusted to them, which they may be able to appropriate, you would call men of good faith ; and yet even when they are restoring the deposits, they put a great constraint on their natural faithlessness, by which it is to be hoped, they will be unceasingly tormented.

And do not all those who offer but a spurious kind of worship to the only wise God, putting on a profession of a rigid life like a dress on a magnificent stage, merely with the object of making a display before the assembled spectators, having imposture rather than piety in their souls, do not they, 1 say, stretch themselves on the rack as it Avere, and torment themselves, compelling even the truth itself to assume a false appearance. Therefore, they being for a brief period overshadowed with the emblems of superstition, which is the great hindrance to holiness, and a great injury to those who have it and to those who associate with it ; after that again stripping off their disguise, display their naked hypocrisy. And then like men, convicted of being aliens, they are looked upon as enemies, having entered themselves as citizens of that noblest of cities — virtue, while they have really no connection with it. For whatever is violent {^laiov) is also of short duration, as its very name imports, since it closely resembles short (/3a/ov). And the ancients used the two words {^aihv) and [dXtyo^cSviov) of short duration as synonymous.

We must now consider the question which is meant by " Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord God." * Is the meaning of what is here expressed this, that he received grace, or that he was accounted worthy of grace ? The former idea it is not natural for us to entertain ; for what was given to him beyond what was given to all, as one may say, not only to all concrete natures only, but to all elementary and simple natures which have been accounted worthy of divine grace? But the second interpretation has a reason in it which is not ♦ Genosia vL 8. 3f)4 PHILO JUDiEUS. altogether inconsistent, that the cause of all things, judges those persons worthy of his gifts, who do not corrupt the divine impression which has been stamped upon them, namely, the most sacred mind, with disgraceful practices ; still perhaps even this is not the true meaning of the words. For what kind of person must he be who would be accounted before God to be worthy of his grace ? I indeed think that the whole world put together could scarcely attain to such a pitch, and yet the world is the first, and greatest, and most perfect of all the works of God.

May it not then perhaps be better to understand this expression as meaning that the virtuous man being fond of investigating things, and eager for learning, amid all the different things that he has investigated, has found this one most certain fact, that all things that exist, the earth, the water, the air, the fire, the sun, the stars, the heaven, all animals and plants whatever, are the grace of God. But God has given nothing to himself, for he has no need of anything ; but he has given the world to the world, and its parts he has bestowed on themselves and on one another, and also on the universe, and without having judged anything to be worthy of grace, (for he gives all his good things without grudging to the universe and to its parts), he merely has regard to his own everlasting goodness, thinking the doing good to be a line of conduct suitable to his own happy and blessed nature ; so that if any one were to ask me, what was the cause of the creation of the world, having leamt from Moses, I should answer, that the goodness of the living God, being the most_important of his graces, is in itself the cause.

But here we must observe that Moses says, that " Noah pleased " the powers of the living God, " the Lord and God," but that he tells us that Moses himself pleased the Being who is attended by those powers as his body guard, and who, without them, is conceived only according to his essence. For it is said here, speaking in the person of God, " Because thou hast found grace in my sight," * pointing out himself instead of any one else whatever. Thus, therefore, he who exists himself by himself alone, thinks the exceeding wisdom which is found in Moses worthy of grace, and that other wisdom which was formed on the model of his, he considers of an inferior class, and more a wisdom of species, as consisting of • Exodus xxxiii. 17. subordinate powers, according to wliich he is both Lord and God, and ruler and benefactor.

But another mind attached to the body and the slave of the passions, having been sold as slave to the chief cook,* that is to say to the pleasure of our compound being, and being castrated and mutilated of all the masculine and generative parts of the soul, being afflicted with a want of all good practices, and being incapable of receiving the divine voice, being also separated and cut off from the sacred assembly, in which conferences and discussions about virtue are continually being brought up, is conducted into the prison of the passions, and finds grace, (a grace more inglorious than dishonour), with the keeper of the prison. f For these men are properly called prisoners, not those who after they have been condemned at the judgment seat by the legitimate magistrates, or by judges formally appointed, are led away by the officers into the place appointed for malefactors ; but those in whom nature has condemned the disposition of their souls, men who are full of intemperance, and cowardice, and injustice, and impiety, and innumerable other evils; but the steward, and keeper, and guardian of these men, is the keeper of the prison, a composition and combination of all kinds of various wickednesses, united together into one mass, to please whom is the greatest of punishments.

But some people who do not perceive this, being deceived with respect to what is injurious to such a degree, as to look upon it as advantageous, come to him with great joy, and offer themselves as his body-guards, that being accounted faithful by him, they may become his lieutenants and successors in the guardianship of involuntary and voluntary offences ; but do thou, O my soul, thinking such an office and magistracy as that, more grievous than the most laborious slaveiy, adopt, as far as you can, an unrestrained, and unconfined, and free system of life, and if you are caught by the baits of passion, endure rather to be a prisoner yourself, than the keeper of a prison ; for then if you suffer distress, and groan aloud, you will obtain pity ; but if you give yourself up to ambition of great posts, and to a covetousness of honour, you will receive that pleasant and greatest evil of being keeper of the prison, by which you will be influenced the whole of your life.

Reject therefore with all your might all idea of pleasing the keepers of the prison ; but on the contrary, with all your ability and all your earnestness, labour to please him who is the cause of all things ; and if you are unable to do so, (for the greatness of his dignity is exceeding high), at all events advance, without ever turning back, towards his powers, and present yourself to theni as their suppliant, until they admitting the continual assiduity and sincerity of your service, place you in the ranks of those who have pleased them, as they did Noah, of whose descendants Moses has made a most admirable and novel catalogue ; for he says, " These are the generations of Noah :

Noah was a just man, being perfect in his generation, and Noah pleased God"; ■•' for the descendants of the compound being were naturally compound beings also themselves ; for horses do of necessity beget horses, and lions beget lions, bulls become the parents of bulls, and so too men beget men ; but such things are not the appropriate offspring of a good mind; the progeny of that are the virtues before mentioned, namely the being a man, the being just, the being perfect, the pleasing God, which last particular, inasmuch as it is the crowning one, and as it were the boundary of perfect happiness, is enumerated last of all. But there is one kind of creation, which is a sort of conducting and travelling from that which does not exist to existence. This is the one which plants, and animals do of necessity use; and there is another kind, which is a transition and change from a better genus to a worse species, which Moses mentions when he says, "These are the generations of Jacob; Joseph when he was seventeen years of age, was keeping the sheep with his brethren, being a youth with the sons of Billah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives.

"f For when this reason inclined to meditation and devoted to learning, was driven down from its more divine speculations, human and mortal opinions, then Joseph, the companion of the body, and of all the things which pertain to the body was born, being still but a youth, even though in the lapse of time he may become greyheaded, as being one who never listened to any older discourse or opinions, which the companions of Moses acquired as the most useful possessions for themselves and their disciples. On this account it seems to • Genesis vi. 9. t Genesis xxxvii. 2. me that Moses wishing to describe his figure and to give a more accurate idea of his appearance, so as to make it known, introduced him as tending his father's sheep, not in the company of any one of his father's legitimate sons, but with his illegitimate brethren, who, being the sons of concubines, derive their name from the inferior sex, that of the women, and not from the superior sex, that, namely of the man ; for they here are called the sons of Jacob's wives, Billah and Zilpah, and not the sons of their father Israel.

And one may here very fitly raise the question for what reason it was that after mentioning the perfection of Noah in virtue, he then immediately adds that " the earth was become corrupt in the sight of God, and was filled with wickedness."* But perhaps it is not difficult to arrive at a solution of this doubt, for any one who is not exceedingly ignorant of all instruction. We must say therefore, that when an incorruptible species arises in the soul, the mortal part is immediately destroyed ; for the birth of virtuous studies is the death of disgraceful ones, since also when light shines forth darkness disappears. Ou this account, in the law of leprosy, it is most expressly enjoined that "

If the living skin arise in the leper, he shall be polluted ;"t and further ratifying this same injunction, and as it were setting a seal to it, he adds, " and the flesh "which is sound shall pollute him," delivering this injunction in opposition to what is natural or usual : for all men think the things that are sick the pollution of those that are in health, and those that ai'e dead the pollution of the living, and not, on the contrary, that the healthy and the living are the pollution of the sick and of the dead, but rather, they account them their salvation.

