The Works of Philo (complete)

Their descendants being oppressed in innunicrablo ways by the natives of tlio land, when no assistanci^ did any longer appear to 1)0 expected from men, became tlio su[ii)liaMts of God, having i\in\ for refuge to entn;at his assistance, 'i'herefore he, who is merciful to all who are unjustly treated, having received their supplication, smote those who oppressiul them with siguH and wond(?rs, and prodigies, and with all the marv(^llous works which he wrought at that time. And Ik; (b^livered those wh(> were being insulted and enduring every kind of perlidious oppression, not only leading them forth to freedom, l)ul even giving them in addition a most, fM-lilo land ; for it is from the Iruits of this land, <> iiounteous (Jod! that wo now bring you tho ilrst fruits ; if indeed it is a ])roper expression to say that ho who receives them from you biings them to you. b'or, (> ^Master ! they are all your favours and your gift.s, of which you • Castallus i» iutorin-oted "a baaket with a poiutod bottom." yiavc nioii{.5lit iiH worLliy, juid kg cnaljlod us to livo comfortably and to )'(»J()ic() ill uiioxjKjotcd bloissiugK which ihou hast given to us, who did not expect them."

'J'hiK hymn is sniif^ from the hcginniug of siunmer to fo lli(! f:iid of autumn, hy two clioruHOs roplyiiig to one another uniiilcrniptcdiy, on two separate occasions, each at tlie end of one complete half of ten years ; because men cannot all at onco lu'ing the fruits f)f the seasons to (iod in accordance with his express command, but diHerent men bring them at different seasons ; and sometimes even the same persons bring first fr«ii(s from th<5 same lands at different times ; for since some fruits !)e(;ome ripe more speedily, and others more slowly, either on account of ihc dilTercinces of the situations in which they are grown, as bcinj,' liotU;r or colder, or from innuiiierable oth(!r reasons, it fellows lliat ihe time foj' oil'cring the first fruits of such produdioiis is uiid(!iincd and uncertain, being e.v l()iid<(l over a great space. And the use of these first fruits is j)ermilt(;d to tlie pricKts, since they had no portion of the land ihemselves, and had no possessions from which they could derive revenue; but their inlusritance is the first fruits from all the nation as the wages of tlieir holy ministrations, whicii they jicrform day and night. iV.

I li;iv(! now said thus much respecting the number seven, and the things relerring to it among the days, and the months, and th<: years ; and al)out the festivals whicli are connect(^d with this number seven, following the regular connection of tlie heads of l,he subj(!c(, vvhicdi I |)r()pos(!d to myself according l,o the order in wlii('h they are meiitioiKMl in the sacred liistory. And 1 shall now proreed in regular order to consider the eoninKuidiiKnit \vhii:h comes next, wliich is entitled the one ubout the honour duo (o parents.

IIavinii alrcMidy spoluMi of lour commandments which, both as to the order in which they are placed and as to their • Tlii.i triyitlHO ifl alau oiuittod hi l\lr,i)goy'H cditiou. importance, are traly the first; namely, the commandment about the lenity of that sovereign authority by which the world is governed, and that which commands that man should not look upon any representation or figure of anything as God, and that which forbids the swearing falsely, or indeed the swearing carelessly and vainly at all, and that concerning the sacred seventh day — all which commandments tend to piety and holiness. I now proceed to the fifth commandment, relating to the honour due to parents ; which is, as I showed in the mention I made of it separately before, on the borders between those which relate to the affairs of men and those which relate to God. For parents themselves are something between divine and human nature, partaking of both ; of human nature, inasmuch as it is plain that they have been born and that they will die ; and of divine nature, because they have engendered other beings, and have brought what did not exist into existence : for, in my opinion, what God is to the world, that parents are to their children ; since, just as God gave existence to that which had no existence, they also, in imitation of his power, as far at least as they were able, make the race of mankind everlasting.

And this is not the only reason why a man's father and mother are deserving of honour, but here are also several other reasons. For among all those nations who have any regard for virtue, the older men are esteemed above the younger, and teachers above their pupils, and benefactors above those who have received kindnesses from them, and rulers above their subjects, and masters above their slaves. Accordingly, parents are placed in the higher and superior class ; for they are the elders, and the teachers, and the benefactors, and the rulers, and the masters. And sons and daughters are placed in the inferior class ; for they are the younger, and the pupils, and the persons who have received kindnesses, and subjects, and slaves. And that every one of these assertions is correct is plain from the circumstances that take place, and proofs derived from reason will establish the truth of them yet more undeniably.

