The Works of Philo (complete)

Moreover, he also enacts laws for the whole of Egypt, that they should honour them, and pay taxes and tribute to them every year as to their kings ; for he commands them to take a fifth § part of the corn, that is to say, to store up in the treasury abundant materials and nourishment for the five outward senses, in order that each of them might rejoice while filling itself unrestrainedly with suitable food, and that it might weigh down and overwhelm the mind with the J Genesis xlv. 22. § Genesis xlvii. 24. multitude of things -which were thus brought upon it; for during the banquet of the outer senses, the mind is labouring under a famine, as, on the contrary, when the outward senses are fasting, the mind is feasting. Do you not see that the five daughters of Salpaad, which we, usiug allegorical expressions, call the outward senses, were boru of the tribe of Manasseh, who is the son of Joseph, the elder son in point of time, but the younger in rank and power ? and very naturally, for he is so called from forgetfulness, which is a thing of equal power with an outward sense.

But recollection is placed in the second rank, after memory, of which Ephraim is the namesake ; and the interpretation of the name of Ephraim is, " bearing fruit ;" and the most beautiful and nutritious fruit in souls is a memory which never forgets ; therefore the virgins speak to one another in a becoming manner, saying, " Our father is dead." Now the death of recollection is forgetfulness : " And he has died not for his own sin,"* speaking very righteously, for forgetfulness is not a voluntary affection, but is one of those things which are not actually in us, but which come upon us from without.

And they were not his sons, but his daughters ; since the power of memory, as being what has its existence by its own nature, is the parent of male children ; but forgetfulness, arising from the slumber of reason, is the parent of female children, for it is destitute of reason ; and the outward senses are the daughters of the irrational part of the soul. But if any one has outran him in speed, and has become a follower of Moses, though he is not yet able to keep pace with him, he will use a compound and mixed number, namely, that of five and seventy, which is the symbol of the nature which is both perceptible by the outward senses and intelligible by the intellect, the two uniting together for the production of one irreproachable species.

1 very much admire Rebecca, who is patience, because she, at that time, recommends the man who is perfect in his soul, and who has destroyed the roughnesses of the passions and vices, to flee and return to Charran ; for she savs, " Now, therefore, my child, hear my voice, and rise up and depart, and flee away to Laban, my brother, to Charran, and dwell with him certain days, until the anger and rage of thy brother is turned from being against thee, and till he forgets what thou hast done to him."* And it is with great beauty that she here calls goiug by the road, which leads to the outward senses, a fleeing away ; for, in truth, the mind is then a fugitive, when, having left its own appropriate objects which are comprehensible to the understanding, it turns to the opposite rank of those which are perceptible by the outward senses. And there are cases in which to run away is useful, when a person adopts this line of conduct, not out of hatred to his superior, but in order to avoid the snares which are laid for him by his inferior. What, then, is the recommendation of patience ? A most admirable and excellent one.

If ever, she says, you see the passion of rage and anger highly provoked and excited to ferocity either in thyself or in any one else, which is nourished by irrational and unmanageable nature, do not excite it further and make it more savage, for then perhaps it will inflict incurable wounds ; but cool its fervour, and pacify its too highly inflamed disposition, for if it be tamed and rendered tractable it will do you less injury. What, then, are the means by which it can be tamed and pacified ? Having, as far as appearance goes, assumed another form and another character, follow it, first of all, wherever it pleases, and, opposing it in nothing, admit that you have the same objects of love and hatred with itself, for by these means it will be rendered propitious ; and, when it is pacified, then you may lay aside your pretence, and, not expecting any longer to suffer any evil at its hand, you may with indifference return to the care of your own objects ; for it is on this account that Charran is represented as full of cattle, and as having tenders of flocks for its inhabitants.

For what region could be more suitable for irrational nature, and for those who have undertaken the care and superintendence of it, than the external senses which exist in us ? Accordingly, when the practiser of virtue asks, "From whence come ye?" the shepherds answer him truly, that they come "from Charran. "f For the irrational powers come from the external sense, as the rational ones come from the mind. And when he further inquires whether they know Laban, they very naturally assert that they do know him, for the outward sense is acquainted with complexion and with every distinctive quality, as it thinks ; and of complexion and distinctive qualities Laban is the symbol.

And he himself, when at last he is made perfect, will quit the abode of the outward senses, and will set up the abode of the soul as belouging to the soul, which, while still among labours and among the external senses, he gives a vivid description of; for he says, "When shall I make myself, also, a house ?" * When, disregarding the objects of the external senses and the external senses themselves, shall I dwell in mind and intellect, being, in name, going to and fro among and dwelling among the objects of contemplation, like those souls which are fond of investigating invisible objects, which it is usual to call midwives ? For they also make suitable coverings and phylacteries for souls which are devoted to virtue ; but the strongest and most defensible abode was the fear of God, to those, at least, who have him for an impregnable fortress and wall. " For," says Moses, " when the midwives feared God they made themselves houses." t

The mind, therefore, going forth out of the places which are in Charran, is said " to have travelled through the land until it came to the place of Sichem, to a lofty oak." J And let us now consider what this travelling through the land means. The disposition which is fond of learning is inquisitive and exceedingly curious by nature, going everywhere without fear or hesitation and prying into every place, and not choosing to leave anything in existence, whether person or thing, not thoroughly investigated ; for it is by nature extraordinarily greedy of everything that can be seen or heard, so as not only not to be satisfied with the things of its own country, but even to desire foreign things which are established at a great distance.

At all events, they say that it is an absurd thing for merchants and dealers to cross the seas for the sake of gain, and to travel all round the habitable world, not allowing any considerations of summer, or winter, or violent gales, or contrary winds, or old age, or bodily sickness, or the society of friends, or the unspeakable pleasures arising from wife, or children, or one's other relations, or love of one's country, or the enjoyment of political connections, or the safe fruition of one's money and other possessions, or, in fact, anything whatever, whether great or small, to be any hindrance to them ; and yet for men, for the sake of that most beautiful and desirable of all possessions, the only one which is peculiar to the human race, namely, wisdom, to be unwilling to cross over every sea and to penetrate every recess of the earth, inquiring whenever they can find anything beautiful either to see or to hear, and tracing out such things with all imaginable zeal and earnestness, until they arrive at the enjoyment of the things which are thus sought for and desired.

Do thou then, O my soul, travel through the land, and through man, bringing if you think fit, each individual man to a judgment of the things which concern him ; as, for instance, what tho body is, and under what influences, whether active or passive, it co-operates with the mind ; what the external sense is, and in what manner that assists the dominant mind ; what speech is, and of what it becomes the interpreter so as to contribute to virtue ; what are pleasure and desire ; what are pain and fear ; and what art is capable of supplying a remedy for these things ; by the aid of which a man when infected with these feelings may easily escape, or else perhaps may never be infected at all : what folly is, what intemperance, what committing injustice, what the whole multitude of other diseases, which it is the nature of all destructive vice to engender; and also what are the means by which they can be averted. And also, on the contrary, what justice is, what prudence is, and temperance, and manly courage, and deliberate wisdom, and in short what each virtue is, and what the mastery over the passions is, and in what way each of these virtues is usually produced.

Travel also through the greatest and most perfect being, namely this world, and consider all its parts, how they are separated in respect of place and united in respect of power ; and also what is this invisible chain of harmony and unity, which connects all those parts ; and if while considering these matters, thou canst not easily comprehend what thou seekest to know, persevere and be not wearied ; for these matters are not attainable without a struggle, but they are oidy found out with difficulty and by means of much and great labour ; on which account the man fond of learning is taken up to the field of Sichem ; and the name Sichem, being interpreted means, "a shoulder," and intimates labour, since it is on the shoulders that men are accustomed to bear burdens. As Moses also mentions in another passage, when speaking of a certain athlete he proceeds in this manner, "

He put his shoulder to the labour and became a husbandman."* So that never, 0 my mind, do thou become effeminate and yield ; but even if any thing does appear difficult to be discovered by contemplation, still opening the seeing faculties that are in thyself, look inwards and investigate existing things more accurately, and never close thy eyes whether intentionally or unintentionally ; for sleep is a blind thing as wakefulness is a sharp-sighted thing. And it is well to be content if by assiduity in investigation it is granted to thee to arrive at a correct conception of the objects of thy search. Do you not see that the scripture says that a lofty oak was planted in Sichem ? meaning under this figurative expression to represent the labour of instruction which never gives in, and never bends through weariness, but is solid, firm, and invincible, which the man who wishes to be perfect must of necessity exert, in order that the tribunal of the soul, by name Dinah, for the interpretation of the name Dinah is "judgment" may not be seized by the exertions of that man who, being a plotter against prudence, is labouring in an opposite direction.

