The Works of Philo (complete)

Now there is an infinite variety of dispositions which arise from different circumstances and opportunities in every kind of action and event ; but in this instance, we must distinguish between two characters, one of which is the elder and the other the younger. Now the elder of the two is that disposition which honours those things which are by nature principal and dominant ; the younger is that which regards the things which are subject to others, and which are considered in the lowest rank. Now the principal and more dominant things are wisdom, and temperance, and justice, and courage, and every description of virtue, and the actions in accordance with virtue ; the younger things are wealth, and authority, and glory, and nobility, not real nobility, but that which the multitude think so, and all those other things which belong to the third class, next after the things of the soul, and the things of the body; the class which is in fact the last. Each then of these dispositions has, as it were, flocks and herds.

The one which desires external things has for its flock, gold and silver, and all those things which are the materials and furniture of wealth ; and, moreover, arms, engines, triremes, armies of infantry and cavalry, and fleets of ships, and all kinds of provisions to procure dominion, by which firm authority is secured. But the lover of excellence has for his flock the doctrines of each individual virtue, and its speculations respecting wisdom. Moreover, there are overseers and superintendents of each of these flocks, just as there are shepherds to flocks of sheep. Of the flock of external things, the superintendents are those who are fond of money, those who are fond of glory, those who are eager for war, and all those who love authority over multitudes. And the managers of the flock of things concerning the soul are all those who are lovers of virtue and of what is honourable, and who do not prefer spurious good things to genuine ones, but genuine to spurious good.

There is therefore a certain natural contest between them, inasmuch as they have no opinions in common with one another, but are always at variance and difference respecting the matter which has of all others the greatest influence in the maintenance of life as it should be, that is to say, the judgment of what things are truly good. Now, for some time the soul was warred against by some enemy, and was full of this quarrelsome principle, inasmuch as it had not yet been completely pacified, but was still troubled by some passions and diseases which prevailed over sound reason.

But from the time when it began to be more powerful, and with its superior force, to destroy the fortification of the opposite opinions, becoming elated and puffed up with pride, it in a most marvellous manner began to separate and detach the disposition in itself, which admires the external materials, and as if conversing with man, says to him, Thou art unable to dwell with — it is impossible that thou shouldest be connected by alliance with — a lover, of wisdom and virtue. Come, then, and migrating from thy present abode, depart to a distance, since you have no communion with me, and, indeed, cannot possibly have any. For all the things which you conceive to be on the right he imagines to be on the left; and on the contrary, whatever you think is on the left, is looked upon by him as on the right.

Therefore the virtuous man was not only peaceful and a lover of justice, but also a man of courage and of a warlike disposition ; not for the sake of making war, for he was not of a contentious and quarrelsome character, but for the sake of a lasting peace for the future, which hitherto his adversaries had destroyed. And the most convincing proof of this is to be found in what he did. Four great kings had received for their inheritance the eastern portion of the inhabited world ; and they were obeyed by all the eastern nations, both on this and on the other side of the Euphrates. Now all the other parts remained unharassed by contentions, obeying the commands of these kings, and contributing their yearly taxes and tribute without seeking for any excuses ; but the land of the inhabitants of Sodom alone before it was destroyed by fire began to break the peace, having been designing to revolt for a long time. For as it was a very rich country it was ruled by five kings, who had divided the cities and the land among them, though the district was not an extensive one, but fertile in corn and trees, and abounding in all kinds of fruit.

What then their size gives to other cities, that the excellence of its soil gives to Sodom ; on which account it had many princes for lovers who admired its beauty. These, on all other occasions, had paid the appointed revenues to the collectors of the taxes, honouring and at the same time fearing those more powerful sovereigns of whom they were the viceroys. But when they were completely sated with good things, and when, as is ordinarily the case, satiety had begotten insolence, they, cherishing a pride beyond their power! began at first to lift up their heads and to become restive. Then, like wicked servants, they set upon their masters, trusting more to their factious spirit than to their strength. But their sovereigns, remembering their own nobleness and being fortified with superior power, went against them with great disdain, as if they would be able to defeat them by the mere cry of battle.

And having engaged them in battle, they in a moment put some of them to flight, and others they slew in the flight, and so they destroyed their army to a man. And also they led away a vast multitude captive, which thev distributed among themselves with much other booty. Moreover, they led away captive the brother's son of the wise Abraham, who had a little while before emigrated into one of the cities of the Pentapolis.

This was communicated to Abraham by some one of those who escaped from the defeat of his countrymen, and it grieved him exceedingly, and he would not be quiet any longer, being much concerned at what had happened, and mourning more for him alive and in captivity than if he had heard that he had been killed. For he knew that death {TzXiVTY)) as its very name imports, was the end (r$}.og) of all living beings, and especially of the wicked, and that there are innumerable unexpected evils which lie, as it were, in ambush for the living. But when he was preparing to pursue them for the purpose of delivering his brother's son, he found himself in want of allies, inasmuch as he himself was a stranger and a sojourner and as no one could dare to oppose the irresistible power of such mighty monarchs flushed with recent victory. And he devised for himself a most novel alliance. For necessity is the mother of invention, and expedients are found in the most difficult circumstances when a man has set his heart on just and humane objects.

Tor having collected together all his servants, and ordering the slaves whom he had purchased to remain at home (for he was afraid of desertion on their part), he assembled all his domestic servants, and divided them into centuries, and marched forward in their battalions ; not, indeed, trusting to them, for his was still a most insignificant force, in comparison with that of the king's, but placing his confidence in the champion and defender of the just, namely in God. Therefore putting forth all his exertions he hastened on, in nowise relaxing his speed, until, watching his opportunity, he fell upon the enemy hy night, after they had supped, and when they were just on the point of betaking themselves to sleep. And some he slew in their beds, and those who were arrayed against him he utterly destroyed, and with great vigour he defeated them all, more by the courage of his soul than by the adequacy of his means.

And he did not cease from attacking them until he had utterly destroyed the hostile army with their kings, and slain them all to a man in front of their camp, and had brought back his brother's son after this splendid and most glorious victory, bringing back also as fair booty all their cavalry, and all the multitude of their beasts of burden, and a most enormous quantity of spoil.

And when the great high priest of the most high God beheld him returning and coming back loaded with trophies, in safety himself, with all his own force uninjured, for he had not lost one single man of all those who went out with him ; marvelling at the greatness of the exploit, and, as was very natural, considering that he had never met with this success but through the favour of the divine wisdom and alliance, he raised his hands to heaven, and honoured him with prayers in his behalf, and offered up sacrifices of thanksgiving for his victory, and splendidly feasted all those who had had a share in the expedition ; rejoicing and sympathising with him as if the success had been his own, and in reality it did greatly concern him. For as the proverb says : — " All that befalls from Mends we common call." And much more are all instances of good fortune common to those whose main object it is to please God.

These things, then, are what are contained in the plain words of the scriptures. But as many as are able to contemplate the facts related in them in their incorporeal and naked state, living rather in the soul than in the body, will say that of the nine kings the four are the powers of the four passions which exist within us, the passion of pleasure, of desire, of fear, and of grief ; and that the other five kings are the outward senses, being equal in number, the sense of sight, of hearing, of smell, of taste, and of touch. For these in some degree are sovereigns and rulers, having acquired a certain power over us, but not all to an equal extent ; for the five are subordinate to the four, and are compelled to pay them taxes and tribute, such as are appointed by nature. For it is from the things which we see, or hear, or smell, or taste, or touch, that pleasures, and pains, and fears, and desires arise ; as there is no one of the passions which has any power to exist of itself, if it were not supplied by the materials furnished by the outward senses.

For it is in these things that their powers consist, either in figures and in colours, or in the faculty of speaking or hearing which depends on the voice, or in flavours, or in odours, or by the subjects of touch, whether they are soft or hard, or rough, or smooth, or hot, or cold. For all these things are supplied to each of the passions by means of the outward senses. And as long as the taxes beforementioned are paid the alliance among the kings remains ; but when they are no longer contributed, as they were before, then immediately do quarrels and wars arise. And this appears to happen when painful old age supervenes, in which none of the passions becomes weaker, but rather perhaps stronger than their ancient power ; but the sight becomes dim, and the ears hard of hearing, and every one of the other outward senses more blunt, being no longer equally able as before to judge and decide accurately of every subject submitted to them, nor any longer to pay a tribute which will be equal to the number of the passions.