I affirm, therefore, that that which produces is always older than that which is produced, and that that which causes anything is older than that of which it is the cause ; but those who beget or bring forth a child are in some sense the causes and producers of the child -which is begotten or brought forth, and they stand iu the light of teachers, inasmuch as all that they know themselves they teach to their children from their earliest infancy, and they not only exercise and train them iu the supernumerary accomplishments, impressing reasonings on the minds of their children when they come to their prime, bui they also teach them those most necessary lessons which refer to choice and avoidance, the choice, that is to say. of virtues, and the avoidance of vices, and of all the energies in accordance with them.

For who can be more completely the benefactors of their children than parents, who have not only caused them to exist, but have afterwards thought them worthy of food, and after that again of education both in body and soul, and have enabled them not only to live, but also to live wtU ; training their body by gymnastic and athletic rules so as to tring it into a vigorous and healthy state, and giving it an easy way of standing and moving not without elegance and beconiug grace, and educating the soul by letters, and numbers, aid geometry, and music, and every kind of philosophy which iiay elevate the mind which is lodged in the mortal body andconduct it up to heaven, and can display to advantage the blessid and happy qualities that are in it, producing an admiratioLof and a desire for an unchangeable and harmonious system, wh.-.h they will afterwards never leave if they preserve their obediece to their captain.

And in ac^ition to the benefits which they heap upon them, they have lik^ise authority over the children of whom they are the parem, not as is the case in cities, in consequence of some drawing f lots or election, so that any one can find fault vfiih his govenir as having become so either by some blunder of fortune and i>t by reason, or it may be by the impetuosity of the multitudi the most inconsiderate and foolish of all things, but being stablished in this post by the most excellent and perfect wisdoi of the sublime nature, which regulates all divine and human ffairs in accordance with justice.

For these lasons it is allowable for parents even to accuse their childr^, and to reprove them with considerable severity, and even, ithey do not submit to the threats which are uttered to them I word of mouth, to beat them, and inflict personal punishment i them, and to imprison them ; and if they behave with obsti.,cy and resist tliis treatment, becoinirig stiff-necked through the greatness of their incurable wickedness, the law permits them to chastise them even to the extent of putting them to death * But still this permission is not given to either the father by himself, or to the mother by herself, by reason of the greatness of the punishment, wliich it is not fitting should be determined by one, but by both together, for it is not probable that both the parents will agree about putting their child to death unless his iniquities are very grievous, and weigh down by a certain undoubted prepouderance that iirm affection which is firmly implanted in the parents by nature.

But parents have received not only the power of a ruler and governor over their children, but also that of a master, according to both the very highest characteristics of the possession of servants, namely, possessing them as born in the house, aad also as purchased with money, for they expend a price miny times greater than their real value on their children ant for the sake of their children, in wages to nurses, and instructors, and teachers, besides all the expenses which they in^ur for their dress and their food, and their other care of thpn when well and when sick, from their earliest infancy till ^he time that they are full grown. And not only are those lo-ked upon as servants born in the house who have actually beu brought forth within the walls, but those also are so regaled who by the laws of nature receive from the masters of he house a sufficient support to maintain them in life after t'ey are born.

Since this, then, is the case, those who d' honour their parents are not doing anything worthy of pra^t^. since even any single one of the commandments alread mentioned is sufficient to invite them to regard their parent'^ith reverence. But are not those men worthy of blame, aiV accusation, and the very extremity of punishment, who neith** respect them as older tlian themselves, nor listen to them as^ieir teachers, nor think them worthy of any requital as th(^ benefactors, nor obey them as their rulers, nor fear then as their masters? Therefore the law says, "Honour thy fa^er and thy mother next after God ;"t assigning to them •''e second place in honour, on the same principle as natu' herself has ranked them in her decision of their proper pk' and duties. And you will not honour them more*}' any line of conduct • Deuteronomy sxi. 18. •(■ /euteronomy v. 16than by endeavouring and appearing to be virtuous persons.

As the being such is a seeking of virtue without pride and without guile, and appearing such aims at virtue in connection with a good reputation and praise from one's associates ; for parents, thinking but little of their own advantage, think the virtue and excellence of their children the perfection of their own happiness, for which reason it is that they are anxious that they should obey the injunctions which are laid upon them, and that they should be obedient to all just and beneficial commands ; for a father will never teach his child anything which is inconsistent with virtue or with truth.