For he who bears the same name as this place, namely Sichem, the son of Hamor, that is, of irrational nature ; for the name Hamor means " an ass ; " giving himself up to folly and being bred up with shamelessness and audacity, infamous man that he was, attempted to pollute aud to defile the judicial faculties of the mind ; if the pupils and friends of wisdom, Sichem and Levi, had not speedily come up, having made the defences of their house safe, aud destroyed those who were still involved in the labour devoted to pleasure and to the indulgence of the passions and uncircumcised. For though there was a sacred scripture that, " There should be no harlot among the daughters of the seer, Israel,'' f these men, having ravished a virgin soul, hoped to escape notice ; for there is never a scarcity of avengers against those who violate treaties ; but even though some persons fancy there may be, they will only fancy it, and will in the reality of the fact be proved to entertain a false opinion.

For justice hates the wicked, and is implacable, and a relentless avenger of all unrighteous actions, overthrowing the ranks oi those who defile virtue, and when they are overthrown, then again the soul, which before appeared to be defiled, changes and returns to its virgin state. I say, which appeared to be defiled, because, in fact, it never was defiled ; for of involuntary accidents that which affects the patient is not in reality his suffering, just as what is done by a person who does wrong unintentionally, the wrong is not really his action.

In the treatise preceding the present one, we discussed the question of rewards to the best of our ability. Our present purpose is to examine who is the heir of the things of God ; for after the wise man heard the oracle, which being divinely given, said, " Thy reward is exceedingly great;"* lie inquired, saying, " What wilt thou give me, O master? And I shall depart childless : but my son who is the child of my handmaid will inherit after me, this Eliezer of Damascus." And in another place he says, " Since thou hast not given me any seed, but one born in my house shall be my heir." And yet who would not have been amazed at the dignity and greatness of him who delivered this oracle, so as to become silent and mute before him, if not out of fear, still at all events from excess of joy ?

For excessive griefs stop the mouth, and so also do excessive joys ; on which account Moses confesses that he is "a man of a slight voice and slow of speech from the time when God first began to converse with him.''f And this testimony of the prophet is unerring ; for it is natural for the organs of speech to be checked, and for the reason which is collected in the mind to be borne onwards with unrestrained impetuosity, philosophically examining the unceasing beauty of ideas not of words, with fluent and sublime power ; and the most admirable virtues are boldness and freedom of speech at suitable times towards one's betters, so that the sentence in the comic poet appears to me to be uttered with truth rather than with comic humour : — If a slave is always dumb, He is scarcely worth a crumb : Let him, freely told, boldly speak.

When then has a slave freedom of speech towards his master? Is it not when he is conscious that he has not wronged him, but that he has done and said everything with a view to the advantage of his owner? When therefore is itproper for the servant of God to use freedom of speech to the ruler and master of himself, and of the whole word ? Is it not when he is free from all sins, and is aware in his conscience that he loves his master, feeling more joy at the fact of being a servant of God, than he would if he were sovereign over the whole race of mankind, and were invested without any effort on his part with the supreme authority over land and sea. And he mentions the ministrations and services by which Abraham displayed his love to his master in the last sentence of the divine oracle given to his son, "

I will give to thee and to thy seed all this land, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because Abraham thy father obeyed my voice, and kept all my precepts, and all my commandments, and my laws, and my judgments." * And it is the greatest possible praise of a servant that he does not neglect a single thing of the commandments which his master lays upon him, but that he labours earnestly without any hesitation and with all his vigour, and even beyond his power to perform them all with a well affected mind.

There are persons, then, to whom it is becoming to listen but not to speak, with respect to whom it is said, " Be silent and hear," f a very admirable injunction ; for ignorance is a very bad and a very audacious thing, the first remedy for which is silence, and the second, attention to those who present you with anything worthy of your listening to. Let no one, however, think that this is all that is signified by those few words, " Be silent and hear ; " but that there is also something greater in them which may give a lesson to any one.

For these words do not recommend you only to be silent with your tongues, and to hear with your ears, but also to conduct yourself thus in both these respects in your soul ; for many persons when they have come to listen to some one, have nevertheless not come with their minds, but wander outside, and keep on thinking of thousands upon thousands of things within themselves, whether concerning their relations, or strangers, or themselves, which at that moment they ought not to remember at all, but which in short they, re-collecting to themselves in regular order, and thus by reason of the excessive tumult which they keep alive in themselves, they are unable to hear the speaker. For he speaks as if he were not among men, but among inanimate statues who have indeed ears, but no sense of hearing. If, therefore, the mind chooses to associate neither with things wandering about outside, nor with those which are stored up within it, but, remaining quiet and silent, directs its whole attentiou to the speaker, keeping silent in accordance with the injunction of Moses, it will be able to listen with all attention, but otherwise it would not be able to do so.

Silence, then, is a desirable thing for those wTho are ignorant, but for those who desire knowledge, and who have at the same time a love for their master's freedom of speech, is a most necessaiy possession. Accordingly it is said, in the book of Exodus, " The Lord will fight for us, and you will be silent."* And, immediately afterwards, there is added a scripture in the following words : " And the Lord said unto Moses, Why dost thou cry unto me ?'' As it is proper for those persons to be silent who can say nothing worthy of being listened to, and for those to speak who, through love of wisdom, believe in God ; and not only to speak quietly but to cry out with exceeding noise, not indeed with the noise of the mouth and tongue, by means of which they say that the air is affected with a rotatory motion, and so is rendered capable of being perceived by the hearing, but by the all-instructed and very loudly speaking organ of that voice of which no mortal man is the hearer, but only the uncreated and immortal God.

For the well-arranged and carefully attuned melody of that harmony which is perceptible by the intellect, the invisible musician, perceptible by the intellect, is alone able to comprehend ; but no one of those involved in the entanglements of the outward senses can appreciate it. Accordingly, wheu the entire organ of the mind sounds according to the symphony of the diapason and of the double diapason, the hearer, as it were, asks Cfor he does not ask in reality, since everything is known to God), "Why dost thou cry unto me?" Is it in supplication that evils may be averted, or in thankfulness for a participation in good things which have been already enjoyed, or for a combination of both reasons ?

But the man who appears to be endued with a thin voice, and with slowness of speech, and to be almost dumb, is nevertheless found to be talkative, so that in one place he is represented not merely as speaking, but even as crying out ; and, in another, as exerting a ceaseless and uninterrupted flow of words ; for, says the scripture, " Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice."* He did not speak in brief periods or sentences, but in one continuously extended speech ; and God also instructed him, not in brief sentences, but gave him one unbroken and continuous answer. And whenever there is an answer, there then must of necessity have been, in every case, a question. But whenever any one puts a question it is respecting something which he does not know, because he is desirous to learn ; inasmuch as he is aware that there is nothing so useful with regard to acquiring knowledge as to ask, to inquire, to investigate, to appear to know nothing, and not to have an idea that one comprehends anything firmly. The wise, therefore, take God for their teacher and instructor ; and those who are less perfectly initiated in wisdom take the wise men for theirs. On which account they say, also, "

Do thou speak with us, and let not God speak to us, lest we die."t And the virtuous man uses such freedom of speech as not only to speak and cry out, but even to advance positive claims with true confidence and genuine feeling ; for the expression, " If thou forgivest them their sin, forgive them ; and if not, then wipe me out of the book which thou hast written." J And this sentence also, "Did I conceive all this people in my womb? Or have I brought them forth, that thou sayest unto me, Take them up into thy bosom, as a nurse takes her sucking child. "§ And also that passage where we read, " From whence am I to get flesh to give to all this people, because they cry unto me ? Shall sheep and oxen be sacrificed, or shall all the fish of the sea be collected together, to satisfy them ?" And again, " Lord, why hast thou afflicted this people ?" And again, " Why hast thou sent me?" And, in another place, " From the time that J Exodus xxxii. 32. § Numbera xi. 11. I went forth, to speak to Pharaoh in thy name, he has afflicted the people." And again, "

Thou hast not delivered thy people."* For these, and similar things, any one would have feared to say to any king of this earth ; but to deliver such sentiments, and to speak freely to God, was an instance of what ought not to be called extreme audacity, but of good confidence ; because all the wise are dear to God, and especially those who are wise with the wisdom of the most sacred giving of the law. And freedom of speech is nearly akin to friendship ; since to whom would any one speak with more freedom than to his own friend ? very appropriately therefore is Moses spoken of in the scriptures as dear to God, when he goes through an account of all the dangers which he had incurred by reason of his boldness, in such a way that they seem to deserve to be attributed to friendship rather than to arrogance ; for audacity belongs to the character of the arrogant man ; but good confidence belongs to the friend.