But the lawgiver being full of the most modern wisdom in everything, has this peculiarity in his expositions, that he teaches that the healthy and the living are the causes of our not being pure from pollution ; for the healthy and living complexion in the soul is truly conviction which rises up against it : when this conviction rises up, it makes a catalogue of all the offences of the soul, and reproaching it with them, and looking sternly at it, it is scarcely able to be stopped in its attacks upon it ; and the soul being convicted recognises all its actions by which it has offended against right reason, and perceives that it is foolish, and intemperate, and unjust, and full of pollutions.

On which account Moses also establishes a most extraordinary law, in which he enjoins that " the man who is in part leprous shall be accounted impure, but that he who is wholly, from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head overwhelmed with leprosy, shall be considered pure ;"* for any one else, I apprehend, reasoning from probability, would say the exact contrary, and would think that the leprosy which was contracted, and which extended over only a small portion of the body, was less impure, but that the leprosy which was diffused, so as to spread over the whole body was more impure : but Moses here, as it appears to me, uses this symbolical expression to intimate this most undeniable truth, that unintentional misdeeds, even if they be of the greatest enormity, are not deserving of blame, and are pure, inasmuch as they have not conscience, that terrible accuser, to testify against them : but that intentional offences, even if they do not extend over a wide surface, being convicted by the judge who passes sentence against the soul, are rightly accounted unholy, and polluted, and impure.

This leprosy, therefore, being of a twofold character, and putting forth two complexions, signi6es voluntary depravity ; for the soul, though it has healthy, and vivifying, and right reason in itself, does not use it for the preservation of its good things, but surrendering itself to persons unskilled in navigation, it overturns the whole bark of life, which might have been saved in calm fine weather ; but when it changes so as to assume one uniform white appearance, it displays an involuntary change ; since the mind, entirely deprived of the power of reasoning, not having left in it one single seed to beget understanding, like a man in a mist or in deep darkness, sees nothing that ought to be done ; but, like a blind man, falling without seeing his way before him into all kinds of error, endures continual falls and disasters one after another, in spite of all its efforts.

And like this is the injunction given respecting the house in which it happens that leprosy often arises ; for Moses says that, " If there be a taint of leprosy in the house, the owner shall come, and shall tell it to the priest, saying ) i there is something like a taint of leprosy has been seen by me in my house,"* and presently he adds, "And the priest shall command him to dismantle his house, before the priest enters into the house to see it, and all the things that are in the house shall not be impure ; and after that the priest shall enter the house to examine it." Therefore, before the priest enters in, the things in the house are pure ; but after he has entered in, from that time forth they are all impure.

And yet the contrary would have been natural, that when a man thoroughly purified and perfect, who is in the habit of offering up prayers and purifications, and sacrifices for all the people come into a house, all that is therein would be improved by his presence, and would become piure from having been impure ; but now they do not even remain in the same condition as before, but they are brought into a worse state by the arrival of the priest.

But whether this is consistent with the literal and obvious order of the words, those men may inquire who are in the habit of, and fond of pursuing such investigations ; but we must affirm distinctly, that no one thing can be more consistent with another than the fact, that when the priest enters in, all the things in the house should be polluted ; for as long as the divine word has not come to our souls as to a hearth of hospitality, all its actions are blameless ; for the overseer, or the father, or the teacher, or whatever else it may be fit to entitle the priest, by whom alone it is possible for it to be admonished and chastened, is at a distance : and those persons are to be pardoned who do wrong from inexperience, out of ignorance what they ought to do : for they do not look upon their deeds in the light of sins, but even sometimes they believe that they are doing right in cases in which they are erring greatly ; but when the real priest, conviction, enters our hearts, like a most pure ray of light, then we think that the designs which we have cherished within our souls are not pure, and we see that our actions are liable to blame, and deserving of reproach, though we did them through ignorance of what was right. All these things, therefore, the priest, that is to say, conviction, pollutes, and orders that they should be taken away and stripped off, in order that Ijhe may see the abode of the soul pure, f and, if there are finv I; diseases in it, that he may heal them. • Leviticus xiv. 35. f ibid.

And the woman who met the prophet,* in the book of Kings, resembles this fact : " And she is a widow ;" not meaning by that, as we generally use the word, a woman when she is bereft of her husband, but that she is so, from being free from those passions which corrupt and destroy the soul, as Thamar is represented by Moses. For she also being a widow, was commanded to sit down in the house of the father, the only Saviour ;t on whose account, having forsaken for ever the company and society of men, she is at a distance from and widowhood of all human pleasures, and receives a divine seed ; and being filled with the seeds of virtue, she conceives, and is in travail of virtuous actions. And when she has brought them forth, she carries off the prize against her adversaries, and is enrolled as victorious, bearing the palm as the emblem of her victory. For the name Thamar, being interpreted, means the palmtree. And every soul that is beginning to be widowed and devoid of evils, says to the prophet, " O, man of God ! hast thou come to me to remind me of my iniquity and of my 6in?":|:

For he being inspired, and entering into the soul, and being filled with heavenly love, and being amazingly excited by the intolerable stimulus of heaven-inflicted frenzy, works in the soul a recollection of its ancient iniquities and offences : not in order that it may commit such again, — but that, greatly lamenting and bitterly bewailing its former error, it may hate its own offspring, and reject them with aversion, and may follow the admonitions of the word of God, the interpreter and prophet of his will. For the men of old used to call the prophets sometimes men of God, and sometimes seers ,§ affixing appropriate and becoming names to their enthusiasm, and inspiration, and to the foreknowledge of affairs which they enjoyed.

It is said of some man of old time, that when he saw a sumptuous procession properly e(iuipped passing by, he looked towards one of his acquaintances and said, " My friends, see how many things there are of which I have no need," in a very few words uttering what was truly a great and heavenly boast. What dost thou say ? Were you crowned as conqueror in the Olympic games in opposition to all the wealth arrayed against you ; and were you so to that degree there that you took nothing from thence for your enjoyment or for your use ? It is a marvellous statement, but the sentiment is more admirable still, which advanced to such a degree of strength, as to be able without any extraordinary exertion, nevertheless to carry off the victory by force.

But it is not allowed to one man alone to boast before Moses who has been instructed in the highest perfection of wisdom, but it belongs to the whole of a most populous nation. And this is the proof of that fact. The soul of every one of his friends felt confidence and was bold towards the king of all the apparent good things, the earthly Edom ; for in fact all earthly good things are good only in appearance ; they then I say were bold, so as to say, " I will now pass by thy land." Oh, the magnanimous and sublime promise ! Tell me, will ye be able to surmount, to pass by, to run past all these things which on earth appear to be and are believed to be good ? And is there nothing which will be able to check and restrain your forward advance by the power with which it resists you ? And when you have beheld all the treasures of riches one after another, and all full, will ye turn from them with aversion, and avert your eyes from them ?

And will ye look down upon the dignities of your ancestors, and on those which come to yourselves from your father and your mother, and on their nobility which is so celebrated in the mouths of the multitude ? And will ye forsake the glory for which men are ready to barter everything, leaving it behind as if it were something most utterly valueless? What more shall I say? Will ye disregard the health of the body, and the accurate perfection of the outward senses, and beauty, which is an object of contention to many, and strength such as no one can oppose, and all those other things by which the house or the tomb of the soul, or whatever else one ought to call it is adorned, will ye, I say, disregard all these things, so far as not to class any one of them among good things ? These are mighty deeds of boldness for a heavenly and celestial soul, which has utterly forsaken the regions of eartli, and which has been drawn up on high, and has its abode among the divine natures. For being hlled with the sight of .the genuine and incorruptible good things, it very naturally repudiates those which only last a day and are spurious.