So that it happened very naturally that they being thoroughly exhausted and laid prostrate by them were easily piit to flight by the adverse passions ; and the statement that follows is in strict consistency with what might be naturally expected, namely, that of the five kings two fell into wells, and three took to flight. For touch and taste reach to the very deepest portions of the body, sending down into the entrails those things which are suitable for digestion ; but the eyes, and the ears, and the smell, roaming abroad for the most part, escape the slavery of the body. The good man — threatening to attack all of these, when he saw that those who had lately been friends and confederates were now in a state of disease, and that there was war instead of peace arising among the nine kingdoms, as the four kings were contending with the five for sovereignty and dominion — on a sudden, having watched his opportunity, attacked them ; being desirous of the establishment of democracy in the soul, the most excellent of constitutions instead of tyrannies and absolute sovereignties, and wishing also to introduce law and justice instead of lawlessness and injustice, which had prevailed up to that time.

And what is here said is not a cunningly devised fable, but is rather one of the most completely true facts, which may be seen to be true in our own selves. For it very often happens that the outward senses observe a sort of confederacy which they have formed with the passions, supplying them with objects perceptible by the outward senses ; and very often also, they raise contentions, no longer choosing to pay the tribute fairly due from them, or else being unable to do so, by reason of the presence of corrective reason ; which when it has taken up its complete armour, namely, the virtues, and their doctrines and contemplations, which form an irresistible power, conquers all things in the most vigorous manner. For it is not lawful for perishable things to dwell with what is immortal. Therefore the nine sovereignties of the four passions and the five outward senses are both perishable themselves and also the causes of mortality. But the truly sacred and divine word, which uses the virtues as a starting place, being placed in the number ten, that perfect number, when it descends into the contest and exerts that more vigorous power which it has in accordance with God, subdues by main force all the aforesaid powers.

And at a subsequent period his wife dies, she who was most dear to his mind and most excellent in all respects, having given innumerable proofs of her affection towards her husband in leaving all her relations together with him ; and in her unhesitating migration from her own country, and in her continued and uninterrupted wanderings in a foreign land, and in her endurance of want and scarcity, and in her accompanying him in his warlike expeditions. For she was always with him at all times, and in all places, never being absent from any spot, or failing to share any of his fortune, being truly the partner of his bfe, and of all the circumstances of his life; judging it right equally to share all his good and evil fortune together with hirn. For she did not, as some persons do, shun any participation in, his misfortunes, but lie in wait only for his prosperity, but with all cheerfulness took her share in both, as wa3 fitting and becoming to a wedded wife. XL1II. And though I might have many topics for panegyric on this woman, still I will only mention one, which shall be the most manifest possible proof of all the others.

For she, being barren and childless, and fearing lest her husband's Grod-loving house might be left entirely destitute of offspring, came to her husband and spoke as follows : — " We have now lived together a long time mutually pleasing each ; but we have no children, which is the cause for which we ourselves came together, and for which also nature designed the original connection between husband and wife ; nor indeed can there be any hope of your having any offspring by me, since I am now beyond the age of childbearing ; do not you then suffer for my barrenness, and do not, out of your affection for me, while you are yourself able still to become a father, be hindered, from being so. For I shall not feel any jealousy towards another woman whom you may marry, not for the gratification of irrational appetite, but in order to satisfy a necessary law of nature. For which reason I will not delay to deck a new bride for you, that she may fulfil what is wanting on my part.

And if the prayers which we will offer up for the birth ot children be blessed with success, then the children which are born shall be your own legitimate children, but by adoption they shall be by all means mine. " And that you may have no suspicion of any jealousy on my part, take, if you will, my own handmaid to wife ; who is a slave indeed as to her body, but free and noble as to her mind ; whose good qualities I have for a long time proved and experienced from the day when she was first introduced into my house, being an Egyptian by blood, and a Hebrew by deliberate choice. We have great substance and abundant wealth, not like people who are sojourners. For even already we surpass the natives themselves in the brilliancy of our prosperity, but still we have no heir or successor, and that, too, though there might be one, if you would be guided by my advice."

But Abraham, marvelling more and more at the love of his wife for her husband thus continually being renewed and gaining fresh strength, and also at her spirit of forecast so desirous to provide for the future, takes to himself the handmaid who had been approved by her to the extent of having a son by her ; though as those who give the most clear and probable account say he cohabited with her only till she became pregnant ; and when she conceived, which she did after no long interval, he then desisted from all connection with her, by reason of his natural continence, and also of the honour in which he held his wife. So then he speedily had a son by this handmaid, but at a very distant period after this he had also a legitimate son, after he and his wife had both despaired of any oft spring from one another. The bounteous God having thus bestowed on them a reward for their excellence more perfect than their highest hopes.

It is sufficient to mention this as a proof of the virtue of Abraham's wife. But the topics of praise of the wise man himself are more numerous, some of which I have lately enumerated. Moreover I will mention also one circumstance connected with the death of the wife, which ought not to be buried in silence. For when Abraham had lost such a partner of his whole life, as our account has shown her to have been, and as the scriptures testify that she was, he still like a wrestler prevailed over the grief which attacked him and threatened to overwhelm his soul ; strengthening and encouraging with great virtue and resolution, reason, the natural adversary of the passions, which indeed he had always taken as a counsellor during the whole of his life ; but at this time above all others, he thought fit to be guided by it, when it was giving him the best and most expedient advice. And the advice was this ; not to afflict himself beyond all measure, as if he were stricken down with a novel and unprecedented calamity ; nor, on the other hand, to give way to indifference, as if nothing had happened calculated to give him sorrow.

But rather to choose the middle way in preference to either extreme ; and to endeavour to grieve in a moderate degree ; not being indignant at nature for having reclaimed what belonged to her as her due ; and bearing what had befallen him with a mild and gentle spirit. And there are evidences of these assertions to be seen in the holy scriptures ; which it is impossible should be convicted of false witness, and they tell us that Abraham, having wept a short time over his wife's body, soon rose up from the corpse ; thinking, as it should seem, that to mourn any longer would be inconsistent with that wisdom by which he had been taught that he was not to look upon death as the extinction of the soul, but rather as a separation and disjunction of it from the body, returning back to the region from whence it came ; and it came, as is fully shown in the history of the creation of the world, from God.

But just as no man of moderation or sense would be indignant at having to repay a debt to a lender or to return a deposit to the man who had deposited it ; so, in the same manner, he did not think it becoming to show impatience when nature reclaimed what belonged to her, but preferred to bear what was inevitable with cheerfulness. And when the magistrates of that country came to sympathise with him in his sorrow, seeing none of the customary signs of woe which were usually exhibited in their land by mourners, no loud wailing or howling, no beating of the breast, no loud cries of men or women, but a steady, sober depression of spirits on the part of the whole household, they marvelled exceedingly, even though they had been previously full of astonishment and admiration at all the rest of the man's way of life.

And then, not concealing in their own minds their ideas of the greatness and beauty of his virtue, for it was all admirable, they approached him and addressed him thus: — "Thou art a king from Grod among us." * Speaking most truly, for all other kingdoms are established by man by means of wars, and mditary expeditions, and indescribable evils, which those persons who aim at power inflict mutually on one another, slaying one another, and raising up vast forces of infantry, and cavalry, and fleets. But the kingdom of the wise man is bestowed upon him by Grod ; and the virtuous man receiving it is not the cause of evil to any one, but is rather the author to all his subjects of the acquisition and also of the use of good things, proclaiming to them peace and obedience to the law.

There is also another praise of him recorded in his honour and testified to in the holy scriptures, which Moses has written, in which it is related of him that he believed in God ; which is a statement brief indeed in words, but of great magnitude and importance to be confirmed in fact. For on whom else can we believe ? Are we to trust in authorities, or in glory and honour, or in abundance of wealth and noble birth, or in good health and a good condition of the senses and mind, or in vigour of body and beauty of person ? But in truth every kind of authority is unstable, as it has innumerable enemies lying in wait to attack it. And if in any instance it is firmly established, it is only so confirmed by innumerable evils and calamities which those who are in authority both inflict and suffer. Again, honours and glory are most unstable, being tossed about among the indiscriminate inclinations and feeble language of careless and imprudent men ; and even if they endure, their nature is not such as to produce any genuine good. And as for riches and illustrious birth, those things sometimes fall to the lot of the most worthless of men.