But consider again that confidence is tempered with prudent caution ; for the question, " What wilt thou give to me?"f displays confidence, and the addition, "0 master," exhibits prudent confidence. And being in the habit of using two causes or two appellations, with respect to the cause of all things, namely the title of Lord, and also that of God, he has in this instance used neither of them, but calls them by the name of master, speaking with caution and with exceeding propriety ; and indeed the two appellations lord and master, are said to be synonymous. But even if the two names are one and the same things, still the titles differ in respect of the meaning attached to them ; for the title lord, ? 'jgiog, is derived from the word, zvgog authority, which is a firm thing, in contradistinction to that which is infirm and invalid, cixvgov.

But the term master, diffirorng, is derived from Sio-fibg, a chain ; from which word d'sog, fear, also comes in my opinion, so that the master is a lord, and, as one may say a lord, to be feared, not only inasmuch as he has authority and dominion over every thing, but also inasmuch as he is able to strike one with fear and terror; and perhaps also since he is the master of the universe; holding it together in such a manner as to be insoluble, and binding up again what portions of it are dissolved. But he who says, " Master, what wilt thou give unto me ? " does, in the real meaning of his words say, this, "lam not ignorant of thy overpowering might, and I know the formidable nature of thy sovereignty ; I fear and tremble, and again I feel confidence ; for thou hast given me an oracular command not fear, thou hast given to me the tongue of instruction, that I might know when I ought to speak ; thou hast unloosened my mouth which before was sewed up, thou hast opened it, and hast also made it articulate ; thou hast appointed it to utter what ought to be spoken, confirming that sacred oracle, "

I will open thy mouth, and I will tell thee what thou oughtest to speak." * For who was I, that thou shouldest give me a portion of thy speech, that thou shouldest promise me a reward as il it were my due, namely, a more perfect blessing of thy grace and bounty ?

Am I not an emigrant from my country ? am I not driven away from my kindred? am I not banished and alienated from my father's house ? do not all men call me an outcast and a fugitive, a desolate and dishonoured man ? but thou, 0 master, art my country, thou art my kindred, thou art my paternal hearth, thou art my honour, thou art my freedom of speech, my great, and famous, and inalienable wealth, why therefore shall I not have courage to say what I think ? and why shall I not ask questions, when I desire to learn something But nevertheless, though I say that I feel confidence, I do again confess that I am stricken with awe and amazement, and that I do not feel within myself an unmixed spirit of battle, but fear mingled with confidence, as perhaps many people will easily imagine, a closely combined conjunction of the two feelings ; therefore I drink insatiably of this well-mixed cup, which persuades me neither to speak freely without prudent caution ; nor, on the other hand, to think so much of caution as to lose my freedom of speech.

For I have learnt to appreciate my own nothingness, and to look up to the excessive and unapproachable height of thy munificence; and whenever I know that I am myself " but dust and ashes," or even, what is still more worthless, if there is any such thing, then I feel confidence to approach thee, humbling myself, and casting myself down to H 2 the ground, so completely changed as scarcely to seem to exist.

Now such a disposition of the soul, Abraham, the inspector, has deeply engraved on my memory. For, says the scripture, " Abraham came near and said, Now have I begun to speak unto the Lord, I that am but dust and ashes ;" * since then there was an opportunity given to the creature to approach the Creator, when he recognised his own nothingness. But the expression, " What wilt thou give me?" is not so much the language of one who is in doubt, as of one feeling and expressing gratitude at the multitude and greatness of the blessings which he has already enjoyed. " What wilt thou give me ?" for, in fact, what more is there left for me to expect ? for, O bountiful God ! thy graces and mercies are boundless and unlimited, and they have no boundary and no end, bursting up like fountains full of perfection, which are continually drawn upon and are never dry.

And it is worth while to contemplate, not merely the ever-abounding torrent of thy bounties, but also those fields of ours which are irrigated by them ; for if a superfluous and too excessive stream be poured over them, then the place will become a marshy and swampy plain instead of fertile land ; for our land has need of irrigation, carefully measured out with a view to cause fertility, and not unmeasured. And on this account I will ask, What wilt thou give me, thou who hast already bestowed on me unspeakable mercies, and almost all things, so that mortal nature is incapable of containing them ? For what remains that I wish to know, and to have, and to acquire, is this : who could be worthy of thy works, who could deserve to inherit them? "

I shall depart from life childless ;"f having received a short-lived and ephemeral blessing, which speedily passes away, when I prayed for the contrary, namely, for one which should last many days, a long time ; which should be free from all mishap, which should never die, but should be able to sow seeds of itself, and to stretch forth roots for the sake of giving it firmness, and which should raise its trunk upwards to heaven, and hold its head on high ; for it is necessary that human virtue must walk upon the earth, and must, at the same time, strive to reach heaven ; that there being hospiGenesis xviii. 27. + Genesis xv. 2. tably received by immortality, it may pass all future time in freedom from all evil, for I know that thou hatest a barren and unproductive soul, thou who art thyself the supporter of things that have no existence, and the parent of all tilings.

Since thou hast given especial grace to the race which has the faculty of seeing, so that it shall never be barren, and never be childless ; and as I myself have been assigned to that race as a part of it, I am justly desirous of an heir ; for, perceiving that that race is inextinguishable, I think it would be a most shameful thing of me to be indifferent to the sight of my own nature, separated from all that is good. Therefore I am a suppliant to thee, and I implore thee, that those seeds and sparks being kindled and cherished, the saving light of virtue may burn up and give light, which being borne on like a torch, delivered from hand to hand in constant succession, may last as long as the world. Moreover, thou hast inspired those men who practise virtue with a desire for children of the sowing and generation of the soul ; and they, having received such a portion have, in their joy, spoken and said, "

The children which God hath mercifully given to thy servant,"* of whom migration is the nurse and guardian, whose souls are simple, and tender, and well disposed, being calculated easily to receive the beautiful and most God-like impressions of virtue ; and teach me also this saying, " Whether the son of Meshech, my servant, born in my house, is competent to become the inheritor of thy graces," for up to this time I have not received the son whom I hoped for, and of the one whom I have received I have no hope.

But who Meshech is, and who her son is, must be examined in no superficial manner. Now the interpretation of the name Meshech is, " out of a kiss ;" but a kiss differs from loving ; for the one exhibits usually a discovery of souls united together by good-will, but the other intimates only a bare and superficial salutation when some necessity has brought the two parties to the same place. For as the meaning " to stoop " (x\j<xruv) is not contained in (avaxuvreiv) " to lift up the head," nor "to drink" (irivu) in, "to absorb" (-/.ara^hu), nor "a horse" (SWog) in the word (/j.doo-i'x^og) "a bag," so also " to love" (tpiXsTv) is not necessarily contained in "to kiss" (y.ara. ip/XsTv) ; since men yielding to the bitter necessities of life offer this salutation to numbers of their enemies. But what that salutation is which consists of a kiss, but not of sincere friendship for us, I will explain without any reservation or concealment.

It is, forsooth, that life which exists in union with the external senses, which is called Meshech, being completely secured and defended, which there is no one who does not love, which men in general look upon as their mistress, but which virtuous men consider their handmaid, not a foreign slave or one bought with a price, but born in the house, and in some sense, a fellow citizen with themselves. Well, one class of these men have learnt to kiss this, not to love it ; but the other class have learnt to love it to excess, and to think it an object of desire above all things. But Laban, the hater of virtue, will neither be able to kiss the virtues which are assigned to the man who is inclined to the practice of virtue, but, making his own life to depend on hypocrisy and false pretences, he, as if indignant, for he is not in reality affected, says, " I was not accounted worthy to kiss my children and my daughters;"* speaking very naturally and decorously, for we have all been taught to hate irony irreconcileably.