What is the advantage then of passing over all the mortal advantages of mortal man, and passing thera by too, not in accordance with right reason, but as some do through their hesitation, or sluggishness, or inexperience ; for everything is not honoured everywhere, but different things are esteemed by different persons. On this account, Moses wishing to teach further, that they had become by correctness of reason inclined to despise what was said, adds to the words, " 1 will pass by," the further description, ''through your land." For this is exceedingly necessary, that when surrounded by an abundance of those things which are usually accounted advantages, we should avoid being taken prisoners by any of the toils which are spread by each separate pleasure ; and that like fire, we should be ahle at one onset to break through their attacks which are so continually armed against us. The Israelites say then that they will pass by this way, but that they will not pass any longer through the fields and vineyards ; for it would be doting simplicity to pass by all the plants in the soul worthy of cultivation and producing eatable fruit, that is to say virtuous discourses and praiseworthy actions.

For it would be proper rather to remain, and to gather the fruit, and to feed on it to satiety. For nothing is more beautiful than an insatiable cheerfulness amid perfect virtues, of which cheerfulness, the aforesaid vineyards are the symbol. But we, on whom God pours and showers his fountains of good things from above, we drank from that cistern, and we were seeking scanty moisture beneath the earth, while the heaven was raining upon us, from above without ceasing, the more excellent food of nectar and ambrosia, far better than that celebrated in the fables of the poets.

Moreover, should we while draining draughts stored up by the contrivance of men through distrust, seek a refuge and place of escape, where the Saviour of the universe has opened to us his heavenly treasury for our use and enjoyment ? For Moses, the hierophant, prays that " the Lord may open to us his good treasure, his heavenly one, to give us his rain,"* and the prayers of the man vrho loves God are sure to ohtain a hearing. And what does he say who neither thinks the heaven, or the rain, or a cistern, or in fact anything whatever in all creation sufficient to nourish him, but who goes beyond all these things, and relating what he has suffered, says, " The God who has nourished me from my youth up/'f Does not this man appear to you not to think all the collections of water under the earth put together worthy even of looking at ? Nor therefore would he drink out of a cistern to whom God gives draughts of unmixed wine ; at one time, by the ministrations of some angel whom he has thought worthy to act as cupbearer, and at another time by his own means, placing no one between the giver and the receiver.

Let us then, without any delay, attempt to proceed by the royal road, since we think fit to pass by all earthly things ; and the royal road is that of which there is no private individual in the world who is master, but he alone who is also the only true king. And this is, as I said a little while ago, wisdom, by which alone suppliant souls can find a way of escaping to the uncreate God ; for it is natural that one who goes without any hindrance along the royal road, will never feel weariness before he meets with the king. But, then, those who have come near to him recognise his blessedness and their own deficiency ; for Abraham, when he had placed himself very near to God, immediately perceived that he was but dust and ashes. J And let them turn away out of the royal road, neither to the right hand nor to the left, but let them advance along the middle of it ; for any deviation in eitlier direction is blameable, as that on the one side has a tendency to excess and that on the other side to deficiency ; for the right hand is, in this instance, no less blameable than the left hand.

In the case of those who live according to impulse, the right hand is temerity and the left hand cowardice. As regards those who are ilhberal in the management of money, or^ the right hand stands stinginess, and on the left hand extravagant prodigality ; and those men, who are very subtle in calculating, judge craftiness to be desirable and simplicity to be a thing to be shunned. Again, some persons incline towards • Deut. xxviii. 1 2. | Genesis xlviii. 15. J Genesis xviii. 27. superstition as being placed on the right hand, and flee from impiety as a thing to be avoided on the left.

But that we may not, through deviating from the right road, be compelled to yield to one of two rival faults, let us desii'e and pray to be able to proceed straight along the middle of the road. Now, the middle between temerity and cowardice, is courage ; the mean between profuse extravagance and illiberal stinginess, is temperance ; that between crafty unscrupulousness and folly, is prudence ; and the proper path between superstition and impiety, is piety. These lie in the middle between the deviations on either side, and are all roads easily travelled, and level, and plain, which we must walk upon not with our bodily organs, but with the motions of a soul continually desiring what is best. At this, the earthly Edom, being excessively indignant (for he is afraid of the overthrow and confusion of his own doctrines), will threaten us with irreconcilable wax's, if we attempt to force our way along it, cutting down and clearing away continually as we advance the fruitful trees of his soul, which he planted for the destruction of wisdom, but has not gathered the fruit thereof; for he says, " Thou shalt not pass by me ; and if thou dost, I will come forth in battle against thee to meet thee."

But let us regard none of his threats, but make answer that we will pass by his mountain ; that is to say, vve being accustomed to associate with high and sublime powers and to investigate everything according to its true definition, and being used to inquire into the reason of everything whatever, of every kind, by means of which the knowledge is attained of Avhat anything is, hold in utter contempt everything which is external and which affects the body alone ; for such things are lowly and grovelling in the ground, dear indeed to you, but hated by us, for which reason we will not have anything to do with any one of them. For if, as the proverb says, we only touch this with the tip of our finger, we shall be giving honour and dignity to you ; for then you will give yourself airs and will boast, as if we who are lovers of virtue had been brought over to you by the allurements of pleasure.

" For if," says Israel, " I and my cattle drink of thy water, I will pay you a price for it." Not meaning by that such price as is spoken of by the poets, money of silver or gold, or anything else ; such among dealers is accustomed to be given to those who sell wares in exchange for their wares, but the price will be the honour which he now claims ; for, in reality, every intemperate, or unjust, or cowardly man, when he sees any one who is more austere either avoiding labour, or subdued by gain, or yielding to any one of the allurements of pleasure, rejoices and exults, and thiuks that he himself has received honour. And, moreover, goiug on in his rejoicing and displaying his exultation to the multitude, he begins to philosophise about his own errors as very unavoidable and not useless, saying that if they were not of such a character, that respectable man, so and so, would never have indulged in them.

Let us, then, say to every wicked man, if we drink of thy water, if we touch anything, whatever that is yours, owing to an indiscreet impetuosity, we shall be giving you honour, and acceptance, instead of dishonour and rejection (for these are what you deserve to receive); and, in truth, the matters about which you are anxious are absolutely nothing. Do you think that anything mortal has any real being and existence, and that it is not rather something borne up and suspended by the rope of some felse and untrustworthy opinion, resting on empty air, and in no respect differing from deceitful dreams ? And if you are unwilling to contemplate the fortunes of particular men, think upon the changes, whether for the better or for the worse, of whole countries and nations. At one time Greece was flourishing, but the Macedonians took away the power of that land ; then, in turn, Macedonia became mighty, but that, being divided into small portions became weak, until at last it was entirely exthiguished. Before the time of the Macedonians the Persians prospered, but one day overthrew their exceeding and extensive prosperity.

And now the Parthians are more powerful than the Persians, who a little while ago were their masters, ever were ; and those who were their subjects are now masters. Once, and for a very long time, Egypt was a mighty empire, but its great dominion and glory have passed away like a cloud. What has become of the Ethiopians, and of Carthage, and of the kingdoms of Libya ? Where now are the kings of Pontus ? Wliat has become of Europe and Asia, and, in short, of the whole of the inhabited world ? Is it not tossed up and down and agitated like a ship that is tossed by the sea, at one time enjoying a fair wind and at another time being forced to battle against i contrary gales ? For the divine Word brings round its operations in a circle, which the common multitude of men call fortune. And then, as it continually flows on among cities, and nations, and countries, it overturns existing arrangements and gives to one person what has previously belonged to another, changing the affairs of individuals only in point of time, in order that the whole world may become, as it were, one city, and enjoy the most excellent of constitutions, a democracy.

No one, therefore, of all the objects of human anxiety or of human labour, is of any importance or value ; but every such thing is a mere shadow or breath, disappearing before it can get any firm footing ; for it comes and then again it departs, like the ebbing tide. For the sea, in its ebb and flow, is at one time borne forwards with great violence, and roaring, and noise, and overflowing its bounds makes a lake of what has previously been dry land ; and, at another time, it recedes and makes a large portion of what has been sea, dry land. In the same manner, at times, prosperity overflows a mighty and populous nation, but afterwards turns the impetuosity of its stream in the opposite direction, and does not leave even the slightest drop, so as to suffer no trace whatever to remain of its former richness. But it is not everybody who receives the complete and full meaning of these events, but only those receive it who are accustomed always to proceed in accordance with true and solid reason and limitation ; for we find the same men saying both these things, " All the affairs of the created world are absolutely nothing;" and, "We will go by thy mountain."