And any one may conjecture that pious respect is due to parents, not only from what has been said above, but also from the manner in which pei'sons behave to those who are of the same age with their parents ; for the man who shows respect to an old man, or to an old woman, who is no relation to him, must appear in some degree to be remembering his own father and mother, and, out of this consideration, to be looking upon them as the images of his parents, who are the real models. On which account, in the sacred scriptures, it is not on!}'' commanded that young men should rise up and give the best seats to their elders, but also that they should rise up before them when they pass by ;* showing honour to the grey hairs of old age, to which there is a hope that they may come themselves if they now yield precedence to them. And this commandment also seems to me to have been enacted with exceeding beauty and propriety ; for the law says, "

Let each m.an fear his father and his mother,"t enjoining fear rather than affection, not as being better in every respect or for every purpose, but as being more advantageous and profitable with reference to the present occasion, for the first of these feelings affects foolish persons when they are being instructed or reproved, and folly cannot be cured by any other means than fear. But the second feeling, namely, affection towards their parents, it is not fitting should be inculcated on children by the injunctions of a lawgiver, for nature requires that that should be spontaneous. For it has implanted it so deeply from very infancy in the souls of those who are so completely united by blood, and by the services done by the parents to the children, that it is always self-taught and spontaneous, and has no need of commandments to enforce it. • Leviticus six. 32. + Leviticus xix. 3. But. the law has enjoined fear, because children are accustomed to feel an easy indifference.

For though parents attend to their children with an exceeding violence of affection, providing them with necessary things from all quarters, and bestowing all good things upon them, and shrinking from no labour and from no danger, being bound to them by love stronger than any oaths, still some persons do not receive their affection as if it aimed solely at their good, being full of luxury and arrogance ; and coveting a luxurious life, and becoming effeminate both in body and soul, permitting them in no respect to entertain proper dispositions as through the native powers of their minds, which they are not ashamed to overthrow, and to enervate, and to deprive of each separate energy, and so they come not to fear their natural correctors, their fathers and mothers yielding to and indulging their own private passions and desires. But we must also urge on the parents of such persons that they employ more weighty and severe admonitions in order to cure this impetuous obstinacy of their children, and we must warn the children to reverence their parents, fearing them as their rulers and natural masters ; for it is with difficulty even by these considerations that they will be brought to hesitate to act unjustly. yil.

I have now then gone through all the five heads of laws in the first table, and have noticed also all the particular points which had any reference to any individual. I must also now point out the punishments affixed to the transgression of these laws. Now there is one common penalty affixed to them all, namely, death, through which all such offences have a Ivind of relationship to one another. But the causes of this sentence being pronounced in such cases are different, and we must begin with the last, the one that relates to parents, since it is in reference to this one that the words are still ringing in our ears, "

If any one shall beat his father or his mother, let him be stoned.''* And very justly, for it is not fit that that man should live who insults those who are the causes of his living ; but some of the men of high rank, and some of the lawgivers, looking rather at the vain opinions of men than at the truth, have softened this commandment, and instituted as a penalty, for those who beat their fathers, that their hands should be cut off; and for the sake of bearing a good reputation in the eyes of hasty and inconsiderate persons, they profess to them that it is becoming, that the parts with which such men have struck their parents should be cut off; but it is a piece of folly to be angry with the servants rather than with those who are the causes of such folly ; for it is not the hands that behave with such insolence, but insolent men perform their actions with their hands, and it is the men who must be punished, unless indeed it can be called fitting to let men go who have committed murder with the sword, and to content one's self with throwing away the sword; and unless, on the contrary, one ought not to give honour to those who have shown pre-eminent valour in war, but to the inanimate coats of armour, by means of which they have behaved themselves valiantly ; and unless again it is reasonable, in the case of those who have gained the victory in the gymnastic games, in the stadium, or the double race, or the long straight course, or in the contest of boxing, or in the pancratium, to attempt to crown only the legs and ai-ms of the conquerors, and to let the whole of their bodies remain uuhonoured.

Surely it would be a ridiculous thing to lay down such principles as these, and to abstain in consequence from punishing or honouring those who were the real causes of the results in question ; for we do not pass over a man who has given a splendid exhibition of musical skill, playing exquisitely on the flute or the lyre, and think the instruments themselves worthy of proclamations and honours. Why, then, should we deprive of their hands men who beat their fathers, O you most noble lawgivers ? Is it that they may for the future be wholly useless for any purpose whatever, and that they may exact as a tribute, not once a year but every day, from those whom they have treated with iniquity, compelling them to supply them vdth necessary food, as being unable, to provide for themselves? For their father is not so wholly hard-hearted as to endure to see even a son who has so grievously offended against him dying of hunger, after his anger has been blunted by time.