Do thou, therefore, love the virtues, and embrace them with thy soul, and then you will be not at all desirous to kiss, which is but the false money of friendship ; — " For have they not yet any part or inheritance in thy house ? have they not been reckoned as aliens before thee ? and hast not thou sold them and devoured the money ?f" so that you could neither at any subsequent time recover it, after having devoured the price of their safety and their ransom. Do you pretend, therefore, to wish to kiss, or else to wage endless war against all the judges ? But Aaron will not kiss Moses, though he will love him with the genuine affection of his heart. " For," says the scripture, " he loved him, and they embraced one another. "J

But there are three kinds of life. The first life, to God ; the second, with respect to the creature ; the third, is on the borders of both, being compounded of the two others. Now, the life to God has not descended to us, and has not come to the necessities of the body. Again, life with respect to the creature has not wholly ascended up to heaven, nor has it sought to ascend, but it lurks in unapproachable recesses, and rejoices in a life which is no life. And the mingled kind is that one which often ascends upwards, being conducted upwards by the better part, and it gazes on divine things, and contemplates them ; but still it often turns back, being dragged in the contrary direction by the worse part : and when the portion of the better life, as if placed in the balance of a scale, outweighs the whole, then the weight of the opposite kinds of life is dragged in the contrary direction, so that the lightest weight appears to be in the opposite scale.

But Moses having, without any contest or doubt, given the crown of victory to that kind of life which is life to God, brings that forward as the best, likening the other two kinds to two women, one of whom he calls beloved, and the other hated, giving them both most appropriate names. For who is there who is not at times influenced by the pleasures and delights which he receives by means of his eyes, or by those which reach him through the medium of his ears, or of his sense of taste, or of his sense of smell and touch ? And who is there who does not hate the contrary things, want and self-denial, and a life of austerity, and seeking after knowledge, which has never any share in amusement or laughter, but is full of gravity, and cares and labours, loving contemplation, an enemy to ignorance, superior to money, and glory, and pleasure, but under the dominion of temperance and true glory, and of that wealth which 6ees and is not blind ? These, then, are at all times the eldest offspring of wisdom.

But Moses thinks those things which, though younger in point of time are nevertheless honourable by nature, worthy of the first honours of the birth-right, giving them a double share, and taking from the others half of their share ; for, says he, "If a man have two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and if they both bear children, then when he is about to distribute his property, he shall not be able to give the portion belonging to the first-born to the son of her who is beloved,"* namely, to the son of pleasure ; for he is but young, even though in point of time he may be old ; but he looks upon the son of her who is hated, namely, of wisdom, as the elder, ever since he was a child ; and, accordingly, to him he has assigned a double share. But because we have, on a previous occasion, explained the figurative sense of this passage, we will now pass on to what comes next, to the passage before us ; after we have first explained this point, that "

God is said to have opened the womb of her who was hated," and thus to have caused to arise an offspring of virtuous practices and good actions, while the wife, who was reputed to be beloved, was from that time forth barren: "For the Lord," says the scripture, "seeing that Leah was hated, opened her womb, but Rachel was barren."* Is it not then the case, that when the soul is pregnant, and begins to bring forth such things as are becoming to the soul, then all those objects of the outward senses are barren and unproductive, objects to which the salutation belongs, which is given by a kiss and not by genuine affection ? XL Each individual then among us is the son of life according to the outward sense, which he calls Meshech, honouring and admiring the foster-mother and nurse of the mortal race, namely, the outward sense, whom also, when the earthly mind, by name Adam, saw after it had been created, he named her life his own death ; for, says the scripture, "

Adam called his wife's name Eve (£wj}), because she was the mother of all living,"f that is to say, of those who are in real truth dead as to the life of the soul ; but they who really live have wisdom for their mother and the outward sense for their slave, which has been created by nature for the purpose of ministering to knowledge ; and the name of that man who was born of life (Z,urj), whom we have recognized by a kiss, he calls Damascus, which name, being interpreted, means " the blood of a sack;" by this figurative language, calling the body a sack, with great power and felicity ; and by blood, he means the life which depends on the blood.

For since the soul is spoken of in two ways, first of all as a whole, secondly, as to the dominant part of it, which, to speak properly, is the soul of the soul, just as the eye is both the whole orb, and also the most important part of that orb, that namely by which we see ; it seemed good to the law-giver that the essence of the soul should likewise be two-fold ; blood being the essence of the entire soul, and the divine Spirit being the essence of the dominant part of it : accordingly he says, in express words, " The soul of all flesh is the blood thereof.":}: He does well here to attribute the flow of blood to the mass of flesh, combining two things appropriate to one another ; but the essence of the mind he has not made to depend on any created thing, but has represented it as breathed into man by God from above. For, says Moses, " The Creator of the universe breathed into his face the breath of hfe, and man became a living soul,"* who also, it is recorded, was fashioned after the image of the Creator.

So that the race of mankind also is twofold, the one being the race of those who live by the divine Spirit and reason ; the other of those who exist according to blood and the pleasure of the flesh. This species is formed of the earth, but that other is an accurate copy of the divine image ; and that description of us which is but fashioned clay, and which is kneaded up with blood, has need, in no slight degree, of assistance from God ; on which account it is said, this Damascus of Eleazar.f But the name Eleazar, being interpreted, means, " God is my helper." Since the mass of the body, which is filled with blood, being of itself easily dissolved and dead, has its existence through, and is kept alive by, the providence of Gocl, who holds his arm and shield of defence over it, while our race cannot, by any resources of its own, exist in a state of firmness and safety for a single day. Do you not see that the second of the sons of Moses has also the same name as this man ? For " the name of the second," says the scripture, " was Eleazar." J And he adds the reason :

" for the Lord has been my helper, and has delivered me out of the hand of Pharaoh." But those who are still companions of that life which owes its existence to blood, and wbich is appreciable by the outward senses, are attacked by that disposition which is such a formidable disperser of piety, by name Pharaoh ; from whose sovereignty, full as it is of lawlessness and cruelty, it is impossible to escape, unless Eleazar be born in the soul, and unless one puts one's hope of succour in the only Saviour. And it is with particular beauty that he speaks of Damascus with reference, not to his father, but to his mother ; in order to show that the soul depending on blood, by means of which the brute animals live, is akin properly to the female race ; the race of his mother, and has no share in the male race. But this is not the case with virtue, that is with Sarah ; for she has none but a male offspring, being borne only of God who is the father of all things, being that authority which has no mother. " For truly," says the scripture, " she is my sister by my father's side, but not by my mother's."*

We have now explained what it was necessary for you to be apprised of as a preliminary. For the first part of the argument had a sort of enigmatical obscurity. But we must examine with more accurate particularity what the man who is fond of learning seeks. Perhaps then it is something of this sort : to know whether any one who is desirous of that life which is dependent on blood and who claims an'interest in the objects of the outward sense, can become an inheritor of incorporeal and divine things ? for of such only he who is inspired from above is thought worthy, having received a portion of heavenly and divine inheritance, being in fact the most pure mind, disregarding not merely the body but also the other fragment of the soul, which being devoid of reason is mixed up with blood, kindling the fervid passions and excited appetites. Accordingly it pushes its inquiries in this manner : since you have not given to me a seed which is capable of becoming its own instructor, namely, that seed which is able to be com prehended by the intellect, " Shall the slave born in my house be my heir ?" the offspring of that life which is dependent upon blood.

Then God, making haste, anticipated the speaker, sending, as one may say, instruction on in advanco of speech. " For immediately," says the scripture, " the voice of God came to him, saying, He shall not be thy heir ;"| nor any one else of those who come to an exhibition of the outward senses. For the incorporeal natures are the inheritors of those things which can only be appreciated by the intellect. And it has been especially observed here, that the scripture does not say he spoke to him or conversed with him, but the expression is, "The voice of God came to him;" as if God uttering a loud and unceasing sound, in order that the voice being thus distributed into every soul, might leave no part destitute of proper instruction, but that all parts might every where be filled with healthy learning.

Who, then, shall be the heir ? Not that reasoning which remains in the prison of the body according to its own voluntary intention, but that which is loosened from those bonds and emancipated, and which has advanced beyond the •walls, and if it be possible to say so, has itself forsaken itself. " For he," says the scripture, " who shall come out from thee, he shall be thy heir." Therefore if any desire comes upon thee, 0 soul, to be the inheritor of the good tilings of God, leave not only thy country,* the body, and thy kindred, the outward senses, and thy father's house, that is speech ; but also flee from thyself, and depart out of thyself, like the Cerybantes, or those possessed with demons, being driven to frenzy, and inspired by some prophetic inspiration. For while the mind is in a state of enthusiastic inspiration, and while it is no longer mistress of itself, but is agitated and drawn into frenzy by heavenly love, and drawn upwards to that object, truth removing all impediments out of its way, and making every thing before it plain, that so it may advance by a level and easy road, its destiny is to become an inheritor of the things of God.