For it is impossible for one who is not in the habit of using high and mountainous roads to repudiate all mortal affairs, and to turn aside and change his paths for what is immortal. Therefore the earthly Edom thinks it right to blockade the heavenly and royal road of virtue, and the divine reason blockades his road, and that of all who follow his opinions ; among whom we must enroll Balaam, for he also is a child of the earth, and not a shoot of heaven, and a proof of this is, that he, being influenced by omens and false prophecies, not even when the eye of his. soul, which had been closed, recovered its sight, and " saw the angel of (jod standing against him in the way ;'"* not even then did lie turn back and desist from doing o78 PHILO JUD.^US. wrong, but giving waj' to a mighty torrent of folly, he was washed away and swallowed up by it.

For then the diseases of the soul are truly not only difficult of cure, but even utterly incurable, when, though conviction is present to us (and this is the word of God, coming as his angel and as our guide, and removing the obstacles before our feet, so that we may travel without stumbling along the level road), we nevertheless prefer our own indiscreet opinions, to the explanations and injunctions which he is accustomed to address to us for our admonition, and for tlie chastening and regulating of our whole life. On this account he who is not persuaded by, and who shows no respect to, conviction, when it thus opposes him, will, in his turn, incur destrurtion with the wounded,*' whom the passions have wounded and overthrown ; and his calamity will be a most sufficient lesson for all those who are not utterly impure, to endeavour to keep the judge, that is within them, favourable to them, and he will be so if they do not reverse what has been rightly decided by him.

" And Noah began to be a husbandman ; and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and he was drunk in his house. "t The generality of men not understanding the nature of things, do also of necessity err with respect to the composition of names ; for those who consider affairs anatomically, as it were, are easily able to affix appi'opriate names to things, but those who look at them in a confused and irregular way are incapable of such accuracy. But Moses, through the exceeding abundance of his knowledge of all things, was accustomed to affix the most felicitous and expressive appellations to them. Accordingly, in many passages of the law, we shall find this opinion, which we have expressed, confirmed by the fact, and not least in the passage which we have cited at the beginning of this treatise, in which the just Noah is represented as a hasbandman. For what man is there who is at all hasty in forming an opinion, -who Nvould not think that the being a husband man (ysa'^y/a), and the occupying one's self in cultivating the ground (55 yjjj s^yasla), were the same thing?

And yet in real truth, not only are these things not the same, but they are even very much sepai'ated from one another, so as to be opposed to, and at variance with one another. For a man without any skill may labour at taking care of the land ; but if a man is called a husbandman, he, from his mere name, is believed to be no unskilful man, but a farmer of experience, inasmuch as his name (ysoj^yog) has been derived from agricultural skill (yiojoyr/.ri riyn/ri), of which he is the namesake. And besides all this, we must likewise consider this other point, that the tiller of the ground (6 yrig soydrri;) looks only to one end, namely, to his wages ; for he is altogether a hireling, and has no care whatever to till the land well. But the husbandman (0 yicooyhi) would be glad also to contribute something of his own, and to spend in addition some of his private resources for the sake of improving the soil, and of avoiding blame from those who understand the business ; for his desire is to derive his revenues every year not from any other source, but from his agricultural labours, when they have been brought into a productive state.

He therefore occupies himself with improving the character of wild trees, and making them fruitful, and with further improving the character of fruitful trees by his care, and with reducing by pruning those branches which through superfluity of nourishment are too luxuriant, and with inducing those which are contracted and crowded to grow by the extension of their young shoots. Moreover, those trees which are of good sorts, and which make many shoots, he propagates by extending them under the earth in ditches of no very great depth, and those which do not produce good fruit he endeavours to improve by the insertion of other kinds into their roots, connecting them by the most natural union. For the same thing happens likewise in the case of men, that they firmly unite into their own family adopted sons, who are unconnected with them in blood, but whom they make their own on account of their virtues.

The husbandman, therefore, takes up iimumerable shoots, with their roots entire, which have by natural process become barren, as far as bearing fruit is concerned, and which even do great injury to those plants which do bear by reason of their being planted near them. Such, then, is the art which is apphed to those plants which grow out of the ground. And now let us turn our consideration to the husbandry of the soul in its turn.

First of all, therefore, the husbandman is not anxious to plant or to sow anything that is unproductive, but only all such things as are worth cultivation, and as bear fruit, which will bring a yearly produce to their master man. For nature has pointed him out as the master of all trees and animals, and all other things whatever which are perishable; and what can man be but the kind that is in every one of us, which is accustomed to reap the advantage from all that is sown or planted ? But since milk is the food of infants, but cakes made of wheat are the food of fullgrown men, so also the soul must have a milklike nourishment in its age of childhood, namely, the elementary instruction of encyclical science. But the perfect food which is fit for men consists of explanations dictated by prudence, and temperance, and every virtue. For these things being sown and implanted in the mind will bring forth most advantageous fruit, namely, good and praiseworthy actions.

By means of this 'husbandry, all the trees of the passions and vices, which shoot forth and grow up to a height, bringing forth pernicious fruits, are rooted up, and cut down, and cleared away, so that not even the smallest fragment of them is left, from which any new shoots of evil actions can subsequently spring up. And if, besides, there are any trees which produce no fruit at all, neither good nor bad, the husbandman will cut them down too, but still he will not suffer them to be completely destroyed, but he will apply them to some appropriate use, making them into stakes and fixing them as pales all round his homestead, or using them as a fence for a city to serve instead of a wall.

For Moses says, '• Every tree which bringeth not forth fruit good to eat thou shalt cut down ; and thou shalt make it into stakes against the city which shall make war upon thee."* And these trees are likened to those powers developed in words alone, which have nothing in them but mere speculation, among which we must class medical science, when unconnected with practice, by which it is natural that such persons may be cured, and also the oratorical and hireling species of rhetoric, which is conversant not ahout the discovery of the trutli, but solely about the means of deceiving the hearers by plausible persuasion ; and in the same class we must place all those parts of dialectics and geometry which have no connection with a proper regulation of the character or morals, but which only sharpen the mind, not suffering it to exercise a dull apprehension towards each question which is raised and submitted to it, but always to dissect the question and divide it, so as to distinguish the peculiar character of each thing from the common qualities of the whole genus.

At all events, men say, that the ancients compared the principles of philosophy, as being threefold, to a field ; likening natural philosophy to trees and plants, and moral philosophy to fruits, for the sake of which the plants are planted ; and logical philosophy to the hedge or fence : for as the wall, which is erected around, is the guardian of the plants and of the fruit which are in the field, keeping off all those who wish to do them injury and to destroy them, in the same manner, the logical part of philosophy is the strongest possible sort of protection to the other two parts, the moral and the natural philosophy ; for when it simplifies twofold and ambiguous expressions, and when it solves specious plausibilities entangled in sophisms, and utterly destroys seductive deceits, the greatest allurement and ruin to the soul, by means of its own expressive and clear language, and its unambiguous demonstations, it makes the whole mind smooth like wax, and ready to receive all the innocent and very praiseworthy impressions of sound natural and moral philosophy.

These then are the professions and promises made by the husbandry of the soul, " I will cut do\\ii all the trees of folly, and intemperance, and injustice, and cowardice ; and I will eradicate all the plants of pleasure, and appetite, and anger, and passion, and of all similar affections, even if they have raised their heads as high as heaven. And I will burn out their roots, darting down the attack of flame to the very foundations of the earth, so that no portion, nay, no trace, or shadowwhatever, of such things shall be left ; and I will destroy these things, and I will implant in those souls which ai'e of a childlike age, young shoots, whose fruit shall nourish them. And those shoots are as follows : the practice of writing and reading with facility ; an accurate study and investigation of the works of wise poets ; geometry, and a careful study of rhetorical speeches, and the whole course of encyclical education.