And even if he has not laid hands upon his parents, but has only spoken ill of those wliom he was bound to praise and bless, or if he has in any other manner done anything whicli can tend to bring his parents into disrepute, still let bim die.* For since he is a common enemy, and if one may tell the plain truth, he is a public enemy of all men, to whom else can he be kind and favourable when he is not so to the authors of his being, by whose means he came into this world, and of whom he is a sort of supplement ?

Again, let the man who has profaned the sacred seventh day as far as it may have lain in liis power, be liable to the punishment of death. For, on the contrary, it is proper rather to provide whatever is profane, be it a thing or be it a person, with means of purification, in order to induce a change for the better, since "envy," as some one has said, "goes forth out of the divine company." But to dare to adulterate or to deface the holy coinage is an act which displays an extraordinary degree of impiety. In that ancient migration which took place when the people of Israel left Egypt, and when the whole multitude was travelling through the pathless wilderness, when the seventh day came all those myriads of men which I have described before rested in their tents in perfect tranquillity ; but one man, and he not one of the most despised or lowest class of the people, disregarding the commands which were laid upon the nation, and ridiculing those who attended to them, went forth to pick up sticks, but in reality to show his contempt for and violation of the law.

And he indeed came back bearing with him a faggot in his arm, but the men who remained in their tents although inflamed with anger and exasperated by his conduct, nevertheless did not at once proceed to very harsh measures against him that day by reason of the holy reverence due to the day, but they led him before the ruler of the people, and made known his impious action, and he having committed him to prison, after a command had been given to put him to death, gave the man up to those who had originally seen him to execute. As therefore, in my opinion, it was not permitted to kindle a fire on the seventh day for the reason which I have already mentioned, so likewise it was not lawful to collect any fuel for a fire.

Against those who call God as a witness in favour of assertions which are not true, the punishment of death is ordained in the law ;t and very properly, for even a man of moderate respectabilit}^ will never endure to be cited as a witness, and to have his name registered in support of a lie. But it seems to me that he would look upon any one who proposed such a thing to him as a thoroughly faithless enemy ; on which account we must say this, that him, who swears rashly and falsely, calling God to witness an unjust oath, God, although he is merciful by nature, will yet never release, inasmuch as he is thoroughly deiiled and infamous from guilt, even though he may escape pmiishmeut at the hands of men.

And such a man will never entkely escape, for there are innumerable beings looking on, zealots for and keepers of the national laws, of rigid justice, prompt to stone such a criminal, and visiting without pity all such as work wickedness, unless, indeed, we are prepared to say that a man who acts in such a way as to dishonour his father or his mother is worthy of death, but that he who behaves with impiety towards a name more glorious than even tlie respect due to one's parents, is to be borne with as but a moderate offender. But the lawgiver of our nation is not so foolish as, after putting to death men who are guilty of minor offences, then to treat those who are guilty of heavier crimes with mildness, since surely it is a greater iniquity than even to speak disparagingly or to insult one's parents, to show a contempt for the sacred name of God by means of perjury.

And if even he who swears in an unbecoming manner is guilty and blameable, of what punishment is that man worthy who denies the one only true and living God and who honours the creature above the Creator, and chooses to honour not only the earth and the water, or the air, or the fire, the elements of the universe, or again the sun and moon, and the planets and fixed stars, and the whole of heaven, and the universal world, but even stocks and stones, which mortal workmen have fashioned, and which by them have been shaped into human figures ?

Therefore, let such a man be liimself likened to images carved by the hand ; for it ought not to be that that man should have any soul himself who honours things destitute of soul or life, and especially after he has been a disciple of Moses, whom he has often heard announcing to him and under the influence of divine inspiration declaring those most sacred and holy admonitions, '' Take not the name of any other gods into thy sc^l for a remembrance of them, and utter not their names with thj voice, but keep both thy mind and thy speech far from all other interpositions, and turn them wholly to the Father and Creator of the universe, that thus thou mayest cherish the most virtuous and godly thoughts about his single government, and mayest speak words that are becoming and most profitable both to thyself and to those that hear thee."*

We have now then mentioned the punishments which are ordained against those who neglect the five commandments. But the rewards which are offered to those who keep them, even though the law has not set them forth in express words of injunction, are nevertheless figuratively intimated. Therefore the fact of not thinking that there are any other gods but the true God, nor imagining that things made by the hand of man are gods, and the fact of not committing perjury, are things which have no need of any other reward, for the mere fact, in my opinion, of practising these virtues is itself a most excellent and most perfect reward. For at what circumstance can a lover of truth feel more really dehghted than at the devotion of himself to one God, and attending in a guileless and pure manner to his service ? And when I speak of witnesses, I mean not such persons as are slaves to pride, but such as are devoted to an admiration of goodness free from all error, by whom the truth is honoured. For wisdom itself is the reward of wisdom ; and justice, and each of the other virtues, is its own reward. And truth, as being the most beautiful in the whole company, and as being the chief of all the holy virtues, is in much greater degree its own recompense and reward, aiiFording as it does happiness to all who practise it, and blessings of which they cannot be deprived to their children and descendants.