But, 0 mind ! take confidence, and explain to us how you depart and emigrate from those former things, you who utter things perceptible only by the intellect to those who have been taught to hear rightly, always saying, I emigrated from my sojourn in the body when I learnt to despise the flesh, and I emigrated from the outward sense when I learnt to look upon the objects of outward sense as tilings which had no existence in reality — condemning its judicial faculties as spurious and corrupted, and full of false opinion, and also condemniDg the objects submitted to that judgment as speciously devised to allure and to deceive, and to snatch the truth from out of the middle of nature. Again, I departed from speech when I convicted it of great unreasonableness, although it talked of sublime subjects and puffed itself up ; for it dared a not inconsiderable deed of daring, namely, to show me bodies through the medium of shadows, and things by means of words, which wras impossible ; therefore it kept stumbling about over repeated obstacles, and kept on talking vainly, being unable by common expressions to give a clear representation and understanding of the peculiar properties of the subjects with which it was dealing.

But I, learning by experience, like an infant and untaught child, decided that it was better to depart from all these things, and to attribute the powers of each to God, who makes and consolidates the body, and who prepares the outward senses so as to feel appropriately, and who gives to speech the power of speaking at its desire ; and in the same manner in which you have departed from the other things, now rise up and emigrate from thyself. But what is the meaning of this expression ? Do not treasure up in thyself the faculties of perceiving, and thinking, and comprehending, but offer and dedicate these things to him who is the cause of thinking accurately, and of comprehending without being deceived.

But it is the holier of the all-sacred places in the temple which receives this offering ; for it appears that there are two ; the one discernible only by the intellect, and the other perceptible by the outward senses. Now, of these creatures which are perceptible by the outward senses, this world is the receptacle ; but of those things which are truly invisible, the world, which is discernible only by the intellect, is the magazine : but he that goes out from us and desires to become an attendant of God, is the inheritor of the much celebrated wealth of nature ; he bears witness, who says, " He brought him out, and said unto him, Look up to heaven ;" * since that is the treasury of the good things of God. " May the Lord," says he, " open to thee the treasury of his good things,t" — that is, the heaven ; out of which he who furnishes the supply does incessantly rain the most perfect joys. Look up, then, so as to convict the blind race of common men, which, though it appears to see, is blind.

For how can it be otherwise than blind, when it sees evil instead of good, and what is unjust instead of what is just, and the indulgence of the passions, instead of a mastery over them, and things mortal, instead of things immortal, and when it runs away from its monitors and correctors, and from conviction and instruction, and admits flatterers, and the reasonings of idleness, and ignorance, and luxury, all exerted in the cause of pleasure ? The good man, then, alone sees ; in reference to whom the ancients also called the prophets, seers.| But he who advanced further outwards, not only seeing, but seeing God, was called Israel ; the meaning of which name is, "seeing God " But others, even if they ever do open their eyes, still bend them down towards the earth, pursuing only earthly things, and being bred up among material objects ; for the one raises his eyes to the sky, beholding the manna, the divine t Deut. xxviii. 12.

J 1 Samuel ix. 9. word, the heavenly, incorruptible food of the soul, which is food of contemplation : but the others fix their eyes on garlic and onions, food which causes pain to the eyes, and troubles the sight, and makes men wink, and on other unsavoury food, of leeks, and dead fish, the appropriate provender of Egypt. " For," says the scripture, "we remembered the fish whicli we ate in Egypt without payment, and the gourds, and the cucumbers, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic ; but now our soul is dry, and our eyes behold nothing but manna."*

And the statement, "He led him out"t (hZflyaytv avrbv ?fw), has a bearing also on moral considerations, though some persons, through their want of instruction in moral philosophy, are accustomed to ridicule it, saying, " For is any one ever led out in (g^w z/odyzrai), or led in out {zlvipyjrat 1% w)? " " Certainly," I would reply, " you ridiculous and very foolish man ; for you have never learnt how to trace the dispositions of the soul ; but by this language of yours you only seek to understand those motions of bodies which are exerted in change of place. On which account it seems paradoxical to you to speak of any one coming out into (z^izyjrai i'i'gu), or going in out (s^gfp/sra/ b%u) ; but to those acquainted with Moses none of these things seem inconsistent." Would you not say that the perfect high priest when, being in the inmost shrine, he is performing his national sacrifices, is both within and without at the same time ? within in respect of his visible body, but without in respect of his soul, which is roaming about and wandering ?

And again, on the other hand, would you not say that a man who was not of the family consecrated to the priesthood, but who was a lover of God and beloved by God, though standing without the holy shrine, was nevertheless in reality in its inmost parts ? looking upon his whole life in the body as a sojourning in a foreign land ; but while he is able to live only in the soul, then he thinks that he is abiding in his own country. For every fool is cutside of friendship, even though he may not depart for one moment from daily association with people But every wise man is within friendship, even if he be dwelling at a distance, not merely in a different country, but in another climate and region of the world. But, according to Moses, a friend is so near to one as to differ in no respect from one's own soul, for he says, " the friend who is like thy soul."* And again he says, "

The priest shall not be a man by himself, when he goeth into the holy of holies, until he cometh out ;"f speaking not with reference to the motions of the body, but to those of the soul ; for the mind, while it is offering holy sacrifices to God in all purity, is not a human but a divine mind ; but when it is serving any human object, it then descends from heaven and becomes changed, or rather it falls to the earth and goes out, even though the mind may still remain within. Very correctly, therefore, it is said, he led him out (s^yaysv 2^00) of the prison according to the body, of the caves existing in ihe external senses, of the sophistries displayed in deceitful speech ; and beyond all this, out of himself and out of the idea that by his own self-exerted, self-implanted, and independent power he was able to conceive and comprehend.

And after he has conducted him out, he says to him, " Look up to heaven, and count the stars, if thou art able to number them ; thus shall be thy seed." J He says very beautifully, "Thus shall be thy seed," not so great shall it be, equal in number to the stars ; for he does not intend here to allude to their multitude only, but also to an infinite number of other circumstances which contribute to entire and perfect happiness. " Thus shall thy seed be," says God, as the ethereal firmament which thou beholdest, so heavenly, so full of unshadowed and pure brilliancy (for night is driven away from heaven, and darkness from virtue,) most thoroughly like the stars, beautifully adorned, having an arrangement which knows no deviation, but which is always the same and proceeding in the same way. For he means him to speak of the soul of the wise man as a copy of heaven, or, if one may use such a hyperbolical expression, as an actual heaven upon earth, having pure appearances in the air, and well arranged motions, and harmonious progress, and periodical revolutions of divine character, star-like and brilliant rays of virtue.

But if it is impossible to find out the number of the stars which are perceptible by the outward senses, how much more intellect ? for in proportion, I suppose, as that which judges is better or worse than that which is judged of (for the mind is better than the outward sense, and the outward sense is duller than the intellect ; in the same ratio do the subjects of the judgment differ : so that the objects of the intellect are infinitely superior to those of the outward senses ; for the eyes in the body are the smallest imaginable portion of the eye of the soul ; for the one is like the sun, but the others only resemble lamps, which are at one time lighted and at another extinguished.

Therefore that is a necessary addition which is subjoined, " Abraham believed in God,"* to the praise of him who did thus believe. And yet, perhaps, some one may say, " Do you judge this worthy of praise ? who would not give his attention to God when saying or promising anything, even if he were the most wicked and impious of all men ?" To whom we will reply, " Do not, do not, my good man, without further inquiry, either rob the wise man of his due praise, or attribute to unworthy persons that most perfect of the virtues, faith ; and do not blame our opinion on this point ; for if you are willing to enter upon a deeper investigation into this subject, and are not content with examining it superficially, you will then see clearly, that without the assistance or addition of something else, it is not easy to believe in God on account of that connection with mortality in which we are involved, which compels us to put some trust in money, and glory, and authority, and friends, and health, and vigour of body, and in numerous other things ; but to wash off all tbese extraneous things, to disbelieve in creation, which is, in all respects, untrustworthy as far as regards itself, and to believe in the only true and faithful God, is the work of a great and heavenly mind, which is no longer allured or influenced by any of the circumstances usually affecting human life.