And in those souls which have arrived at the age of puberty or of manhood, I will implant things which are even better and more perfect. nameW, the tree of prudence, the tree of courage, the tree of temperance, the tree of justice, the tree of every respective virtue. And if there be any tree belonging to what is called the wild class, which does not bear eatable fruit, but which is able to be a fence to and a protector of that which is eatable, that also I will manage, not for its own sake, but because it is calculated by nature to be of use to what is necessary and very useful.

Therefore, the allwise Moses attributes to the just man a knowledge of the husbandry of the soul, as an act consistent with his character, and thoroughly suited to him, saying, " Noah began to be a husbandman." But to the unjust man he attributes the task of tilling the ground, which is an employment bearing the heaviest burdens without any knowledge. For "Cain," says he, ''was a tiller of the ground;" and a little afterwards, when he is detected in having contracted the pollution of fratricide, it is said, " Cursed art thou by the earth, which opened her mouth to receive the woi'd of thy brother from thy hand, with which thou tillest the earth, and it shall not put forth its strength to give unto thee." How then could any one show more manifestly, that the lawgiver looks upon the wicked man as a tiller of the earth, and not as a husbandman, than by such language as we here see used ?

We nmst not indeed suppose that what is here said, is said of a man who is able to work by his hands or by his feet, or by any other of the powers of his body, or of any mountain land, or of any champaign country, but that is a]3plicable to the powers existing in every one of us; for it happens that the soul of the wicked man is not concerned about any thing else except about bis earthly body, and about all the pleasures of that body. Moreover, the general crowd of men, travelling over the different climates of the earth and penetrating to its furthest boundaries, and traversing the seas, and investigating the things that lie hid in the recesses of the ocean, and leaving no single part of the whole univei'se unexplored, is continually providing from every quarter the means by which it can increase pleasure.

For as fishermen let down their nets at times to the most extraordinary depths, comprehending a vast surface of the sea in their circle, in order to catch the greatest possible number of fish enclosed within their nets, like people shut up within the walls of a besieged city ; so in the same manner the greatest part of men having extended their universal nets to take everything, as the poets somewhere say, not only over the parts of the sea, but also over the whole nature of earth, and air, and water, seek to catch everything from eveiy quarter for the enjoyment and attainment of pleasure.

For they dig mines in the earth, and they sail across the seas, and they achieve every other work both of peace and war, providing unbounded materials for pleasure, as for their queen, being utterly uninitiated in that husbandry of the soul which sows and plants the virtues and reaps their fruit, which is a happy life. But they labouring to procure, and reducing to a system those things which are pleasant to the flesh, cultivate with all imaginable care that composite mass, that carefully fashioned statue, the narrow house of the soul, which, from its birth to its death it can never lay aside, but which it is compelled to bear till the day of its death, burdensome as it is.

We have now therefore explained, in what respect, the occupation of tilling the ground differs from husbandry, and a tiller of the ground from a husbandman. And we must now consider whether there are not some other species akin to these already mentioned, but which, through the common names borne by them and others, conceal the real difference which exists between them. At least there are two which we have discovered by investigation, concerning which we will say what is fitting, if it is in our power. Therefore, as we found a tiller of the earth and a husbandman, though there did not appear to be any difference between them (till we came to investigate the allegorical meaning concealed under each name), nevertheless very far removed from one another in fact, such also shall we find to be the case with a shepherd and a keeper of sheep. For the lawgiver sometimes speaks of the occupation of a shepherd, and sometimes of that of a keeper of sheep. And those who do not examine expressions with any excessive accuracy, will perhaps fancy that these two appellations are synonimous terms for the same employment. They are, however, in reality the names of things which are widely different in the meaning affixed to their concealed ideas.

For if it is customary to give both the names of shepherd and keeper of sheep to those who have the management of flocks, still they do not give these names to that reason which is the superintendant of the flock of the soul ; for a man who is but an indifferent manager of a flock is called a keeper of sheep, but a good and faithful one is called a shepherd, and in what way we will proceed to show immediately.

Nature has made cattle akin to every individual among us, the soul putting forth two young branches as from one root ; one of which being entire and undivided, and being left in its integrity is called the mind ; but the other part is separated by six divisions into seven natures, five outward senses, and two other o)"gans, the organs of speech, and that of generation. But all this multitude of external senses and organs being destitute of reason is compared to a sheep, but since it is composed of many parts, it of necessity stands in need of a governor by the unvarying law of nature. Whenever therefore a man who is ignorant how to govern, and at the same time wealthy, rises up and appoints himself governor, he becomes the cause of innumerable evils to the flocks, for he supplies all necessary things in superabundance, and the flock beingimmoderately glutted with them becomes insolent through the supei-fluity of food ; for insolence is the genuine offspring of satiety. Accordingly, they become insolent and exult, and shake off all restraint, and being scattered in small divisions they break the appointed order of the Lord.

But he who, for a while, was then governor, being deserted by the flock under his orders, appears stripped of his authority, and runs about earnestly endeavouring, if possible, to collect the scattered flock together and to unite it again ; but when he finds that he is unable to do this he groans and weeps, blaming his own remissness, and reproacliing himself as the cause of all that has happened. In this manner, also, the offspring of the outward senses, when the mind is supine and indolent, being satiated in the most unbounded degree with a superfluity of the pleasures of the outward senses, toss their heads, and frisk about, and rove about, at random, wherever they please ; the eyes being opened I "wide to embrace every object of sight, and hastening even to feast themselves on objects which ought not to be looked at; and the ears eagerly receiving every kind of voice, and never being satisfied, but always thirsting for superfluity and the indulgence of vain curiosity, and sometimes even for such delights as are but little suited to a free man.

Since on what other account can we imagine, that in every quarter of the habitable globe, the theatres are eveiy day filled with incalculable myriads of spectators ? For they, being wholly under the dominion of sounds and sights, and allowing their ears and their eyes to be carried away without any restraint, go in pursuit of hai'p-players and singers to the harp, and every description of effeminate and unmanly music ; and, moreover, eagerly receiving dancers and every other kind of actors, because they place themselves and move in all kinds of effeminate positions and motions, they are continually by their applause exciting the factions of the theatre, never thinking either of the propriety of their own conduct or of that of the general body of the citizens ; but, miserable as they are, upsetting all their own plan of hfe for the sake of their eyes and ears. And there are others who are still more unfortunate and miserable than these men, who have released their sense of taste out of prison as it were ; and that sense, immediately rushing, in an unrestrained manner, to every kind of meat and drink, selects from the things that are already prepared, and also cherishes an indiscriminate and insatiable hunger for what is not present.

So that, even if the channels of the belly are filled, its ever unsatisfied appetites, raging and ravening around, continue to look and stalk about in every direction, lest there should any where be any fragment which has been overlooked, that it may swallow that up also like a devouring fire. And this gluttony is followed by its usual natural attendant, an eagerness for the connections of the sexes, which brings in its train a strange frenzy, an unrestrainable madness and a most grievous fury ; for, when men are oppressed by the indulgence of gluttony and delicate food, and by much unmixed wine and drunkenness, they are no longer able to restrain themselves, but hastening to amorous gratifications they revel and disturb the doors, until they are at last able to rest when they have drawn off the great violence of their passion. On which account c C nature, as it would seem, has placed the organs of such connection beneath the belly, being previously aware that they do not delight in hunger, but that they follow upon satiety and then rise up to fulfil their peculiar operations.

Those, then, who permit the flock committed to their charge to satiate themselves all at once with all the things that they desire, we must call keepers of sheep ; but those, on the contrary, we should entitle shepherds, who supply their flocks with only so much as is necessary and proper for them ; cutting off and utterly rejecting all superfluous and useless extravagance and abundance, which is not less injurious than want and deficiency, and who guard with great prudence against the possibility of the flock becoming diseased through their want of care and indolence, praying that those diseases, which at times are liable to attack flocks from external causes, may not visit theirs. And they take equal care that it may not straggle about at random and get scattered, holding out to them as an object of fear one who will chastise those who never obey reason, and inflicting continual punishment, moderate when applied to those who err only in such a degree as admits of a remedy, but very severe when laid upon those whose wickedness is uncurable ; for though in its essence it may appear an abominable thing, nevertheless punishment is the greatest good to foolish persons, great as the remedies of the physician are to those who are ill in the body.