Again, those who properly keep the sacred sabbath are benefited in two most important particulars, both body and soul ; as to their body, by a rest from their continual and incessant labours ; and as to their soul, by forming most excellent conceptions respecting God as the Creator of the universe and the careful protector of all the things and beings which and whom he has made. And he made the whole universe in one week. It is plain, therefore, from these things that the man who hououi-s the seventh day will himself find honour. In the same ■way let not him who honours his parents dutifully seek for any further advantage, for if he considers the matter he -will find his reward in his own conduct. Not but what, since this commandment is inferior in importance to the first five commandments, which have a more divine character, inasmuch as this is concerned with mortal subjects, God has given an inducement to obey this one, saying, "

Honour thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and that thy days may be long in the land;"* affixing thus two rewards to this injunction, one being in fact the participation in virtue, for " well " means virtue, or at least cannot subsist without virtue ; while the other is, if one is to say the truth, immortality by length of days, and a life of long duration, which thou wiJt preserve even in the body living with thy soul, purified with a perfect purification. These things have now been discussed at sufficient length. Let us after this, since the opportunity offers, consider the commandments in the second table.

There was once a time when, devoting my leisure to philosophy and to the contemplation of the world and the things in it, I reaped the fruit of excellent, and desirable, and blessed intellectual feelings, being always living among the divine oracles and doctrines, on which I fed incessantly and insatiably, to my great delight, never entertaining any low or grovelling thoughts, nor ever wallowing in the pursuit of glory or wealth, or the delights of the body, but I appeared to be raised on high and borne aloft by a certain inspiration of the soul, and to dwell in the regions of the sun and moon, and to associate with the whole heaven, and the whole universal world. At that time, therefore, looking down from ahove, from the air, and straining the eye of my mind as from a watch-tower, I surveyed the unspeakable contemplation of all the things on the earth, and looked upon myself as happy as having forcibly escaped from all the evil fates that can attack human life.

Nevertheless, the most grievous of all evils was lying in wait for me, namely, envy, that hates every thing that is good, and which, suddenly attacking me, did not cease from dragging me after it by force till it had taken me and thrown me into the vast sea of the cares of public politics, in which I was and still am tossed about without being able to keep myself swimming at the top. But though I groan at my fate, I still hold out and resist, retaining in my soul that desire of instruction which has been implanted in it from my earliest youth, and tliis desire taking pity and compassion on me continually raises me up and alleviates my sorrow. And it is through this fondness for learning that I at times lift up my head, and with the eyes of my soul, which are indeed dim (for the mist of affairs, wholly inconsistent with their proper objects, has overshadowed their acute clear-sightedness), still, as well as I may, I survey all the things around me, being eager to imbibe something of a life which shall be pure and unalloyed by evils.

And if at any time une.x;pectedly there shall arise a brief period of tranquillity, and a short calm and respite from the troubles which arise from state affairs, I then rise aloft and float above the troubled waves, soaring as it were in the air, and being, I may almost say, blown forward by the breezes of knowledge, which often persuades me to flee away, and to pass all my days with her, escaping as it were from my pitiless masters, not men only, but also affairs which pour upon me from all quarters and at all times like a torrent. But even in these circumstances I ought to give thanks to God, that though I am so overwhelmed by this flood, I am not wholly sunk and swallowed up in the depths. But I open the eyes of my soul, which from an utter despair of any good hope had been believed to have been before now wholly darkened, and I am irradiated v/ith tlie light of wisdom, since I am not given up for the whole of my life to darkness.