And it is well added in the scripture, " And it was counted to him for righteousness :" for nothing is so righteous as to have an unalloyed and entire belief in the only God. But this, although both just and consistent with reason, was considered an incredible thing on account of the incredulity of the generality of men, whom the holy scripture con demns, saying, that " to anchor firmly and unchangeably on the only living God, is a thing to be admired among men, who have no possession of true unmingled good, but is not to be wondered at if truth guide the judgment ; but it is the especial attribute of justice.

The scripture proceeds : " And he said unto him I am God, who brought thee out of the land of the Chaldseans, so as to give thee this land to inherit it." These words exhibit not only a promise, but a confirmation of an ancient promise ; for the good which was previously bestowed upon him was the departure from the Chaldaean philosophy, which was occupied about the things of the air, which taught men to suppose that the world was not the work of God, but was God himself; and that good and evil is caused in the case of all existing things, by the motions and fixed periodical revolutions of the stars, and that on these motions the origin of all good and evil depends; and the equable (6/iaXn) and regular motion of these bodies in heaven, persuaded those simple meu to look upon these things as omens, for the name of the Chaldseans being interpreted is synonymous with equability (o/xaXoVjjs).

But the new blessing which is promised is the acquisition of that wisdom which is not taught by the outward senses, but is comprehended by the pure mind, and by which the best of all emigrations is confirmed ; when the soul departs from astronomy and learns to apply itself to natural philosophy, and to exchange unsure conjecture for certain apprehension, and, to speak with real truth, to quit the creature for the Creator, and the world for its father and maker ; for the scriptures tell us, that the votaries of the Chaldaean philosophy believed in the heaven, but that he who abandoned that sect believed in the ruler of the heaven and the manager of the whole world, namely, in God. A very beautiful inheritance, greater perhaps than the power of him who receives it, but worthy of the greatness of the giver.

But it is not sufficient for the lover of wisdom to have a hope of good things, and to expect all kinds of admirable things, because of the predictions given to him, but unless he also knows the manner in which he is to arrive at the succession of his inheritance, he thinks it very grievous, inasmuch as he thirsts after knowledge, and has an insatiable desire of attaining to it ; on which account he puts a question, saying, " 0 Lord God, how shall I know that I shall inherit it?" Perhaps some one may say that this question is at variance with perfect faith, for that to feel such a difficulty is the part of one who doubts, but that it is the part of one who believes to seek for nothing further. We must say, therefore, that he both doubts and has believed, but not about the same matter, far from it, for he has believed that he is to be an inheritor of wisdom, but he only seeks to know the manner in which this event will take place ; that it really will take place he does by all means confidently comprehend, in accordance with the divine promises.

Therefore the teacher having praised the desire for learning which he feels, begins his explanation with the first elementary instruction, in which this is set down as the first and most necessary thing, " Take for me." * The sentence is brief, but the meaning is great ; for there are not a few things implied in these words. In the first place you have, says God, no goed thing of your own, but whatever you fancy that you have, another has bestowed it upon you. From which it is inferred that all things are the property of God who gives them, but that they do not belong to the creature which only existed after him, and which stretches forth its hands to take them. In the second place, he says, even if you take them, take them not for yourself, but think what is thus given you a loan or deposit, and be ready to restore it to him who has deposited it with, or contributed it to you, requiting an older favour with a newer one, and an original kindness with one proffered instead of it, as justice and propriety require.

For many men have become wicked in respect of such sacred deposits, having, through their immoderate covetousness improperly used the property of others as their own. But do thou, 0 good man! endeavour with all thy strength, not only to present what you have received without injury and without adulteration, but also to take even more care than that of such things, that he who has deposited them with you may have no grounds to blame the care which has been exercised by you. And what the Creator of man has deposited in your custody are soul, speech, and external sense ; which are symbolically named a heifer, a ram, and a goat, in the sacred scriptures. But these things some persons have at once appropriated through self-love, but others have stored them up so as to be able to return them in due season. Now, of those who have appropriated them, it is impossible to tell the number; for who of us is there who does not think his soul, and his speech, and his external senses, all taken together, to be his own property, thinking that to feel, and to speak, and to comprehend, depend upon himself alone ? But of those who really preserve their faith holy and inviolate, the number is very small.

Such men attribute to God these three things : the soul, the external sense, and speech. For they have received all these things, not for themselves, but for him, in whose favour they naturally and appropriately confess that the energies according to each of these three things depend upon him, namely, the imaginations and apprehensions of the mind, the explanations of speech, and the perceptions of the outward senses. Those, now, who attribute these things to themselves, have received an allotment worthy of their own perverseness, namely, a soul fond of plotting against others, polluted with irrational passions, and enveloped in a multitude of vices ; at one time eager to indulge in violent insolence through its gluttony and lasciv iousness, as though it were in a brothel ; at another time held fast by the multitude of its iniquities as in a prison, with wicked (not men but) actions which deserve to be led before all the judges. Secondly, speech insolent, loquacious, sharpened against the truth injurious to ail who come in its way, and bringing disgrace upon those who possess it.

Thirdly, the external sense, insatiable, always filling itself with the objects of the outward senses, but through its immoderate appetites never able to be satisfied, disregarding all its monitors and correctors, so as to refuse to look upon or to listen to them, and to reject with disdain all that they say to it for its good. But those who take these things not for themselves but for God, attribute each one of them to him, guarding that which they have acquired in a truly holy and religious manner, keeping their mind, so that it shall think of nothing else but the things relating to God and to his excellencies, and their speech so as to make it, with unrestrained mouth, and with encomiums, and hymns, and announcements of happiness, honour the father of the universe, collecting together and exhibiting all its powers of interpretation and utterance in this one office ; and regulating the external senses, so that forming a conception of the whole of that world which is perceptible by them, they may, in a guileless, honest, and pure manner, relate to the soul all the heaven and earth, and the natures whose home is between the two, and all animals and plants, and their respective energies and faculties, and all their motions and their stationary existence.

For God has implanted in the mind a power of comprehending that world, which is appreciable only by the intellect, by its own power, but the invisible world by means of the external senses. And if any one were able in all his parts to live to God rather than to himself, looking by means of the external senses into those things which are their proper objects, for the sake of finding out the truth; and through the medium of the soul, investigating in a philosophical spirit the proper objects of intelligence, and those thiugs which have a real existence, and by means of his organs of voice, singing hymns in praise of the world and of its Creator, he will have a happy and a blessed life.

I think then that this is what intimated in the words, " Take for me ; " God, intending to send down the perfection of his divine virtue from heaven to earth, out of pity for our race, in order that it might not be left destitute of a better portion, prepared in a symbolical manner the sacred tabernacle and the things in it, a thing made after the model and in imitation of wisdom. For he says that he has erected his oracle as a tabernacle in the midst of our impurity, in order that we may have something whereby we may be purified, washing off and cleansing all those things which dirt and defile our miserable life, full of all evil reputation as it is. Let us now then see in what manner he has commanded us to bring in the different thiugs which are to contribute to the furnishing of the tabernacle. "

The Lord, " says the scripture, " spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take ye first-fruits for me of whatever it shall seem good to your heart to take my first-fruits." * Therefore here also there is an injunction to take not for themselves but for God, examining who it is who gives these things, and doing no injury to what is given, but preserving it free from danger, and free from spot, perfect and entire. And the injunction, by which he orders the first fruits to be offered to himself, is full of doctrine ; for in real truth the beginnings both of bodies and of things are investigated with reference to God alone ; and search if you wish to understand everything, plants and animals, and arts and sciences. Are then the first castings of the seed of plants, the actions I 2 of husbandry or the invisible works of invisible nature? What more need I ask ? What are the works of men and other animals ?

Have not they parents as co-operating causes, as it were, and also nature as the primary and more important and real cause ? And is not nature the fountain, and root, and foundation of all arts and sciences, or any other name you please to give to the oldest of principles, nature, upon which all speculations are built up ? And if nature be not first laid as the foundation, everything is imperfect, and on this account some one seems to me to have said with great felicity : — The first beginning is quite half the whole.

Very appropriately therefore does the sacred scripture command the first-fruits to be offered up to the all-ruling God.