These, then, are the occupations of shepherds who prefer those things which are useful, though mixed with unpleasantness, to those which are pleasant but pernicious. Thus, at all events, the occupation of a shepherd has come to be considered a respectable and profitable employment, so that the race of poets has been accustomed to call kings the shepherds of the people ; but the law giver gives this title to the wise, who are the only real kings, for he represents them as rulers of all men of irrational passions, as of a flock of sheep. On this account he has attributed to Jacob, the man who was made perfect by practice, a skill in the science of a shepherd, saying : " For he is the shepherd of Laban's sheep." * That is, of the sheep of the foolish soul, which thinks only those things good which are the objects of the outward senses and apparent to them, being • Genesis xxx. 30. deceived and enslaved by colours and shadows ; for the name Laban, being interpreted, means "whitening."

He also attributes the same skill to the all-wise Moses,* for he also is represented as the shepherd of the mind which embraces pride in preference to truth, and which receives appearance rather than reality ; for the interpretation of the name Jethro is " superfluous," and superfluity is pride adopted for the purpose of inti'oducing error into correct life ; whicli is the cause why different things are looked upon as right in different cities, and not those principles which ought to be looked upon as just everywhere, inasmuch as it never sees, not even in a dream, the common and immovable principles of the justice of nature. For, it is said, that " Moses was the shepherd of the sheep of Jethro, the priest of Midian."

And this man himself prays that the flock may not be left without a shepherd, meaning by the flock the whole multitude of the parts of the soul ; but that they may meet with a good shepherd, who will lead them away from the nets of folly, and injustice, and all wickedness, and conduct them to the doctrines of learning and all other virtue ; for, says Moses, " Let the Lord the God of spirits and of all flesh look down upon man and upon this assembly."t And then, a little further on, he adds, " And the assembly of the Lord shall not be like sheep who have no shepherd."

But is it not well worth praying for, that the flock which is akin to each individual of us, and of so much value, may not be left without any superintendent or governor, so that we may not, through being filled with a love of the worst of all constitutions, an ochlocracy, which is a base copy of the best form, democracy, pass our lives for ever amid tumults, and disorders, and intestine seditions ? Certainly it is not anarchy alone that is an evil, through being the parent of ochlocracy, but also the insurrection of any lawless and violent force against authority ; for the tyrant who, by his own nature is hostile, is, in the case of cities, a man, but in the case of the body and the soul, and all transactions having reference to either, he is a mind resembling the brute beasts, besieging the citadel of each individual ; but not only are these dominations unprofitable, but so also are the governments and authority of other persons, who are very gentle, for gentleness is a line of conduct very likely to be despised, and injurious to both parties, both to the rulers and the subjects.

To the one from the disregard with which their subjects treat them, so that they are unable to manage any matter, whether of public or of their own private business successfully, are sometimes even compelled to abdicate their authority ; and to the others, because of their continual disrespect to their governors, disregarding all persuasion, so that they contract a habit of self-willed insolence, a possession of great evil. We must then think that one of these classes of governors differs in no respect from keepers of sheep, while the others resemble the sheep themselves, for the governors persuade the governed to be luxurious, through the extravagance of the supplies with which they provide them ; and the governed being unable to bear their satiety become insolent ; but what is really desirable is, that our mind should govern all our conduct, like a goatherd, or a cowherd, or a shepherd, or, in short, like any herdsman of any kind ; choosing in preference to what is pleasant that which is for the advantage both of himself and of his flock.

But the providence of God is the principal and almost the only cause that the divisions of the soul are not left entirely without any governor, and that they have met with a blameless and in all respects good shepherd. In consequence of whose appointment it is impossible that the company of the mind should become scattered ; for it will of necessity appear in one and the same order, looking to the authority of its one governor, since the heaviest burden of all is to be compelled to obey a variety of rulers. Thus, indeed, being a shepherd is a good thing, so that it is justly attributed, not only to kings, and to wise men, and to souls who are perfectly purified, but also to God, the ruler of all things ; and he who confirms this is not any ordinary person, but a prophet, whom it is good to believe, he namely who wrote the psalms; for he speaks thus, "The Lord is my shepherd, and he shall cause me to lack nothing ;'"* and let every one in his turn say the same thing, for it is very becoming to every man who loves God to study such a song as this, but above all this world should sing it.

For God, like a shepherd and a king, governs (as if they were a flock of sheep) the earth, and the water, and the air, and the fire, and all the plants, and living creatures that are in them, whether mortal or divine ; and he regulates the natm'e of the heaven, and the periodical revolutions of the sun and moon, and the variations and harmonious movements of the other stars, ruling them according to law and justice ; appointing, as their immediate superintendent, his own right reason, his first-born son, who is to receive the charge of this sacred company, as the lieutenant of the great king ; for it is said somewhere, "Behold, I am he ! I will send my messenger before thy face, who shall keep thee in the road."* Let therefore all the world, the greatest and most perfect flock of the living God, say, "

The Lord is my shepherd, and he shall cause me to lack nothing," and let every separate individual say the same thing ; not with the voice which proceeds from his tongue and his mouth, extending only through a scanty portion of the air, but with the wide spreading voice of the mind, which reaches to the very extremities of this universe ; for it is impossible that there should be a deficiency of anything that is necessary, where God presides, who is in the habit of bestowing good things in all fulness and completeness in all living beings. • XIII.

But there is a very beautiful encouragement to equality contained in the song before mentioned ; for in real truth, the man who appears to have everything else, and yet who is impatient under the authority of one master, is incomplete in his happiness, and is poor ; but if a soul is governed by God, having that one and only thing on which all other things depend, it is very naturally in no need of other things, regarding not blind riches, but only such as are endowed with real and acute sight. f All true' disciples have come to conceive an earnest and unalterable love for that; and therefore laughing at the mere keeping of shee]j, they have directed their attention to the attainment of a shepherd's knowledge ; and a proof of this is to be found in the case of Joseph, who was always studying that knowledge which is conversant about the body and vain opinions, not being able to rule and govern irrational nature (for it is customary for old '* Exodus xsiii, 20. f I have again followed Mangey. The text has ov Tv(p\bv irXovTov (SXhrovcya, to.

Si Kai a(p6dpa o^vSepKoutja Kal Qnvjxci^ovaa, which he pronounces corrupt and unintelligible, and translates as if were ^XtTTOVTa Ci Kai aipocpa o^vSepKoiivra Qav^a^ovcci. men to be appointed to offices of irresponsible authority ; but this man is ahvays young, even if after a lapse of time he may come to support old age, which has at last reached him) ; and being accustomed to nourish this and to lead it on to growth, he expects to be able to persuade the lovers of virtue to change and come over to him, in order^ that in so changing to irrational and inanimate objects, they may have no leisure for applying themselves to the studies of a rational soul. For Moses represents Joseph as saying, "

If the king," that is to say, the mind, the king of the body, " shall ask you, What is your occupation ? answer, We are men, the keepers of cattle."* When they hear this they are naturally impatient, not liking the idea, while they are rulers, of confessing that they hold the rank of subordinates ; for those who supply food to the outward senses, through the abundance of the objects perceptible only by them, become the slaves of those who are nourished, like servants who pay to their mistresses a compulsory reverence every day ; but those who preside over them are rulers, and they bridle the vehement impetuosity with which they are hurried on to luxury.

At first therefore, although they do not hear what is said with any pleasure, they will still keep silence, thinking it unseemly to discuss the difference between the employment of a keeper of cattle and a shepherd, before those who do not understand it ; but subsequently, when a contest about these things arises, they will contend with all their power, and will never desist till they have carried their point by main force, having exhibited the liberality, and nobleness, and royal character of their nature to the living God. Accordingly when the king asks, " What is your occupation ?'' they will answer " We are shepherds, we and our fathers."

Would they not then appear to boast as much of their occupation as shepherds, as the king himself, who is conversing with them, does of his mighty power and dominion ? At least they are testifying their high opinion of the profession of life which they have adopted, not in honour of themselves alone, but of their father also, as being wortliy of all possible care and diligence ; and yet, if the discussion had been merely about the care of goats or sheep, perhaps they would have been ashamed to make such an admission through desire to avoid dishonour ; for such occupations are accounted inglorious and mean among those who are loaded with great prosperity, without being at the same time endowed with prudence, and especially among kings. And the Egyptian character is by nature most especially haughty and boastful whenever so slight a breeze of prosperity does merely blow upon it, so that men of that nation look upon the pursuits of life and objects of ambition of ordinary men, as subjects for laughter and downright ridicule.