Behold, therefore, I venture not only to study the sacred commands of Moses, but also with an ardent love of knowledge to investigate each separate one of them, and to endeavour to reveal and to explain to those who wish to understand them, things concerning them which are not known to the multitude. TI. And since of the ten commandments which God himself gave to his people without employing the agency of any prophet or interpreter, five which are engraved in the first tablet have been already discussed and explained, as have also all the particular injunctions which were comprehended under them ; and since it is now proper to examine and expound to the best of our power and ability the rest of the commandments which are found in the second table, I will attempt as before to adapt the particular ordinances which are implied in them to each of the general laws. Now on the second table this is the first commandment, "

Thou shalt not commit adultery," because, I imagine, in every part of the world pleasure is of great power, and no portion of the world has escaped its dominion, neither of the things on earth, nor of the things in the sea, nor even of those in the air, for all animals, whether walking on the earth, or flying in the air, or swimming in the water, do at all times rejoice in pleasure, and cultivate it, and obey its behests, and look to its eye and to its nod, obeying it with cheerfulness, however an'ogant and proud they may be, and all but anticipating its commands, by the promptness and unhesitating rapidity of their service. Tlierefore, even that pleasure which is in accordance with nature is often open to blame, when any one indulges in it immoderately and insatiably, as men who are unappeasably voracious in respect of eating, even if they take no kind of forbidden or unwholesome food ; and as men who arc madly devoted to association \\ith women, and who commit themselves to an immoderate degree not with other men's wives, but with tlieir own.

Still this sort of reproach, as affecting most men, is one rather of the body than of the soul, since the body has a vehement flame within, which consumes the food which is offered to it, and seeks other food at no great distance, by reason of the abundant moisture, the stream of which is conveyed into the most secret parts of the body, creating an itching, and stinging, and incessant tickling. But those men who are frantic in their desires for the -wives of others, and at times even for those of their nearest relations or dearest friends, and who live to the injury of their neighbours, attempting to vitiate whole families, however numerous, and violating all hinds of marriage vows, and making vain the hopes which men conceive of having legitimate children, being afflicted with an incurable disease of the soul, must be punished with death as common enemies to the whole race of mankind, in order that they may no longer live in perfect fearlessness, so as to be at leisure to corrupt other houses, nor become teachers of others, who may learn by their example to practise evil habits.

Moreover the law has laid down other admirable regulations with regard to carnal conversation ; for it commands men not only to abstain from the wives of others, but also from certain relations, with whom it is not lawful to cohabit ; therefore Moses, detesting and loathing the customs of the Persians, repudiates them as the greatest possible impiety, for the magistrates of the Persians marry even their own mothers, and consider the offspring of such marriages the most noble of all men, and as it is said, they think them worthy of the highest sovereign authority.

And yet what can be a more flagitious act of impiety than to defile the bed of one's father after he is dead, which it would be right rather to preserve untouched, as sacred ; and to feel no respect either for old age or for one's mother, and for the same man to be both the son and the husband of the same woman ; and again for the same woman to be both the mother and wife of the same man, and for the children of the two to be the brothers of their father and the grandsons of their mother, and for that same woman to be both the mother and grandmother of those children whom she has brought forth, and for the man to be at the same time both the father and the uterine brother of those whom he has begotten ?

These enormities formerly took place among the Greeks in the case of ffidipus, the son of Laius,* and the actions were • This is the subject, in fact, of the (Edipus Tyranuiis of Sophocles, and is dilated upon by OEdipus, where he says — l<pv<TaB' I'lfiac ical (JtiiTft/rrai'Ttc tti'i^ii' dl'HTt TailTOV (TTTlpiia, k' UTTiCilcdTl TTaTtpag, dOfX^ioiV' 7r«((Vf(;, oiyi' tf.i(tn'\iov, committed out of ignorance and not voluntarily, and yet that marriage brought on such a host of evils that nothing was wanting to make up the amount of the most complete wretchedness and miseiy, for there ensued from it a continual succession of wars, both domestic and foreign, which were bequeathed like an inheritance from their fathers and ancestors to their children and descendants ; and there Avere Jesti'uctions of cities which were the greatest in Greece, and destructions of embattled armies, and slaughter of nations and of aUies which had come to the assistance of either side, and mutual slaughter of the most gallant leaders in each army, and unreconcileable enmities about sovereignty and authority, and fratricides, by which not only the families and countries of the persons immediately concerned were utterly extinguished and destroyed, but the greater portion of the whole Greek nation also, for cities which were previously populous now became desolate and void of their inhabitants, and were left as a memorial of the calamities of Greece, and a miserable sight for all beholders.