And even if they should belong only to the virtuous, still they are but the praises of their ancestors and of fortune, and not of those who now possess them. Nor, again, is it right for a man to pride himself on his personal advantages, in which other animals are superior to him. For what man is stronger or more vigorous than a bull among domestic animals, or than a Hon among wild beasts ? And what man is more sharp-sighted than a falcon or an eagle ? And what man is so richly endowed with the sense of hearing as that stupidest of all animals, the ass ? Also what man is more accurate in his sense of smell than a hound, who huntsmen say can trace out by means of his n se animals who are lying at a distance, and can run up to them with perfect correctness, and course, though he has not seen them ; for what sight is to other animals that is the sense of smell to hounds and to all the dogs which pursue game. Moreover, the greater part of the irrational animals enjoy excellent health, and are as far as possible entirely exempt from disease.

And also in any competition in respect of beauty, some things which are even destitute of vitality, appear to me to surpass the elegance of either men or women ; as, for instance, images, and statues, and pictures, and in a word all the works of either the pictorial or plastic art which arrive at excellence in either branch, and which are the objects of study and desire both to Greeks and barbarians, who erect them in the most conspicuous places for the ornament of their cities. XL VI. Therefore, the only real, and true, and lasting good is trust in God, the comfort of life, the fulfilment of all good hopes, the absence of all evils, and the attendant source of blessings, the repudiation of all uuhappiness,the recognition of piety, the inheritance of all happiness, the improvement of the soul in every respect, as it thus relies for support on the cause of all things, who is able to do everything but who wills only to do what is best.

For as men who are going along a slippery road stumble and fall, but they who proceed by a dry, and level, and plain path, journey on without stumbling ; so also those men who are conducting their soul through the road of bodily and external good things are only accustoming it to fall ; for these things are full of stumbling and the most insecure of all. But they who by those speculations which are in accordance with yirtue, hasten towards God, are guiding their souls in a safe and untroubled path. So that we may say with the most absolute truth, that the man who trusts in the good things of the body disbelieves in God, and that he who distrusts them believes in him. But not only do the holy scriptures bear witness to the faith of Abraham in the living God, which faith is the queen of all the virtues, but moreover he is the first man whom they speak of as an elder ; though there were men who had preceded him who had lived three times as many years (or even more still) as he had, not one of whom is handed down to us as worthy of the appellation.

And may we not say that this is in strict accordance with natural truth ? For he who is really an elder is looked upon as such, not with reference to his length of time, but to the praiseworthiness of his life. Those men, therefore, who have spent a long life in that existence which is in accordance with the bodv, apart from all virtue, we must call only long-lived children, having never been instructed in those branches of education which befit grey hairs. But the man who has been a lover of prudence, and wisdom, and faith in God, one may justly denominate an elder, forming his name by a slight change from the first. For in real truth the wise man is the first man in the human race, being what a pilot is in a ship, a governor in a city, a general in war, the soul in the body, or the mind in the soul; or again, what the heaven is in the world, and what God is in heaven.

And God, admiring this man for his faith (nigTig) in him, gives him a pledge (cr/Vr/;) in return, namely, a confirmation by an oath of the gifts which he had promised him ; no longer conversing with him as God might with man, but as one friend with another. For he says, " By myself have I sworn,"* by him that is whose word is an oath, in order that Abraham's mind may be established still more firmly and immoveably than before. Let the virtuous man both be and be called the elder and the first, and let every fool be called the younger and the last, since he ODly pursues such objects as may produce revolution and as are placed in the lowest rank. Thus much is sufficient to say on this subject.

But God, adding to the multitude and magnitude of the praises of the wise man one single thing as a crowning point, says that " this man fulfilled the divine law, and all the commandments of God,"t not having been taught to do so by written books, but in accordance with the unwritten law of his nature, being anxious to obey all healthful and salutary impulses. And what is the duty of man except most firmly to believe those things which God asserts ? Such is the life of the first author and founder of our nation ; a man according to the law, as some persons think, but, as my argument has shown, one who is himself the unwritten law and justice of God.

There are three different modes by which we proceed towards the most excellent end, namely, instruction, nature, and practice. There are also three persons, the oldest of the wise men who in the account given to us by Moses derive three names from these modes, whose Lives I have now discussed, having examined the man who arrived at excellence in consequence of instruction, and him who was self-taught, and him who attained to the proposed end by practice. Accordingly, proceeding in regular order, I will now describe the life of the man occupied in civil affairs. And again, Moses has given us one of the patriachs as deriving his name from this kind of life, in which he had been immersed from his earliest youth. JSTow, this man began from the time he was seventeen years of age to be occupied with the consideration of the business of a shepherd, which corresponds to political business.

On which account I think it is that the race of poets has been accustomed to call kings the shepherds of the people ; for he who is skilful in the business of a shepherd will probably be also a most excellent king, having derived instruction in those matters which are deserving of inferior attention here to superintend a flock of those most excellent of all animals, namely, of men. And just as attention to matters of hunting is indispensable to the man who is about to conduct a war or to govern an army, so in the same manner those who hope to have the government of a city will find the business of a shepherd very closely connected with them, since that is as it were a sort of prelude to any kind of government.

Therefore, as this man's father perceived in his son a very noble ability, and too great to be left in the obscurity of a private station, he admired him, and cultivated his talent, and loved him more than his other sons ; because, too, he was the son of his old age, which last cause is one of the strongest incentives to affection possible. And like a man fond of virtue, he cherished and kindled the natural good disposition of his son by excessive and most diligent care and attention, in order that it might not only not be smothered, but might shine forth more brilliantly.

But envy is at all times an adversary to great good fortune, and at this time it attacked a house which was prospering in all its parts, and divided it, setting all the brothers in enmity against one, who displayed an ill feeling on their own parts, sufficient to counterbalance the affection of his father, hating their brother as much as their father loved him ; but they did not divulge their hatred by words, but kept it in their own bosoms, on which account it very naturally became more grievous and bitter ; for passions which are repressed, and which are not allowed to evaporate in language, are more difficult to bear. This man, therefore, indulging a disposition free from all guile and malice, and having no suspicion of the ill will which was secretly cherished against him by his brethren, having seen a dream of favourable import, related it to them, as if they were well affected towards him. " For," said he, "

I thought that the time of harvest was arrived, and that we had all gone down to the plain to gather the crops, and had taken sickles in our hands to reap the harvest, and on a sudden my sheaf appeared to stand up, right, and to be raised up, and to erect itself; and I thought that your sheaves, as if at an appointed signal, ran up and fell down before it, and worshipped it with great earnestness."* But they being men of acute intelligence, and shrewd in divining the nature of a matter thus intimated to them by means of a figure, with very felicitous conjectures, replied, " Dost thou think that thou shalt be king and lord over us ? for this is what you are now intimating by this lying vision of yours." So their hatred was kindled against him more exceedingly than before, as it was continually receiving some fresh pretext for its increase.

And he, suspecting nothing, a few days afterwards saw another dream, still more astonishing than the former one, and again he related it to his brethren ; for he thought that the sun, and the moon, and the eleven stars, all came and worshipped him, so that his father marvelling at what had thus happened, laid these events up in his mind, cherishing them, and considering within himself what was to happen. But he reproved his son gravely, from a fear that he might be doing wrong in some respect, and said to him, " Shall I, and thy mother, and thy brethren, be able to fall down and worship thee ? for by the sun you appear to indicate your father, and by the moon your mother, and by the eleven stars your eleven brethren? Let not such an idea ever come into your mind, 0 my son. But rather let all recollection of these visions which have appeared to you be forgotten, and let them pass from your mind ; for to hope and expect a superiority over those of your family and kindred, is a detestable thing in my opinion, and I think, indeed, in that of every one else, who has any regard for equality and the principles of justice that subsist among kinsmen."

But his father, being afraid lest from his meeting with his brothers there might arise some quarrel and disturbance with them, inasmuch as they bore ill will against him on account of the dreams which he had seen, sent them away to keep their flocks at a distance, but retained him at home till a fitting season, knowing that time is said to be a powerful physician for all the passions and diseases of the soul, and a remover of grief, and an extinguisher of anger, and a healer of fear ; for it softens and mitigates evervthinfr, even such things as are, according to their own nature, hard to be cured. But when he conjectured that no hatred was any longer abiding in their hearts he sent this his son forth to salute his brethren, and also to bring him word how they and their flocks of sheep were.