But since the matter before us, at present, is to consider the rational and irrational powers in the soul, those persons will naturally boast, who are persuaded that they are able to master the irrational faculties, by taking the rational ones for their allies. If therefore any envious or captious person should blame us, and say, " How then have ye, who are devoted to the employment of shepherds, and who profess to be occupied in the care and management of the flocks which belong to you, ever thought of approaching the country of the body and the passions, namely Egypt ? and why have ye not turned your voyage in another direction? You must say to him in reply, with all freedom of speech. We have come hither as sojourners, not as inhabitants." For in reality every soul of a wise man has heaven for its country, and looks upon earth as a strange land, and considers the house of wisdom his own home ; but the house of the body, a lodging-house, on which it proposes to sojourn for a while.

Therefore since the mind, the ruler of the flock, having taken the flock of the soul, using the law of nature as its teacher, governs it consistently and vigorously, rendering it worthy of approbation and great praise ; but when it manages it sluggishly and indulgently, with a disregard of law, then it renders it blameable. Very naturally, therefore, the one will assume the name of a long, being addressed as a shepherd, but the other will only have the title of a confectioner, or of a baker, being called a keeper of sheep, supplying the means of feasting and gluttonous eating to cattle accustomed to gorge themselves to satiety.

I have now therefore explained, in no superficial manner, in what way a husbandman differs from a tiller of the ground, and a shepherd from a keeper of sheep. There is also a third point, having some connection with what has already been said, which we will now proceed to speak of. For I consider that a horseman and a rider dififer ; meaning by this statement, not merely that one man who is carried on a neighing animal differs from another man who is carried on a similar beast, but the motion of the one is different from the motion of the other ; therefore the man who gets on a horse without any skill in horsemanship, is correctly called a rider, and he has given himself up to an irrational and restive animal, to such a degree that it is absolutely inevitable that he must be carried wherever the animal chooses to go, and if he fails to see beforehand a chasm in the earth, or a deep pit, it has happened before now that such a man, in consequence of the impetuosity of his course, has been thrown headlong down a precipice and dashed to pieces.

But a horseman, on the other hand, when he is about to mount, takes the bridle in his hand, and then taldng hold of the mane on the horse's neck, he leaps on ; and though he appears to be carried by the horse, yet, if one must tell the truth, he in reality guides the animal that carries him, as a pilot guides a ship. For the pilot too, appearing to be carried by the ship which he is managing, does in real truth guide it, and conducts it to whatever harbour he is himself desirous to hasten. While, therefore, the horse goes on in obedience to the rein, the horseman pats the horse, as if praising it ; but when it goes on with too great impetuosity, and is carried away beyond moderation, then he pulls it back with force and vigour, so as to restrain its speed. But if the horse continue to be disobedient, then he takes the whole bridle, and pulls him back, and drags back his neck, so that he is compelled to stop.

And for all his restiveness and his continued disregard of the rein, there are whips and spurs prepared, and all other instruments of punishment which have been invented by horse-breakers. And it is not wonderful : for when the horseman mounts, the art of horsemanship mounts too ; so that there then being two parties borne by the horse, and skilful in horsemanship, they will veiy naturally get the better of one animal who is subjected to them, and who is incapable of acquiring skill.

Therefore now, leaving the consideration of these neighing animals, and of the parlies earned by them, investigate, if you will, the condition of your own soul. For in its several parts you will find both horses and a rider in the fashion of a charioteer, just as you do in external thingsNow, the horses are appetite and passion,' the one being male and the other female. On this account, the one giving itself airs, wishes to be unrestrained and free, and holds its head erect, as a male animal naturally does ; and the other, not being free, but of a slavish disposition, and rejoicing in all kinds of crafty wickedness, devours the house, and destroys the house, for she is female. And the rider and charioteer is one, namely the mind. When, indeed, he mounts with prudence, he is a charioteer ; but when he does so with folly, then he is but a rider. For a fool, through ignorance, is unable to keep hold of the reins ; but they, falling from his hands, drop on the ground. And the animals, immediately that they have got the better of the reins, run on in an ill-regulated and unrestrained course.

But the man who has mounted behind them, not being able to take hold of anything by which he may steady himself, falls, and lacerating his knees and his hands and his face, like a miserable man as he is, he bitterly weeps over his disaster; and after banging by his feet to the chariot after he has been overturned, he is suspended, with his face upwards, lying on his back ; and as the chariot proceeds, he is dragged along.'and injured.in his head, and neck, and both his shoulders ; and then, being hurried on in this direction and in that, and being dashed against everything which lies in the way, he endures a most pitiable death. He then meets with an end, such as I have been describing ; and the chariot, being lightened by his fall and bounding along violently, when, at last, it is dashed to the ground in the rebound, is easily broken to pieces, so that it can never again be joined or fastened together. And the animals, being now released from everything which could restrain them, proceed at random, and are frantic, and do not cease galloping on, till they are tripped up and fall, or till they are hurried over some high precipice, and so are dashed to pieces and destroyed.

In this manner, then, it seems that the whole chariot of the soul is destroyed, with its passengers ; and all through the carelessness or unskilfulness of the driver. But it is desirable for them that such horses, and such drivers, and riders, so wholly without skill, should be destroyed, in order that the faculties of virtue may be roused ; for when folly has fallen, it follows of necessity that wisdom must rise up. On this account Moses, in his passages of exhortation, says, " If thou goest forth to battle against thy enemies, and if thou seest numbers of horses, and riders, and people, be not afraid, because the Lord thy God is with thee."* For we must neglect anger and desire, and, in short, all the passions, and indeed the whole company of reasonings, which are mounted upon each of the passions as upon horses, even if they believe that they can exert irresistible strength ; at least, all those must do so who have the power of the great King holding a shield over them, and in every place, and at every time, fighting in their defence.

But the divine army is the body of virtues, the champions of the souls that love God, whom it becomes, when they see the adversary defeated, to sing a most beautiful and becoming hymn to the God who giveth the victory and the glorious triumph ; and two choruses, the one proceeding from the conclave of the men, and the other from the company of the women, will stand up and sing in alternate songs a melody responsive to one another's voices.

And the chorus of men will have Moses for their leader ; and that of the women will be under the guidance of Miriam, " the purified outward sense." f For it is just that hymns and praises should be uttered in honour of God without any delay, both in accordance with the suggestions of the intellect and the perceptions of the outward senses, and that each instrument should be struck in harmony, I mean those both of the mind and of the outward sense, in gratitude and honour to the holy Saviour. Accordingly, all the men sing the song on the sea-shore, not indeed with a blind mind, but seeing sharply, Moses being the leader of the song ; and women sing, who are in good truth the most excellent of their sex, having been enrolled in the lists of the republic of virtue, Miriam being their leader.

And the same hymn is sung by both the choruses, having a most admirable burden of the song which is beautiful to be sung. And it is as follows : " Let us sing unto the Lord, for he has been glorified gloriously ; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." J For no one, if he searches ever so eagerly, can ever discover a more excellent victory than that by which the most mighty army, four-footed, restive, and proud as it was, of the passions and vices was overthrown. For the vices are four in genus, and the passions likewise are equal in number. Moreover, the mind, -which is the character of them all, the one -which hates virtue and loves the passions, has fallen and perished — the mind, -which delighted in pleasures and appetites, and deeds of injustice and wickedness, and likewise in acts of rapine and of covetousness. Very beautifully, therefore, does the lawgiver in his recommendations, teach us not to elect as a chief, a man who is a breeder of horses, thinking that such a one is altogether uusuited to exercise authority, inasmuch as he is in a frenzy about pleasures and appetites, and intolerable loves, and rages about like an unbridled and unmanageable horse. For he speaks thus, "

Thou shalt not be able to set over thyself a man that is a stranger, because he is not thy brother ; because he will not multiply for himself his horses, and will not turn his people towards Egypt." * Thei'efore, according to the most holy Moses, no man that was a breeder of horses was ever born fit for dominion ; and yet some one perhaps may say that power in cavalry is a great strength to the king, not inferior either to infantry or to a naval force, but in many places far more advantageous than either, and especially in those cases in which one has need of swiftness of motion without delay, but prompt and energetic, when the times do not admit of delay, but are at the very crisis of action, so that those who arrive too late are very naturally not considered to have been sluggish so much as to have been wholly useless, the opportunity for action having passed by like a cloud.