Nor, indeed, do the Persians, among whom such practices are frequent, avoid similar evils, for they are continually involved in military expeditions and battles, killing and being killed, and at one time invading their neighbours and at others repelling those who rise up against them. And many enemies rise up against them from many quarters, since it is not the nature of the barbarians to rest in tranquillity ; therefore, before the existing sedition is appeased, another springs up, so that no season of the year is ever indulged in peace and quietness, but they are compelled to live under arms night and day, bearing for the greater portion of their lives hardships in the open air while serving in the camps, or else living in cities from i]\e complete absence of all peace. I forbear to mention the great and intolerable violence and pride of success exhibited vvn<paQ, yvi'dlKag fiiiripag 7f, %' (uTTona aiffxior' iv d}jOiiw—ni(7n> tpyn yiyrtTnt. 1408. Au'l again he says — rfiv TiKovaav iipomv ciOiv irtp avrog iairapr}^ kcik rwv 'iatuv ttcrTjaaO' vfiag utvTrep avTuq i^i<pv. 1409. Philo alludes afterwards to the wars which are the subject cf the 'Esr' (' ttI Qii^ar of iEschylus.

X 2 by the kings, whose first contests begin at the very first assumption of their sovereign power with the greatest of all iniquities, fraticide, as thus alone do they imagine that they will be safe from all attacks and treachery on the part of their brothers if they appear to have put them to death with, reason and justice. And it seems to me that all these things arise from the unhallowed connections of sons with their own mothers, because justice, who surveys all human affairs, revenges herself thus on those who act improperly for their wickednet^s ; for not only do those who act thus commit impiety, but those alst) who voluntarily signify their assent to the arbitrary conduct of those who do such actions.

But our law guards so carefully against such actions as these that it does not permit even a step-son, when his father is dead, to marry his step-mother, on account of the respect which he owes to his father, and because the titles mother and step-mother are kindred names, even though the affections of the souls may not be identical ; for the man who is thought to abstain from her who has been the wife of another man, because she is called his step-mother, will much more abstain from his own natural mother. And if any one, on account of his recollection of his father, shows a respectfid awe of her who has formerly been his wife, it is quite evident that he, because of the respect which he feels towards both his parents, is not likely to meditate any improper conduct to his mother ; since it would be downright folly for a man who studies to please one half of his family, to appear to neglect it in its wholeness and integrity.

There follows after this a command not to espouse one's sister : which is an injimction of great excellence, and one which contributes very greatly to temperance and good order. Therefore the Athenian lawgiver, Solon, when he permitted men to marry their sisters by the same father,' forbade them to marry those by the same mother. But the lawgiver of the Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, allowed of marriages between brothers and sisters by the same mothers, but forbade those between brothers and sisters by th(! same fither. "While the lawgiver of the Egyptians, ridiculing the cautious timidity of the others as if they had established imperfect ordinances, gave the reins to lasciviousness, supplying in great abundance that most incurable evil of intemperance both to body and soul, and permitting men fearlessly and with impunity to marry all their sisters, whether by both parents or by one, or by either, whether father or mother, and that too not only if younger than, but even when older than, or of the same age as themselves ; for twins are very often born, which nature, indeed, at their verj' birth has dissevered and separated, but which incontiJience and love of pleasure has invited to an association M'hich ought never to be entered into, and to a most inharmonious agreement.

But the most sacred Moses, rejecting all those ordinances with detestation, as being quite inconsistent with and at A'ariance with any praiseworthy kind of constitution, and as laws which encouraged and trained people to the most disgraceful of all habits, most peremptorily prohibited any connection with a man's sister, whether by both parents, or Avhether only by one of the two ; for why should any one seek to deface the beauty of modesty ? And why make ■virgins destitute of all modestv, to whom it is becoming to blush ? And, moreover, why should one be willing to limit the associations and connections with other men, and to confine a most honourable thing within the narrow space of the walls of a single house, which ought rather to be extended and diiFused over all continents, and islands, and the whole inhabited world ? For the intermarriages with strangers produce new relationships, which are in no respect inferior to those which proceed from ties of blood. Y.

On which account our lawgiver has also forbidden other matrimoiiial connections, commanding that no man shall marry his granddaughter, whether she be his son's or his daughter's child; nor his niece; nor his aunt; nor his grandmother, by either father or mother ; nor any Avoman wlio has been the wife of his uncle, or of his son, or of his brother; nor, again, any step-daughter, whether virgin or v,idow, whether his own wife be alive or even after her death. For, in principle, a step-father is the same as a father, and therefore he ought to look upon liis wife's daughter in the same light as his own. Again.

He does not permit the same man to marry two sisters, neither at the same time nor at different periods, k even if he bave put away the one whom he previously married ; tbr while she is living, whether she be cohabiting with him or whether she be put away, or if she be living as a widow, or if she be married to another man, still he did not consider it holy for her sister to enter upon the portion of her who had been unfortunate ; by this injunction teaching sisters not to violate the requirements of justice towards their relations, nor to make a stepping stone of the disasters of one so united to themselves by blood, nor to acquiesce in or to pride themselves in receiving attentions from those who have shown themselves enemies to their relations, or to reciprocate any kind offices received from them.