This expedition of his was the origin both of great evils and also of great good, each of them being excessive beyond all expectation ; for he, obeying the commands of his parents, wenttovisithis brethren ; but they, seeing him coming towards them while at a great distance, conversed one with another, saying nothing of good omen, inasmuch as they did not choose even to call him by his name, but called him a dreamer, and a seer of visions, and such appellations as these. And to such a height did they carry their rage that (1 will not say all of them, but) the greater portion of them plotted his death ; and designed, after having slain him, for the sake of not being detected, to throw him into a deep pit dug in the earth, for there are a great many such places in that district dug as receptacles for the rain water.

And they were very near incurring that most excessive pollution of fratricide, as they would have done if they had not been, though with difficulty, persuaded by the advice of their eldest brother, who counselled them not to meddle with such a pollution but merely to cast him into One of these pits, thinking then to contrive some means of saving him, so that when they had all departed he might . send him back again to his father without having suffered any harm. And after they agreed to this he came forward and saluted them ; and they took him as though he had been an enemy, and stripped him of all his garments, and let him down into a vast pit, and then, having stained his cloak with the blood of a kid, they sent it to their father on the pretence that he had been slain by a wild beast. IY.

But on that day it happened by some chance that certain merchants who were accustomed to convey their merchandise from Arabia to Egypt were travelling that way, and so the eleven brethren drew Joseph up out of the pit and sold him to them ; the one of them who was the fourth m respect of age instigating this contrivance ; for in my opinion, he was afraid lest his brother might be treacherously slain by the others, who had conceived an irreconcilable hatred against him, and therefore he proposed that he should be sold, substituting slavery for death, the lighter evil for the greater. But the eldest, for he was not present when he was sold, looking down into the pit, and not seeing him whom he had left there a short time before, cried out and lamented loudly, and rent his clothes, and tossed his hands up and down like a madman, and beat his breast and tore his hair, saying, " What has become of him ? Tell me, is he alive, or is he dead ? If he is dead, show me his corpse that I may weep over his body, and so alleviate my grief.

"When I see him lying dead I shall be comforted ; for why should we bear ill will to the dead ? There is no envy excited against those who are out of sight. And if he is alive, to what country has he departed ? Where is he kept ? for I am not, as he was, an object of suspicion, so as to be distrusted by you." And when they replied that he had been sold, and when they showed hiin the money which they had received for him, he said, " A fine trade, indeed, you have been driving ? Let us divide the gain : let us wear crowns of victory after thus rivalling the slave-dealers, and bearing off from them the prizes of iniquity ; we may well pride ourselves now that we have surpassed them in barbarity, for they indeed traffic in the liberty of strangers, but we in that of those who are most nearly related to and most dear to us. Surely here is newly contrived a great disgrace and a shame which will be known far and wide.

Our fathers left behind them in every part of the world memorials of their virtue and excellence ; we shall leave behind us the guilt of a charge of faithlessness and treacherous inhumanity which can never be effaced ; for the reputation of extraordinary actions penetrates everywhere ; those which are praiseworthy being admired, and those which are blameable meeting with blame and accusation. In what manner now will our father receive the news of what has happened ? You will now, as far as depends upon us, have made the life of him who has hitherto been wonderfully happy and fortunate, not worth living ; which will he pity, the child who has been sold, for his slavery ? or those who have sold him, for their inhumanity ?

I am sure he will pity us much the most ; since to do wrong is a more terrible evil than to suffer wrong, for the one has for an alleviation two consolations of the greatest influence, hope and pity ; but the other is destitute of both these mitigations, and is more unfortunate in the judgment of every one. But why do I mourn and bewail in this manner? It is better for me to be silent, lest I too should be treated in some terrible manner ; for ye are most merciless men in your dispositions, and implacable ; and the rage which was kindled in each of you is still furious and vehement.

But when their father heard, not the truth indeed, that his son had been sold, but a falsehood that he was dead, and that he had been slain by wild beasts, he was smitten in his ears by the news that was reported to him, and in his eyes by what was shown to him (for they brought to him his son's coat rent and torn and defiled with quantities of blood) ; and being wholly bewddered by the exceeding greatness of the calamity, he lay for a long time without speaking, not being able even to lift up his head, tbe calamity overwhelming and completely prostrating him; then suddenly pouring forth as it were a stream of tears with bitter lamentations, he bedewed his cheeks, and his chin, and his breast, and all the garments on his chest, saying at the same time such words as these, "

It is not thy death that grieves me, O my son, but such a tomb as has fallen to your lot ; for if you had been buried in your own land I should have been comforted ; I would have cherished you, I would have tended you in sickness if you had died before me, I would have given you my last embrace, I would have closed your eyes, 1 would have wept over your dead body lying before me, I would have buried you sumptuously, I would have omitted none of the customary observances.

"Again, even if you had died in a foreign land, I should have said, nature has claimed what was due to, and what belonged to her; and therefore, O my mind, be not cast down ; for living men have indeed their separate countries, but the whole earth is the grave of the dead ; and all men are destined to a speedy death ; for even the longest lived man is but short lived if compared with eternity; but if it was necessary that he should die violently and by treachery, it would have been a lighter evil to me for him to have been slain by men, who would have laid out his corpse, and have pitied him so far as to scatter dust over him, and at least to have concealed his body ; and even if they had been the most merciless of all people, what more could they have done than have thrown him out unburied, and so got rid of him ?

And then perhaps, some one of the passers by on the road, standing by, and beholding him, and conceiving pity for our common nature, would have thought him worthy of some care, and of burial ; but now, as the saying is, O my son, thou hast become a feast, and a banquet for savage and carnivorous wild beasts, who will eat and devour thy bowels ; I am compelled to endure distresses which I never had imagined, I am without any cause practised in enduring many miseries ; I am a wanderer, a stranger, a slave, living under compulsion, having even my very life plotted against by those whom it least became to do so. And I have seen many things, and I have heard many things, and I have suffered many things, all of which hare heen incurable evils, which however I have learnt to bear with moderation, so as not to yield to them. " But nothing has ever happened more intolerable than this misfortune which has now befallen me ; which has consumed and destroyed all the vigour of my soul ; for what can be a greater or more pitiable calamity ?

The garment of my child has been brought to me, who am his father ; but of him himself there is no portion brought, not a limb, not a small fragment, but he has been wholly and entirely destroyed and devoured, not being able even to receive burial ; and it seems to me that even his garment would never have been sent to me at all if it had not been by way of a reminder of my grief, and as a refreshment of my memory as to the sufferings which he endured, so as to afflict me with a never to be forgotten and never ending sorrow. He indeed bewailed his son in these terms ; but the merchants sold his son in Egypt to one of the king's eunuchs who was his chief cook.

It is worth while, however, after having thus explained the literal account given to us of these events, to proceed to explain also the figurative meaning concealed under that account ; for we say that nearly all, or that at all events, the greater part of the history of the giving of the law is full of allegories; now the disposition which we have at present under consideration, is called by the Hebrews Joseph; but the name being interpreted in the Greek language means, "the addition of the Lord," a name most felicitously given, and most appropriate to the account given of the person so called ; for the democratic constitution in vogue among states is an addition of nature which has sovereign authority over everything ; for this world is a sort of large state, and has one constitution, and one law, and the word of nature enjoins what one ought to do, and forbids what one ought not to do : but the cities themselves in their several situations are unlimited in number, and enjoy different constitutions, and laws which are not all the same ; for there are different customs and established regulations found out and established in different nations ; and the cause of this the want of miion, and participation existing not merely between the Greeks and the barbarians, or between the barbarians and the Greeks, but also between the different tribes of each of these respective nations.

Then they, as it would seem, blaming those things which do not deserve blame, such as unexpected occurrences or opportunities, deficiency of crops, badness of soil, their own situation either as being by the sea-side, or inland, or insular, or on the continent, or anything of that sort, are silent as to the real truth. The real truth is their covetousness, their want of good faith towards and confidence in one another, on which account they have not been satisfied with the laws of nature, but have called those regulations, which have appeared to be for the common advantage of the agreeing and unanimous multitudes, laws, so that the individual constitutions do naturally appear rather in the light of additions to the one great general constitution of nature ; for the laws of individual cities are additions to the one right reason of nature ; and so also the man who is occupied with political affairs is an addition to the man who lives in accordance with nature. VII . And it is not without a particular and correct meaning that Joseph is said to have had a coat of many colours.

For a political constitution is a many-coloured and multiform thing, admitting of an infinite variety of changes in its general appeai-ance, in its affairs, in its moving causes, in the peculiar laws respecting strangers, in numberless differences respecting times and places.