And in another passage we read "The Lord spake unto Moses saying, Sanctify to me all the-first born : all that is first brought forth, all that openeth the womb among the children of Israel, whether of man or beast is mine,"* so that it is openly asserted in these words, that all the first things, whether in point of time or of power, are the property of God, and most especially all the first-bora ; since the whole of that race which is imperishable shall justly be apportioned to the immortal God ; and if there is anything, in short, which openeth the womb, whether of man which here means speech and reason, or of beast which signifies the outward sense and the body ; for that which openeth the womb of all these things, whether of the mind, so as to enable it to comprehend the things appreciable only by the intellect, or of the speech so as to enable it to exercise the energies of voice, or of the external senses, so as to qualify them to receive the impressions which are made upon them by their appropriate subjects, or of the body to fit it for its appropriate stationary conditions or motions, is the invisible, spermatic, technical, and divine Word, which shall most properly be dedicated to the Father.

And, indeed, as are the beginnings of God so likewise are the ends of God ; and Moses is a witness to this, where he commands to " separate off the end, and to confess that it is due to God."f The things in the world do also bear witness. f There id probably gome corruption here. The marginal reference How so? The beginning of a plant is the seed, and the end is the fruit, each of them being the work, not of husbandry, but of nature. Again, of knowledge the beginning is nature, as has been shown, but the end can never reach mankind, for no man is perfect in any branch of study whatever ; but it is a plain truth, that all excellence and perfection belong to one Being alone ; we therefore are borne on, for the future, on the confines of beginning and end, learning, teaching, tilling the ground, working up everything else, as if we were really effecting something, that the creature also may seem to be doing something ; therefore, with a more perfect knowledge, Moses has confessed that the first-fruits and the end belong to God, speaking of the creation of the world, where he says, " In the beginning God created . . . "* And again he says, "

God finished the heaven and the earth." Now therefore he says, " Take for me," assigning to him bat becomes him, and admonishing his hearer not to adulterate what is given to him, but to take care of it in a manner worthy of its importance. And again, in another passage, he who has need of nothing, and who on this account takes nothing, will confess that he docs take something, for the sake of giving to his worshippers the feeling of piety, and of implanting in them an eagerness after holiness, and moreover sharpening their zeal in his service, as one who favourably receives the genuine worship and service of a willing soul, " For behold," says he, "

I have taken the Levites instead of all the first-born that openeth the som ;"f therefore we take and give, but we are said to take with strict accuracy, but it is only by a metaphorical abuse of the term that we are said to give, for the reasons which I have already mentioned. And it is very felicitously that he has called the Levites a ransom, for nothing so completely conducts the mind to freedom as its fleeing for refuge to and becoming a suppliant of God ; and this is what the consecrated tribe of the Levites particularly professes to be.

Having now, therefore, said as much as is proper on these subjects, let us proceed onwards to what comes next ; for we have postponed the consideration of many things which U to Numbers xxi. 41, and there are only thirty-five verses in the chapter. The same thing has occurred in one or two previous instances ought to be examined into with exactness. " Take for me,' says God, " a heifer which has never been yoked and has never been ill-treated, tender and young,"* and exulting ; that is to say, a soul adapted easily to receive government, and instruction, and superintendence. " Take for me also a ram," that is to say, speech contentious and perfect, capable of dissecting and overthrowing the sophistries of those who advance contrary opinions, and capable also of ensuring safety, and good order, and regularity to him who uses it. " Take for me," also the external sense, which lives and directs all its energies to the world, which is perceptible by it, that is, " a goat," three complete years old, enjoying solid strength in a perfect number, having beginning, middle, and end.

Besides all these things, " a turtle dove and a pigeon," that is to say, divine and human wisdom, both of them being winged, and being animals accustomed to soar on high, still different from one another, as much as genus differs from species or a copy from the model ; for divine wisdom is fond of lonely places, loving solitude, on account of the only God, whose possession she is ; and this is called a turtle-dove, symbolically ; but the other is quiet and tame, and gregarious, haunting the cities of men, and rejoicing in its abode among mortals, and so they liken her to a pigeon.

Moses appears to me to have intended figuratively to represent these virtues when he calls the midwives of the Egyptians, Shiphrah and Puah,t for the name Shiphrah, being interpreted, means " a little bird," and Puah means " red." Now it is the especial property of divine wisdom, like a bird, to be always soaring on high ; but it is the characteristic of human wisdom to study modesty and temperance, so as to blush at all objects which are worthy to cause a blush ; and as a very manifest proof of this the scripture says, " He took for himself all these things. "J This is the praise of a virtuous man, who preserves the sacred deposit of those things which he has received, the soul, the outward sense, speech, divine wisdom, human knowledge, in a pure and guileless manner, not for himself, but only for him who has trusted him. After this the scripture proceeds to say, "

And he divided them in the middle," not explaining who did so, in order that you may understand that it was the untaught God who divided them, and that he divided all the natures of bodies and of things one after another, which appeared to be closely fitted together and united by his word, which cuts through everything ; which being sharpened to the finest possible edge, never ceases dividing all the objects of the outward senses, and when it has gone through them all, and arrived at the things which are called atoms and indivisible, then again this divider begins from them to divide those things which may be contemplated by the speculations of reason into unspeakable and indescribable portions, and to " beat the gold into thin plates,"* like hairs, as Moses says, making them into one length without breadth, like unsubstantial lines.

Each therefore of the three victims he divided in the midst, dividing the soul into the rational and the irrational part, speech into truth and falsehood, and the outward sense into imaginations which can be and which cannot be comprehended ; and these divisions he immediately places exactly opposite to one another, that is, the rational part opposite to the irrational, truth to falsehood, what is comprehensible to what is incomprehensible, leaving the birds undivided ; for it was impossible to divide the incorporeal and divine sciences into contrarieties at variance with one another.

But as the discussion on the subject of a division into equal portions, and on that of opposite contrarieties, is of great extent and of necessary importance, we will not wholly pass it by. nor will we dwell on it with prolixity, but, investigating it as it is, we will be content with such things as seem suitable to the occasion. For as the Creator divided our soul and our limbs in the middle, so also, in the same manner, did he divide the essence of the universe when he made the world ; for, having taken it, he began to divide it thus : in the first instance, he made two divisions, the heavy and the light, separating that which was thick from that which was more subtle. After that, he again made a second division of each, dividing the subtle part into air and fire, and the denser portion into water and earth ; and, first of all, he laid down those elements, which are perceptible by the outward senses, to be, as it were, the foundations of the world which is perceptible by the outward senses.

Again, he subdivided heavy and light according to other ideas, for he divided the light into cold and hot ; and the cold he called air, and that which was hot by nature he called fire. The heavy, again, he divided into wet and dry ; and the dry he called land, and the wet he called water — and each of these, again, received other further subdivisions ; for the land was dividedinto continents and islands, and the water into sea and rivers, and all drinkable springs, and the air was divided into the solstices of summer and winter ; fire, also, was divided into what is useful (but fire is a most insatiable and destructive thing), and also by a different division into what is saving; and this division was assigned for the conformation of the heaven. But as he divided the things when entire, so also did he divide the particular divisions, some of which were animated and others inanimate ; and of those which were inanimate he made a division into those which always remain in the same place, the bond of which is habit, and those which move, not indeed in the way of changing their place, but so as to grow, which indescribable nature has vivified.

Again of these, those which are of wild materials are productive of wild fruits, which are the food of brute beasts ; but others producing good fruit, the cultivation of which has called forth diligent superintendence and care, and these produce fruit for the tamest of all animals, namely, for man, that he may enjoy them. And not only did he divide the inanimate things, and' those which had received a soul and vitality in one manner — for of these he defined one species as that of irrational, and one as that of rational animals — but he also again subdivided each of these things, dividing the irrational into the wild and the tame species, and the rational into the mortal and the immortal. Again, of the mortal he made two divisions, one of which he called men, and the other women ; and, in the same manner, he divided the irrational animals into male and female.

And these things were also subjected to other necessary divisions, which made distinctions between them ; winged animals being distinguished from terrestrial, terrestrial from aquatic creatures, and aquatic creatures, again, from both extremities. Thus God, having sharpened his own word, the divider of all things, divides the essence of the universe which is destitute of form, and destitute of all distinctive qualities, and the four elements of the world which were separated from this essence, and the plants and animals which were consolidated by means of these elements.