And we would say to these people : My good men, the lawgiver is removing no protection whatever from the ruler, nor is he in any respect mutilating the army of his power which he has collected, by cutting off the force of cavalry which is the most efficient part of his army ; but he is endeavouring to the best of his power to increase and strengthen it, in order that his allies, contributing to its strength and number, may most easily destroy their enemies. For who else is equally skilful in marshalling and arraying armies, and in distributing them in squadrons, and in appointing captains of regiments and leaders of squadrons, and other commanders of large and small bodies, and in displaying a knowledge of all the other suggestions of tactics and strategy, • Deuteronomy xvii. 15. and in explaining the principles of the military art to those who will avail themselves of them skilfully, through the great superabundance of his knowledge of such matters?

But the question is not now about his force of cavalry, which it is necessary to collect around the rulers for the destruction of their enemies and the protection of their friends ; but concerning the in^ational, and immoderate, and unmanageable impetuosity of the soul, which it is desirable to check, lest it should turn all its people towards Egypt, the country of the body, and labour with all its might to render it devoted to pleasure and to the passions, rather than to the service of virtue and of God ; since it follows inevitably that he who has acquired a body of cavalry for himself, must, as he said himself, proceed on the road which leads to Egypt. For when the wave rises hioh and dashes over each side of the soul (looking upon it as a ship), that is to say, over the mind and the outward sense, being lifted up by evident passions and iniquities which blow fiercely upon it, so that the soul leans on one side and is nearly over-balanced ; then, as is natural, the mind becoming water-logged, goes down, and the deep in which it is sunk and overwhelmed is the body, which is compared to Egypt.

Beware, therefore, never to occupy yourself in this kind of horse-breeding, for they who pursue the other kind are themselves also blameable, for how can they not be ? inasmuch as by them irrational animals are exceedingly humoured, and from their houses troops of well-fed horses continually go forth ; while to the men who conduct them, not a person is found who ever gives the slightest contribution to relieve their wants, nor any present to increase their superfluities. But, nevertheless, they err in a lighter degree ; for these men who breed horses to contend for the prize, assert that by so doing they are adorning the sacred games and the assemblies, which are held in honour everywhere, and they affirm that they are the causes not only of pleasure to the spectators, and of that kind of delight which arises from beholding the spectacle, but that they also give them an inducement to study and practise praiseworthy pursuits. For they who attribute to animals a desire for victory, using, out of their love of honour and rivalry in excellence, a certain unceasing exhortation, and encouragement, and eagerness, enduring pleasant labours, will never desist from what is suitable and becoming to them, till they attain the end that they desire.

But these men seek pretexts to excuse themselves, while doing wrong, but those who do wrong without excuse are they, who would make the mind a rider, and mount him upon his horse, though ignorant of the science of horsemanship, his horse being that four-footed vice and passion ; but if after having been taught the art of managing a chariot, you devote greater pains and study to it, and think yourself at last competent and able to manage horses, mount, and take hold of the reins. For thus, even if they are restive, you will not, by being thrown out of the chariot, receive wounds difficult to be cured, and also afford a subject of ridicule to all the spectators who delight in mischief; nor, on the other hand, will you be overwhelmed by your enemies coming against you or running over you from behind, since by your own speed you will outstrip and leave behind those who are coming after you, and you will be able to afford to disregard those who are coming towards you, because of your skill in getting safely out of the way.

It is not unnaturally, therefore, that Moses, singing his song of triumph on the destruction of the riders, nevertheless prays for complete safety for the horsemen ; for these are able, putting their bridles into the mouths of the irrational powers, to check the impetuosity of their superabundant violence. What then his prayer is must be told : he says, " Let Dan be a serpent in the way, sitting in the path, biting the heel of the horse ; and the horseman shall fall backwards, awaiting the salvation of the Lord."* But we must explain what is the enigmatical meaning which he conceals under this prayer, the name of Dan, being interpreted, means "judgment ;" therefore he here likens that power of the soul which investigates, and accurately examines, and distinguishes between, and, in some degree, decides on each part of the soul, to a dragon (and the dragon is an animal various in its movements, and exceedingly cunning, and ready to display its courage, and very powerful to repel those who begin acts of violence), but not to that friendly serpent, the counsellor of life, which is wont to be called Eve in his national language, but to the one made by Moses, of the material of brass, which, when those who had been bitten by the poisonous serpents, and who were at the point of death beheld, they are said to have hved and not to have died.

And these things thus expressed resemble visions and prodigies ; I mean the account of one dragon uttering the voice of a man and pouring his sophistries into most innocent dispositions, and deceiving the woman with plausible arguments of persuasion ; and of another becoming a cause of complete safety to those who looked upon it. But, in the allegorical explanations of these statements, all that bears a fabulous appearance is got rid of in a moment, and the truth is discovered in a most evident manner. The serpent, then, which appeared to the woman, that is to life depending on the outward senses and on the flesh, we pronounce to have been pleasure, crawling forward with an indirect motion, full of innumerable wiles, unable to raise itself up, ever cast dowQ on the ground, creeping only upon the good things of the earth, seeking lurking places in the body, burying itself in each of the outward senses as in pits or caverns, a plotter against man, designing destruction to a being better than itself, eager to kill with its poisonous but painless bite.

But the brazen serpent, made by Moses, we explain as being the disposition opposite to pleasure, namely, patient endurance, on which account it is that he is represented as having made it of brass, which is a very strong material. He, then, who with sound judgment contemplates the appearance of patient endurance, even if he has been previously bitten by the allurements of pleasure, must inevitably live ; for the one holds over his soul a death to be averted by no prayers, but self-restraint proffers him health and preservation of life ; and temperance, which repels evils, is a remedy and perfect antidote for intemperance. And every wise man looks upon what is good as dear to him, which is also altogether calculated to ensure his preservation. So that when Moses prays that it may happen to Dan, either himself, to be that serpent (for the words may be understood in either sense), he means a sequent closely resembling the one which has been made by himself, but not like the one which appeared to Eve, for then the prayer is an entreaty for good things ; therefore the character of patient endurance is good, and capable of receiving immortality, which is the perfect good.

But the character of pleasure is evil, bringing in its train the greatest of all puuishments, death. Ou which account Moses says, "Let Dan become a serpent," and that not in any other place rather than in the road. For the indulgences of intemperance and gluttony, and whatever other vices the immoderate and insatiable pleasures, when completely filled with an abundance of all external things, produce and bring forth, do not allow the soul to proceed onwards by the plain and straight road, but compel it to fall into ravines and gidfs, until they utterly destroy it ; but those practices which adhere to patience, and endurance, and moderation, and all other virtues, keep the soul in the straight road, leaving no stumbling block in the way, against which it can stumble and fall. Veiy naturally, therefore, has Moses declared that temperance clings to the right way, because it is plain that the contrary habit, intemperance, is always straying from the road.'

And the expression, " Sitting in the path," suggests some such meaning as this, as I persuade myself : a path is a road calculated for riding horses and driving carriages on, well beaten by men and beasts. This road they say is very like pleasure, for almost from their earliest birth to extreme old age men proceed and walk along it, and with great indolence and easiness of temper spend all their lives in it, and not men only, but every species of animal whatever ; for there is no single thing which is not attracted by the allurements of pleasure, and which is not, at times, entangled in its multifarious nets, from which it is very difficult to escape. But the paths of prudence, and temperance, and the other virtues, even though they may not be utterly untravelled, are, at all events, not beaten much ; for the number of those who proceed by those roads, and who philosophise in a genuine spirit, and who form associations with virtue alone, disregarding, once for all, all other allurements, is veiy small.