For as the master of a ship collects together all the means which may tend to ensure him a favourable voyage with reference to and in dependency on the changes of the wind, not always guiding his vessel in one and the same way ; and as a physician does not apply one and the same means of cure to every sick person, nor even to one person if his disease varies in its character, but watches the periods of its abatement, and of its intensity, and of its becoming full or empty, and the alterations of the causes of the sickness, and so varies his remedies as much as possible to secure the safety of his patient, applying one remedy at one time and another at another; in the same manner I conceive that the man immersed in political affairs is of necessity a multiform man, assuming many different appearances, <->ne in time of peace and another in time of war ; and a different character according as those who are opposed to him are numerous or few in number, withstanding a small number with vigorous resolution, but using persuasion and gentle means towards a large body.

And in some cases where there is much danger, still for the sake of the common advantage he will take the place of every one, and manage the business in hand by himself; in other cases, where it is merely a question of labour he will let others minister to him as his assistants. It was appropriately said that the man was sold. For the haranguer of the people and the demagogue, mounting the tribunal, like slaves who are being sold and exposed to view, is a slave instead of a free man, by reason of the honours which he seems to be receiving, being led away by ten thousand masters ? The same person is also represented as having been torn by wild beasts ; and vainglory, which lies in wait for a man, is an untameable wild beast, tearing and destroying all who give into it.

And they who have been purchasers are likewise sellers ; for there is one master only to the citizens who live in any city ; but there is a multitude of masters, one succeeding another in a certain succession and regular order. But those who have been sold three times change their masters like bad slaves, not remaining with their original ones, by reason of the speedily satisfied irregularity of their dispositions, always thirsting after novelty.

This is enough to say on this part of the subject. Accordingly, the young man, having been conducted into Egypt, and there, as has already been stated, having become the slave of a eunuch, gave in a few days such proofs of virtue and excellence of disposition, that he had authority over his fellow servants given to him, and the management of the whole household committed to his charge ; for already his master had learnt by many circumstances to perceive that his servant in all his words and in all his actions was under the immediate direction of divine providence. Accordingly, in consequence of this opinion of his purchaser, he was appointed superintendent of his house, apparently indeed by his master, but, in fact and reality, by nature herself, which procured for him the government of a mighty city, and nation, and country. For it wa3 necessary that one who was destined to be a statesman should be previously practised and trained in the management of a single household ; for a household is a city on a small and contracted scale, and the management of a household is a contracted kind of polity ; so that a city may be called a large house, and the government of a city a widely spread economy.

And from these considerations we may see that the manager of a household and the governor of a state are identical, though the multitude and magnitude of the things committed to their charge may be diiferent, as is the case too with the arts of painting and statuary ; for the good statuary or painter, whether he is making many and colossal figures, or only few and those of a small size, is still the same person, and the art which he is practising is the same art.

But while he is earning a very high reputation in the matters connected with the management of his master's house, he is plotted against by the wife of his master, because of the incontinent love which she had conceived for him ; for she, being maddened by the beauty of the young man, and being unable to restrain the violence of her frenzy and passion, addressed a proposal of illicit intercourse to him ; but he resisted it vigorously, and would not at all endure to approach her, by reason of the orderly and temperate disposition implanted in him by nature and habit. But when she, inflaming and exciting her lawless desire, kept continually tempting him, and continually throwing herself in his way, and continually failing in her object, she at last, in the violence of her passion, had recourse to force, and seizing hold of his cloak dragged him vigorously towards the bed, her passion endowing her strength with greater vigour, as it often does strengthen even the weak. But he, proving more powerful than even the alluring opportunit}^ uttered a cry becoming a free man, and worthy of his race, saying, What are you forcing me to ?

We, the descendants of the Hebrews, are guided by special customs and laws of our own ; in other nations the youths are permitted, after they are fourteen years of age, to use concubines and prostitutes, and women who make gain by their persons, without restraint. But among us a harlot is not allowed even to live, but death is appointed as a punishment for any one who adopts such a way of life. Therefore, before our lawful marriage we know nothing of any connection with any other woman, but, without ever having experienced any similar cohabitation, we ON JOSEPH. 4(33 approach our virgin brides as pure as themselves, proposing as the end of our marriage not pleasure but the offspring of legitimate children. I therefore, having kept myself pure to this day, will not begin now to transgress the law by adultery which is the greatest of all sins, when I ought rather, even if in past time I had lived in an irregular manner, and had been led away by the impulses of youth, and had imitated the licentiousness of the natives, still not to seek to pollute the marriage of another man, an offence which who is there who would not avenge with blood ?

For though different nations differ in other points, still all agree in this alone, that all men think him worthy of ten thousand deaths who does so, and give up the man who is detected in adultery without trial to the husband who has detected him. But you, pressing me thus to load myself with guilt, would add even a third pollution in my case, since you bid me not merely commit adultery, but also to violate my mistress and my master's wife, unless, indeed, this is to be looked upon as the reason for which I entered your house, that I might neglect the duties which a servant ought to perform, and get drunk, and become intoxicated with hopes fit for my master who has bought me, polluting his marriage, and his house and his family. Nevertheless I am induced to honour him not merely as my master, but also as one who lias before now been my benefactor. He has committed to my care the whole management of his household ; there is nothing whatever, be it great or small, which is withdrawn from my superintendence, except you who are his wife. In return for these kindnesses is it fitting for me to requite him with such an action as you recommend to me ?

I will rather, as becomes me, endeavour with honourable service to requite the kindness of which he has set me the example, and which is due to him. He, being my master, has made me, who was a captive and a slave, a free man and a citizen by his great goodness, as far at least as depended on him ; and shall I, who am a slave, compare myself to my master as if he were a stranger and a captive ? And with what disposition can I commit this unholy action ? and with what face can I be impudent enough to look upon him ? The consciousness of guilt which I shall have contracted will not sutler me to 46-4 PHILO JUDJSUS look him in the face, even if I should be able to be undiscovered, but in fact I shall never escape detection, for there are innumerable witnesses of all the things which are done privily who may not be silent.

I forbear to say that, even if no one else should know it, or being privy to it should not divulge it, still I nevertheless shall be a witness against myself by my complexion, by my look, by my voice, as I said a little while ago, being convicted by my own conscience ; and if no one else informs against me, shall I not fear nor respect, justice the assessor of God, and the overlooker of all human actions ?

He put all these arguments together and philosophised in this way till she ceased to importune him ; for the desires are powerful, to cast in the shade even the most powerful of the outward senses, which he, being aware of, fled from them, leaving his garment in her hands, as she had seized hold of him. This circumstance gave her an opportunity to contrive a story, and to invent a plausible tale against the young man, by means of which she might revenge herself on him ; for when her husband came from the public assembly, she, pretending to play the part of a modest and orderly woman, even among the intemperate habits by which she was surrounded, said to him, with excessive indignation, " You brought a servant into us, a slave of the Hebrews, wrho has not only corrupted his soul, since you, in a simple manner without due inquiry, committed your household to him, but has even dared to assault my body.

For he was not contented with seducing only his fellow servants, inasmuch as he has become a most lascivious and debauched man, but he has attempted to defile even me, his mistress, and to use force to me ; and the proofs of his insane lust are visible and clear ; for when, having been very ill-treated by him, I cried out, calling to my aid assistants from within ; he fled, from fear of being apprehended."

And showing his garment, she appeared to give a proof of the truth of what she said ; and his master thinking that it was true, ordered his officers to conduct the man to prison, erring in two most important points : first, that without giving him any time to defend himself, he, without a trial, condemned one who had done no wrong, as if he had committed the greatest crimes ; secondly, because the garment which the woman displayed as having been left behind bv the young man, was indeed a proof of violence, but not of that which he had committed, but rather of that which had been offered to him, and of the fortitude with which he endured it from the woman ; for if he had been offering violence, it was probable that he might have laid hold of the garment of his mistress ; but it was owing to his having had violence offered to him that he was deprived of his own. But perhaps he should be pardoned for his excessive ignorance, inasmuch as he lived chiefly in the cook's house, being filled with blood, and smoke, and ashes, his reasoning having no opportunity to become tranquillised and to enjoy leisure in itself, because it was confused still more, or, at all events, not less than the body.