But since Moses not only uses the expression, " he divided," but says further, " he divided in the midst," it is necessary to say a few words on the subject of equal divisions ; for that which is divided skilfully just in the middle makes two equal divisions. And no man could ever possibly divide anything into two exactly equal parts ; but it is inevitable that one of the divisions must fall a little short, or exceed a little, if not much, at all events by a small quantity, in every instance, which indeed escapes the perception of our outward senses which attend only to the larger and more tangible burdens of nature and custom, but which are unable to comprehend atoms and indivisible things. But it is established by the incorruptible word of truth that there is nothing equal in inequality. God alone therefore seems to be exactly just, and to be the only being able to divide in the middle bodies and things, in such a manner that none of the divisions shall be greater or less than the other by the smallest and most indivisible portion, and he alone is able to attain to sublime and perfect equality.

If therefore there were but one idea of perfect equality, what has been said would be quite sufficient for the purpose. But as there are many, we must not hesitate to add some considerations which are suitable. For the word " equal " is used in one sense when speaking of numbers, as when we say that two are equal to two, and three to three ; and speak of other numbers in the same manner. But in another sense when speaking of magnitude, as equal in length or breadth, or depth, which are all different proportions. For wrestler compared with wrestler, or cubit with cubit are equal in magnitude but different in power, as is the case also with measures and weights.

But the idea of equality is a necessary one, and so is that of equality in proportion, according to which a few things are looked upon as equal to many, and small things are equal to larger ones. And their proportionate equality, cities are accustomed to use at suitable times, when they command every citizen to contribute an equal share of his property, not equal in number, but in proportion to the value of his assessment, so that in some cases he who 19/2 PHILO JUD^EUS. contributes a hundred drachms -will appear to have brought an equal sum with him who contributes a talent.

These things being thus previously sketched out, see now how God, dividing things in the middle, has divided them into equal portions according to all the ideas of equality which occur in the creation of the universe. He has divided the heavy things so as to make them equal in number to the light ones, two to two ; that is to say, so that the earth and the water, being things of weight, are equal in number to those which are by nature light, air and fire. Again, he has made one equal to one, the driest thing to the wettest thing, the earth to the water ; and the coldest thing to the hottest thing, the air to the fire, So, in the same manner, he has divided light from darkness, and day from night, and summer from winter, and autumn from spring ; and so on. Again, he has divided things so as to make his divisions equal in point of magnitude ; such as the parallel cycles in heaven, and those which belong to the equinoxes both of spring and autumn, and those which belong to the winter and summer solstice.

And on the earth he has divided the zones, two being equal to one another, which being placed close to the poles are frozen with cold, and on this account are uninhabitable. And two he has placed on the borders between these two and the torrid zone, and these two they say are the abode of a happy temperature of the air, one of them lying towards the south and the other towards the north. Now the divisions of time are equal in point of length, the longest day being equal to the longest night, and again the shortest day being equal to the shortest night, and the mean length of day to the mean length of night. And the equal magnitude of other days and nights appears to be indicated chiefly by the equinoxes. From the spring equinox to the summer solstice, day receives an addition to its length, and night, on the other hand, submits to a diminution ; until the longest day and the shortest night are both completed.

And then after the summer solstice the sun, turning back again the same road, neither more quickly nor more slowly than he advanced, but always preserving the same difference in the same manner, having a constantly equal arrangement, proceeds on till the autumnal equinox ; and then, having made day and night both equal, it begins to increase the length of the night, diminishing the day until the time of the winter solstice. And when it has made the night the longest night, and the day the shortest clay, then returning back again and adopting the same distances as before, he again comes to the spring equinox. Thus the differences of time which appear to be unequal, do in reality possess a perfect equality in respect of magnitude, not indeed at the same seasons, but at different seasons of the year.

And a very similar effect is seen in the different parts of animals and especially of men. For hand is equal to hand, and foot to foot, and nearly all the other limbs of the body are equal to their corresponding members in magnitude, those on the left hand being equal to those on the right. And there are an exceeding number of things which are equal to one another in power, both among wet things and dry things, the judgment on which is seen in measures and scales, and things of that kind. And nearly all things are equal as respects proportion, even all the little and all the great things in the wThole world. For those who have examined the questions of natural philosophy with some accuracy say that the four elements are all equal in proportionate equality. And it is by proportion that the whole world is compounded together, and united, and endowed with consistency so as to remain firm for ever, proportion having distributed equality to each of its parts. And they say also that the four elements which are in us, dryness, and moisture, and cold, and heat have all been mixed together and well adapted by proportionate equality, and in fact that our whole composition is nothing but a mixture of the four powers combined together by an equality of proportion.

But any one who examines all these things might add an interminable list of arguments and instances to this one present discussion. If he considered he would find the very smallest animals equal to the largest as to proportion ; as for instance he would find the swallow equal to the eagle, the herring equal to the whale, and the ant equal to the elephant. For body and soul, and again pains and pleasures, and moreover affection for and dislike towards things, and all the other feelings which the nature of animals experience, are nearly all of them similar, being made equal by the rule of 1:24 PHILO JUD.EUS. proportion. Thus some men have felt confidence even to declare that the smallest of animals, man, is equal to the whole world, considering that each of them consists of a hody and a rational soul, so that, using a figurative expression, they have called man a little world, and the world a large man. And in teaching this they are not very wide of the mark, but they know that the art of God according to which he created all things, admitting neither any extraordinary intensity nor any relaxation ; but always remaining the same, made every single existing thing perfectly, according to its own excessive and consummate perfection, the Creator employing all numbers and all the ideas which tend to perfection.

For, as Moses says, " He judged according to the little and according to the great,"* engendering and fashioning everything, and not taking anything away from the display of his art by reason of the obscurity of his materials, not adding anything because of their brilliancy ; since all the artists who have any reputation wish to work up whatever materials they take in an admirable manner, whether they are costly or whether they are inexpensive. And before now, some persons, having even an extraordinary love of distinction, have even spent more skill in working up materials of little value, than they have devoted to those which are costly, wishing to make up for the deficiencies of the material by the additional display of their skill. But there is no material which has any value in the eyes of God, because he has given all materials an equal share of his skill. In reference to which it is said in the sacred scriptures, "

God saw all that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."t But the things which receive an equal degree of praise, are by all means held in equal estimation by him who confers the praise ; and what God praised was not the materials which he had worked up into creation, destitute of life and of melody, and easily dissolved, and moreover in their own intrinsic nature perishable, and out of all proportion and full of iniquity, but rather his own skilful work, completed according to one equal and well-proportioned power and knowledge always alike and identical. In reference to which all things were also accounted equal and similar by all the rules of proportion, according to the principles of art and knowledge.

And if there is any one in the world who is a praiser of equality, that man is Moses. In the first place composing hymns in its honour, and in every place, and calling it the especial property of justice, as in fact its very name to some degree shows, to divide* bodies and things into two equal parts; and in the second place blaming injustice, the worker of the most disgraceful inequality ; and inequality has been the parent of two wars, foreign and civil war, as on the other hand equality is the parent of peace. And he also utters the most manifest panegyric on justice, and the most undeniable reproach of injustice when he says, " You shall not commit injustice in any judgment, nor in measures, or weights, or balances : a just balance, and just weights, and a just heap, shall be yours."f And in Deuteronomy he says, "

There shall not be a false weight in thy bag ; thy weight shalt be true and just ; there shall not be a little weight and a large one ; that thy days may be multiplied upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, because every one who committeth injustice is an abomination to the Lord.'']; Therefore God, who loveth justice, hates and abominates injustice, the beginning of sedition and of evils ; and in one passage the lawgiver represents equality as the muse of justice beginning with the creation of the entire heaven. For he says, "And God made a separation between the light and between the darkness, and he called the light day, and the darkness he called night. "§ For it is equality which allotted night and day and light and darkness to existing things.

It is equality also that divided the human race into man and woman, making two divisions, unequal in strength, but most perfectly equal for the purpose which nature had principally in view, the generation of a third human being like themselves. For, says Moses, " God made man; in the image of God created he him ; male and female created he them. || He no longer says "him," but " them" in the plural number, adapting the species to the genus, which have, as I have already said, been divided with peifect equality.

And he apportioned cold and heat, and summer derived from ci\a, " in two parts " + Leviticus xix. 35. + Deuteronomy sxv. 13. g Genesis i. 4. || Genesis i. 26. and spring, the different seasons of the year, divided by the same dividing Word. And the three days which passed before the creation of the sun, are equal in number to the three days of the first week which came after the creation of the sun, the number six being dissected equally in order to display the character of eternity and of time.