I have already sketched out three characters of the man immersed in civil business ; that of him who is occupied as a shepherd, that of the regulator of a house, and that of the man possessed of fortitude : and we have now discussed the two first of these sufficiently. But the temperate man is no less connected with the regulation of political affairs than those two are ; for temperance is a beneficial and saving thing for all the affairs of life ; and in affairs of state it is most especially so, as those who wish to understand the matter may learn from numerous and easily obtained proofs. For who is there who does not know that great calamities have befallen nations, and districts, and whole countries all over the world, both by land and sea, in consequence of intemperance ; for the most numerous and most serious wars have been kindled on account of love, and adultery, and the wiles of women ; by which the most numerous and most excellent portion both of the Grecian and barbarian race has been destroyed, and the youth of the cities has perished. And of the consequences of intemperance, are domestic seditions, and wars, and evils upon evils in unutterable number. It is plain that the consequences of temperance, are stability, and peace, and the acquisition and enjoyment of perfect blessings.

It is worth while, however, to proceed in regular order, and by this course to exhibit what is intended to be intimated by this figurative history. The man who brought this servant of whom we are speaking is said to have been a eunuch ; very naturally, for the multitude which purchases the services of a man skilful in affairs of state is truly a eunuch, having in appearance, indeed, the organs of generation, but being deprived of all the power requisite for generating ; just as those persons who hare a confused sight though they have eyes, are nevertheless deprived of the active iise of them, inasmuch as they are not able to see clearly. What, then, is the resemblance of eunuchs to the multitude ? That the multitude too is unable to generate wisdom, but that it studies virtue ; for when a multitude of men, brought promiscuously together from all quarters and of different races, meets in the same place, what is said indeed may be proper and becoming, but what is intended and what is done is quite the contrary ; since the multitude embraces what is spurious in preference to what is genuine, because it is carried away by false opinion, and has not studied what is truly honourable.

On which account (though it seems a most unnatural thing), a wife is represented as cohabiting with this eunuch ; for the multitudes court desire, as a man courts a woman ; for the sake of which it says and does everything, malting it its counsellor in everything which should and should not be spoken, trifling or important, being not at all accustomed to attend to considerations of calm wisdom ; therefore the sacred historian very appropriately calls him the chief cook. For as a cook studies nothing beyond the insatiable and immoderate pleasures of the belly, in the same manner the multitude, which is occupied with public affairs, studies only those pleasures and allurements which are conveyed by means of the hearing, by which the energies of the mind are relaxed, as one may say the nerves of the soul are in a manner loosened. And who is there who is not aware of the great quarrel which exists between physicians and cooks ; since the first exert all their diligence and ingenuity in preparing things which are salutary, even if they are not pleasant ; but the others, on the contrary, prepare only what is pleasant, disregarding what is advantageous ?

Therefore, the laws which exist among a people and those who govern in accordance with the laws resemble physicians, and so also do those counsellors and judges who have a regard to the common safety and security of the state, and who use no flattery to the people. But the chief body of the younger men resembles cooks ; for their object is not to supply what will be beneficial to the people, but only to contrive for the present moment to reap gratification.

And the desire of the multitude, like an incontinent woman, loves the man who is experienced in state affairs, and says to him : Go forth, my good man, unto the multitude among which you are dwelling, and forget all your own individual disposition, and the pursuits, and discourses, and actions in which you have been brought up. And be guided by me, and attend to me, and do every thing which is agreeable to me ; for I cannot endure any thing that is austere and obstinate, and foolishly fond of truth, and pertinaciously adhering to justice, which puts on an air of importance and dignity on all occasions, which yields in no point, and never proposes to itself any object but plain expediency, without any thought of gratifying the hearers. And you do not know the innumerable calumnies which some persons load you with, uttering them to my husband and your master, the multitude ; for up to this time you appear to me to have been behaving like a free man, and you seem not at all to know that you are the slave of a very tyrannical master. But if you had understood that independence of action belongs to a free man, but obedience to the orders of others to a slave, you would then, laying aside your self-willed obstinacy, have learnt to look upon me who am his wife, being desire, and to do every thing with a reference to my gratification, by which means you yourself also will receive the greatest pleasure.

But the statesman is not in reality ignorant that the people has the authority of a master, but still he will not admit that he himself is its slave, but looks upon himself as free, and as entitled to consider mainly the gratification uf the soul. And he will say in plain words : I have not learnt to be a slave to the will of the populace, nor will I ever study such a practice, but being desirous to attain to the government and administration of the city like a good steward or well-intentioned father, I will save it in a guileless and honourable manner, without any hostile character. And while I cherish these sentiments I shall be open to examination, concealing nothing, and not hiding any thing like a thief, hnt keeping my conscience clear as in the light of the sun and of day ; for the truth is the light. And I shall fear none of the evils with which they menace me, not even if they threaten me with death ; for hypocrisy is in my eyes a more grievous evil than death. And why should I encounter what I look upon in such a light ?

For even if the populace be a despot, am I therefore a slave, I who am born of as noble ancestors as any one in the world, entitled to be enrolled as a free citizen in the greatest and most admirable state in this whole world ? For as I am not influenced by gifts, nor by exhortations, nor by a love of honours, nor by a desire of power, nor by insolence, nor by a desire of seeming different from what I am, nor by intemperance, nor by cowardice, nor by injustice, nor by any other motive partaking of either passion or wickedness ; what can, then, be the dominion of which I have need to fear? Surely it can only be the dominion of men. But they claim authority, indeed, over my body, but none at all over me ; for I estimate myself by the more excellent part of myself, namely, by the mind in accordance with which I have determined to live, thinking but little of my mortal body, which sticks to me like a limpet, and even if it is injured by something or other, I shall not be grieved at having got rid of cruel masters and mistresses who arc settled within, inasmuch as I shall have escaped the most formidable necessity.

If, therefore, it shall be necessary for me to act as a judge, I will decide, neither adhering to any rich man for the sake of his riches, nor gratifying a poor man by reason of my compassion for his misfortunes, but putting out of sight the rank and outward circumstances of those respecting whom I am to judge, I will honestly pronounce in favour of what shall appear to me to be just. And if I am called to counsel I will bring forward such opinions as shall appear to me to be for the common advantage, even though they may not be palatable. And if I am a member of the assembly, leaving flattering speeches to others, I will adopt only such as are advantageous and salutary, reproving, admonishing, correcting, and studying not a frantic and insane license of speech, but a sober freedom.

And if any one dislikes improvement, let such a one find fault with parents, and guardians, and teachers, and with all who have the care of youth, because they reprove their own children, or their orphan wards, or their pupils, and sometimes even beat them ; and yet they are not to be accused of evil speaking, nor of insolent violence, but on the contrary, they must be looked upon as friends and real well-wishers ; for it would be utterly unworthy for me who am experienced in affairs of state, and who have all the interests of the people entrusted to me in discussions respecting what is for the advantage of the commonwealth to behave worse than a man would who has studied the art of a physician ; for he would not in the least regard the brilliant position or the accredited good fortune of his patient, nor whether he is of noble birth or of large fortune, nor whether he is the most renowned monarch or tyrant of all his contemporaries, but would attend to one object alone, that, namely, of preserving his health to the best of his power.

And if it should be necessary to use excision or cautery, he, though a subject, or as some might say a slave, would cut or burn his governor or his master. But I, who have got for my patient uot one man but a whole city sick with those more grievous diseases which the kindred desires have brought upon it, what ought I to do ? Shall I, abandoning all idea of what will be of general advantage to the whole state seek to please the ears of this or that man with an ungentleman-like and thoroughly slavish flattery ? I would rather choose to die than to speak merely with the object of gratifying the ear, and to conceal the truth, disregarding all thought of what is really advantageous. " Now then," as the tragedian says : " Now then let fire, let bitiug steel come on ; Burn, scorch my flesh, and glut your appetite Drinking my dark, warm blood ; for here I swear Sooner shall those bright stars which deck the heaven Descend beneath the earth, the earth itself Soar upwards to the sky, than servile words Of flattery creep from out my mouth to thee."

But the people, when it is the master, cannot endure a statesman of so masculine a spirit, and one who keeps so completely aloof from the passions, from pleasure, from fear, from grief, from desire ; but it arrests its well-wisher and friend, and punishes him as an enemy, in doing which it first of all inflicts upon itself the most grievous of all punishments, namely, ignorance ; in consequence of which state it does not itself learn that lesson which is the most beautiful and profitable of all, namely, obedience to its governor, from which the knowledge how to govern subsequently springs.

Having now discussed this matter at sufficient length, let us see what follows next. The young man, having been calumniated to his master by his master's wife, who was in love with him, and who had invented against him the accusation to which she herself was liable, is not allowed to make any defence, but is led away to prison. And while he was in the prison he displayed such exceeding virtue that even the most abandoned persons there marvelled and were amazed, and looked upon it as an alleviation of their calamities to have found such a, man as the averter of evil from them. And of the cruelty and inhumanity of which gaolers arc full there is no one who is ignorant. For they are both by nature pitiless, and also by constant practice they are made more and more brutal, and increase in ferocity day by day, never seeing, or saying, or doing any good thing, but committing only acts of violence and barbarity.

For as men who have very strongly knit bodies, when besides their natural strength they add to it the practice of wrestlers, become stronger still, and acquire an irresistible power and a surpassing perfection of body, so in the same manner when an untameable and implacable nature adds habit to its natural ferocity, it becomes inaccessible to, and immovable by any kind of pity or any single respectable or humane feeling. And as those who associate with good men are improved in their disposition by such association, rejoicing in the pleasant and good persons with whom they are living ; so also do they who are living with the wicked take the impression of their wicked ways ; for habit is a very powerful thing to put a force upon nature, and to make it resemble itself: now keepers of prisons live among thieves and robbers, and housebreakers, and men of insolence and violence, and murderers, and adulterers, and plunderers of temples, from every one of whom they contract some wickedness, and collect a sort of contribution : and from their manifold mixture, make up one thoroughly confused and wholly polluted iniquity.

Nevertheless, even such a man as this was propitiated by the virtue of this young man, and not only gave him liberty and security, but even entrusted to him a share of authority over all the prisoners ; so that in word, indeed, and as far as the title went, he continued to be the goaler; but in reality he had made over all the active part of the work to the young man, in consequence of which conduct of his the prisoners were benefited in no slight degree.

Accordingly they no longer thought fit to call the place a prison, but a house of correction : for instead of tortures and punishments which they had previously undergone night and day, being beaten and bound with chains, and suffering every imaginable kind of ill-treatment ; they were now admonished with the language and doctrines of philosophy, and also by the life and conduct of their teacher, which was more effective than any discourse in the world; for he, by placing his own life full of temperance and every kind of virtue before them, as a picture and well-constructed model of virtue, changed even those who had appeared to be utterly incurable, so that the long diseases of their souls now got a respite, since they were afflicting themselves for what they had hitherto done, and were repenting of it, and uttering such expressions as these, " Where was there all this good formerly which we originally failed to find? For behold ! now it shines forth to such a degree that we are ashamed to face it, seeing our deformity in it as in a looking-glass."

While they then were being improved in this manner two of the king's eunuchs are brought into the prison ; the one being his chief butler, and the other his chief baker, having been accused and condemned for malversation in the offices committed to their charge. And Joseph took the same care of them that he took of the others, praying that he might be able to make all those who were entrusted to his care in no respect inferior to irreproachable persons. And when no long period had elapsed, he went to visit his prisoners on one occasion, when he saw these eunuchs more full of perplexity, and more downcast than they had been before ; and conjecturing from their excessive grief that some strange event had befallen them, he inquired the reason of their sorrow. And when they answered him, that they were full of distress and perplexity because they had seen dreams, and because there was no one who could interpret them to them, he said " Be of good cheer, and relate them to me ; for so, if God will, you shall be led to understand them ; for he is willing to reveal, to those who are desirous of the truth, those things which are concealed in darkness."

Then the chief butler spoke first, and said, " I thought that a great vine grew up, having three roots, and one very vigorous trunk, and flourishing, and bearing bunches of grapes as if in the height of autumn, and when the grapes became dark and ripe I picked the bunches, and squeezed the grapes into the king's cup, in order to convey to my sovereign a sufficient quantity of unmixed wine." And Joseph, pausing for awhile, said, " Thy vision announces good fortune to thee, and a recovery of thy former situation ; for the three roots of the vine signify figuratively three days, after which the king will remember thee, and will send for thee from hence, and will pardon thee, and will permit thee to resume thy former rank, and shalt again pour him out wine for confirmation of thy authority, and shalt give the cup into thy master's hand." And the chief butler rejoiced when he heard these things.

And the chief baker, gladly receiving this interpretation, and rejoicing in the idea that he too had seen a favourable dream (though his dream was of a very contrary character), being deceived by the fair hopes which were held out to the other, spoke as follows : — " And I, too, fancied that I was carrying a basket, and that I was holding three baskets full of cakes upon my head. And the upper basket was full of all sorts of cakes which the king was accustomed to eat ; and there were in it confections and delicacies of all kinds imaginable for the king's food : and the birds flew down and took them from off my head, and devoured them insatiably till they had eaten them all up ; and none of the things which I had so skilfully prepared were left." But Joseph replied, "

I wish that the vision had not appeared to you, or that, having appeared, it had been concealed in silence ; or that, if any one would speak of it, he had done so at a distance, so that I might not have heard him, and that his account had been given out of the reach of my ears, for I disliked to be a messenger of evil : for I sympathise with those who are in distress, being greatly grieved at what befalls them by reason of my own humanity. But since interpreters of dreams are bound to speak the truth, since they are interpreters of the divine oracles, and prophets of the divine will, I will explain your dream to you, and conceal nothing ; for to speak truly is in every case the best thing, and is, moreover, the most holy of all holy speeches. " The three baskets are a symbol of three days : and after three days the king will command you to be crucified, and your head to be cut off, and the birds will fly down and feast upon your flesh, until you are wholly devoured."

And the chief baker, as was natural, was confused at this, and cast down greatly, expecting the fate which was thus denounced against him, and being full of misery in his mind. But when the three days had passed, the king's birth-day came, on which all the natives of the country made an assembly and a feast, and especially those in the king's palace. Therefore, while the magistrates were feasting, and while all the household and all the servants were revelling as in a public banquet, the king, remembering his eunuchs who were in prison, commanded them to be brought ; and when he had seen them he confirmed the interpretation of their dreams which Joseph had given, ordering one of them to be crucified, and to have his head cut off, and restoring to the other the office which he had formerly enjoyed.

But the chief butler, after he was released, forgot him who had foretold his release to him, and who had alleviated all the misfortunes which had befallen him, perhaps, indeed, because every ungrateful man is forgetful of benefits, and perhaps, too, because of the providence of God, who designed that the prosperity of the young man should not be owing to man, but rather to himself; for after two years he, by means of a dream, and by two visions, predicted to the king the good and evil which was about to happen to his land, each of the visions indicating the same thing, so as to produce a firmer belief in them. For he thought that seven oxen were coming slowly up out of the river, fat and very well fleshed, beautiful to look upon, and that they began to feed by the river ; after which seven others, equal in number, destitute of flesh in a strange degree, and very lean, came up, exceedingly ill-favoured, and they too fed alongside of the others.

Then, on a sudden, the better oxen were devoured by the inferior ones, and yet those who ate them were in none, not even in the very slightest degree, increased in bulk in their bodies, but were still leaner than before, or, at all events, not less lean ; and when he had awakened and gone to sleep a second time, he had a second vision appear to him ; for he thought that seven ears of wheat sprang up from one root, equal in magnitude, and that they grew and flourished, and rose up to a height with great vigour ; and then that seven other ears, thin and weak, grew up near them, and the root with good ears was devoured by the weak ears when they too had grown up. Seeing this sight he remained sleepless all the rest of the night, for cares stinging and wounding him kept him awake, and at dawn he sent for the sophists and related his dream ; and as none of them was able, by any probable conjectures, to trace out the truth, the chief butler came forward and said, "

O master, there is a hope that you may find the man whom you are seeking ; for when I and the chief baker had done evil against yoix you ordered us to be committed to prison ; and in that prison there was a servant of the chief cook, a Hebrew, to whom both the chief baker and I related some dreams which had appeared to us, and he answered them with such felicity and accuracy of interpretation, that all that he foretold to either of us came to pass, the punishment to the chief baker, which was appointed to him, and I found you favourable and merciful to me.

Therefore the king hearing these things, orders men to go in haste and summon the young man before him ; but they having cut his hair, for the hair, both of his head and of his beard, had grown very long while he was kept in prison, and having given him a splendid garment instead of a sordid one, and having adorned him in other Avays, led him before the king ; who, perceiving from his appearance that he was a free-born and noble man (for there are certain outward characteristics which are stamped upon the persons of some people whom one sees, which are not visible to all, but only to such as have very clear-sighted eyes in their mind), said, " My soul forebodes that my dreams will not be altogether permanently hidden in uncertainty ; for this young man exhibits an appearance of wisdom, by which he will be able to reveal the truth, and, as it were, dissipate the darkness by light, and the ignorance of the sophists at our court by his knowledge," " And then he related to him his dream.

But Joseph, without being at all dismayed at the rank and majesty of the speaker, conversed with him rather as a king with a subject than like a subject with a king, using freedom of speech, though mingled with respect, and he said -. God has shown you before what he is about to do in your country. Do not imagine that the two visions which have appeared to thee are two different dreams ; they are but one and the reduplication of them is not superfluous, but is intended to produce the conviction of a firmer belief ; for the seven fat oxen, and the seven nourishing and vigorous ears of corn, show seven years of great fertility and plenty ; and the seven lean and ill-favoured oxen which came up after the fat ones, and the seven withered and shrivelled ears of corn, denote seven other years of famine ; therefore the first period of seven years thus denoted will arrive first, having great and abundant fertility of crops, in which the river will every year overflow all the land of Egypt with inundations, and all the plains, as if they had never been irrigated or fertilised before.

And after these years there will come a period of seven years entirely contrary to them bringing with it a terrible want and scarcity of necessary things, during which time the river will not overflow, nor will the earth be fertilised, so that it will forget its former prosperity, and so that all that was left from the former abundance of the crops will be consumed. This then is the interpretation of the dreams which have appeared to you. But there is something divine which prompts me and communicates some suggestions to me which may be salutary in this disease ; and the most terrible disease of all cities and countries is famine, which must be checked or mitigated to some degree that it may not be so exceedingly strong as to devour the inhabitants; how then can it be mitigated ?

That which shall be more than sufficient of the crop in the seven years, during which the plenty lasts, after having taken so much as is adequate to the nourishment of the people, and that will be perhaps a iiiih part, must be stored up in granaries in the cities and villages, not removing the crops to any great distance, but storing them in the countries to which they belong, and keeping them there for the relief of the people who dwell in each district ; and it will be well to bring together the crop with the sheaves, not thrashing it out, nor winnowing, nor sifting it at all, for four reasons.

First of all, because if it is thus protected by the straw it will remain uninjured a longer time; secondly, in order that every year the people may be reminded of the former period of plenty while they are threshing and winnowing ; for the imitation of the former real blessings is calculated to produce a second pleasure ; thirdly, in order to prevent any exact calculation of the quantity stored up, as, while the crop is in the ear and in the sheaf, it is of uncertain amount and not easily to be described ; that so the hearts of the people of the land may not faint beforehand at the consumption of what has been treasured up, but may use with cheerfulness the nourishment of the corn which is thus provided for them, (for hope is of all things the most strengthening), and so may to a certain extent feel relief in the bitter disease of scarcity; fourthly, because in tliis way fodder may also be provided for the cattle, as the straw and the chaff derived from the threshing of the wheat will be of use to them in this way.

And you must appoint a man to superintend all these measures, of great prudence, and great acuteness, and well approved in all matters, who may be able without incurring hatred or envy to do all that I have here described in a proper manner, without giving to the multitude any reason to suspect the impending famine ; for it would be a sad thing for them to anticipate their distress, and so to faint in their souls through despair ; and if any one should inquire the reason of all this being done, the superintendent may say that, as in peace it is right to provide things that may be necessary in war, so also it is desirable in years of plenty to provide against want ; and that wars and famines are in their nature uncertain, and in short so are all the different events which befall men unexpectedly at different times ; for which therefore it is necessary to be prepared ; and not when such things have befallen one, then to seek a remedy when it is no longer of any avail."

And when the king had heard these words, and hnd seen that the interpretation of the dreams did thus with felicity and accuracy of conjecture arrive at the truth, and that the advice which the young man gave appeared to be of exceeding use in the way of providing against the uncertainty of the future, he ordered those who were about him to approach nearer so that they might hear what he said ; and then he spoke as follows : Can we, 0 men, find any man equal to this man who has the spirit of God resting on him ? And when they all praised his words, and raised their voices in accordance with them, he looked on Joseph as he was standing before him and said : The man whom you advise me to seek out is near at hand ; the wise and intelligent man whom we have need of is at no great distance; you yourself are he whom, in accordance with your recommendation, we ought to seek for, for you do not appear to me to have been inspired by anything short of God himself, when you said what you have now said to me.

Go then, and take the superintendence of my household and the government of all Egypt ; and no one will blame my indifference or easiness, as if I were yielding to indolence and selfish love of ease, under this calamity so difficult to be remedied ; for great natures are often tested without requiring a long time for their examination, compelling men by their intrinsic weight and power to be rapid, and to discard all delay in receiving them, and some affairs do not admit of any delay or procrastination when the occasions compel us to necessary promptness of action. After speaking thus, Pharaoh appointed Joseph his lieutenant in the kingdom, or rather, if one is to speak the exact truth, actual king, leaving to himself only the name of kingly power ; but in reality yielding up the whole sovereignty to him, and behaving in every respect so as to confer honour on the young man. Therefore he gave him a royal seal, and a sacred robe, and a golden circlet to go round his neck, and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had, and commanded him in that state to go round the city, a herald also going round with him, and announcing his appointment to those who were ignorant of it.

Moreover, he changed his name with reference to his interpretation of dreams, giving him an appellation according to the language of the country, and he gave him for his wife the most beautiful and noble of all the women in Egypt, tbe daughter of the priest of tbe sun. These things happened when Joseph was about thirty years of age. And sucb is the end of pious persons ; for, even if they stumble they do not wholly fall, but rise again after an interval, and are re-established in a firm and solid manner, so as not to be completely prostrated.

For who would ever have expected that in one day the same man would become a master from having been a slave, and from having been a prisoner would rise up the most illustrious of men, and that the under turnkey of the keeper of the prison would become the king's lieutenant, and that he would dwell in tbe king's palace instead of in tbe gaol, having the highest honour in the whole land instead of being held in tho greatest disrepute ? Nevertheless these things really did come to pass, and similar things often will come to pass when it s cms good to God. Only let there be one single spark of excellence and virtue implanted in the soul, and that must some day or other be fanned into a flame and shine forth.

But since we have proposed to ourselves to give not only an explanation of the literal account given to us, but also of its more figurative meaning, we must say what is necessary to be said concerning that also. Perhaps now some persons of rash and inconsiderate dispositions will laugh; nevertheless, I will speak without concealing anything. And I will say that the statesman is at all times an interpreter of dreams, not classing him by this statement among the charlatans and vain chatterers, and men who put forth sophistical pretences by way of making money, or among those who profess the explanation of visions which have appeared to persons in their sleep in the hope of acquiring gain ; but I mean that the statesman is accustomed to interpret accurately the great, and common, and universal general dreams,not only of sleeping but alsoof waking persons.

And this dream, to speak the truth, is the life of man ; for as in the visions which appear to us in sleep, which seeing we do not see, and hearing we do not hear, and tasting and touching we do not either taste or touch, and speaking we do not speak, and walking we do not walk, and while appearing to exert other motions or to win other positions we are not in reahty in any such motions or positions ; but they are mere empty fancies without any truth in them of the mind which fancies to itself a sketch,- and makes to itself a representation of things which are not, as if they were ; and in like manner the fancies which occur to waking people resemble the dreams of sleepers. They have come, they have departed ; they have appeared, they have disappeared ; before they could be scarcely comprehended they have flown away. And let every one who dreams in this way inquire within himself and he will find a proof of these things within, and without any proofs from me he will know the truth of what I say, especially if he happens to be at all an old man.

He was at one time an infant, and after that a child, and then a bo v. and then a youth, and subsequently a young man, and then a man, and last of all an old man, but he was not all these things at the same time. Did not the infant disappear before the child, and the child before the boy, and the boy before the youth, and the youth before the young man, and the young man before the full-grown man, and the man in the prime of life before the old man ? and did not old age disappear in death ? Perhaps, also, every one of the different ages of life yields in vigour to the one which comes next to it, and so dies before its time, nature by these means teaching us not to fear the death which comes upon all men, inasmuch as we have found it easy to bear the previous deaths, the death that is of the infant, and that of the child, and that of the boy, and that of the youth, and that of the young man, and that of the full grown man, not one of whom exist any longer when old age has arrived.