For from such thiiigs as these arise bitter jealousies and quarrels, and enmities which scarcely admit of reconciliation, but which bring on indescribable hosts of misfortunes ; for that would be just as if the diiferent members of the body were to abandon the harmony and fellowship in which they are put together bj^ nature, and to quarrel with one another, which circumstance must necessarily cause incurable diseases and mischiefs. And sisters are like limbs, which, although they are separated from one another, are nevertheless all adapted to one another by nature and natural relationship. And jealousy, Avhich is the most grievous of all passions, is continually producing new, and terrible, and incurable mischiefs. Again. Moses commands, do not either form a connection of marriage with one of another nation, and do not be seduced into complying with customs inconsistent with your own, and do not stray from the right way and forget the path which leads to piety, turning into a road which is no road. And, perhaps, you will yourself resist, if you have been from your earliest youth trained in the best possible instruction, which your parents have instilled into you, continuaUy filling your mind with the sacred laws.

And the anxiety and fear which parents feel for their sons and daughters is not slight ; for, perchance, they may be allured by mischievous customs instead of genuine good ones, and so they may be in danger of learning to forget the honour belonging to the one Grod, which is the beginning and end of extreme unhappiness. But if, proceeds the lawgiver, a woman having been divorced from her husband under any pretence whatever, and having married another, has again become a widow, whether her second husband is alive or dead, still she must not return to her former husband, but may be united to any man in the world rather than to him, having violated her former ties which she forgot, and having chosen new allurements in the place of the old ones.

But if any man should choose to form an alliance with such a woman, he must be content to bear the reputation of eifeminacy and a complete want of manly courage and vigour, as if he had been castrated and deprived of the most useful portion of the soul, namely, that disposition which hates iniquity, by which the affairs both of 'houses and cities are placed on a good footing, and as having stamped deeply on his character tw^o of the greatest of all iniquities, adultery and the employment of a pander ; for the reconciliations which take place subsequently are indications of the death of each. Let him, therefore, suffer the punishment appointed, together with his wife.

And there are particular periods affecting the health of the woman when a man may not touch her, but during that time he must abstain from all connection with her, respecting the laws of nature. And, at the same time, he must learn not to waste his vigour in the pursuit of an unseemly and barbarous pleasure ; for such conduct would be like that of a husbandman who, out of drunkenness or sudden insanity, should sow wheat or barley in lakes or flooded torrents, instead of over the fertile plains ; for it is proper to cast seed upon fields when they are dry, in order that it may bear abundant fruit. But nature each month cleanses the womb, as if it were some field of marvellous fertility, the proper season for fertilising which must be watched for by the husband as if he were a skilful husbandman, in order to withhold his seed and abstain from sowing it at a time when it is inundated ; for, if he do not do so, the seed, without his perceiving it, will be swept away by the moisture, not only having all its spiritual energies relaxed, but having them, in fact, utterly dissolved.

These are the persons who form animals in that workshop of nature, the womb, and who perfect with the most consummate skill each separate one of the parts of the body and soul. But when the periods of illness which I have spoken of are interrupted, then he may ^yith confidence shower his seed into the ground ready to receive it, no longer tearing that there will be any loss of the seed thus sown. But those people deserve to be reproached who are ploughing a hard and stony soil. And who can these be but they who have connected" themselves with barren women ? For such men are only hunters after intemperate pleasure, and in the excess of their licentious passions they waste their seed of their o-rti deliberate purpose. Since for what other reason can they espouse such women ? It cannot be for a hope of children, whicli they are aware must, of necessity, be disappointed, but rather to gratify their excess in lust and incurable incontinence.

As many men, therefore, as marry virgins in ignorance of how will they will turn out as regards their prolificness, or the contrary, when after a long time they perceive, by their never having any children, that they are barren, and do not then put them away, are still worthy of pardon, being influenced by habit and familiarity, which are motives of great v/eight, and being also unable to break through the power of those ancient charms which by long habituation are stamped upon their souls. But those who marry women who have been previously tested by other men and ascertained to be barren, do merely covet the carnal enjoyment like so many boars or goats, and deserve to be inscribed among the lists of impious men as enemies to Grod ; for God, as being friendly to all the animals that exist, and especially to man, takes all imaginable care to secure preservation and duration to every kind of creature. But those who seek to waste all their power at the very moment of putting it forth are confessedly enemies of nature.

Moreover, another evil, much greater than that whicli we "have already mentioned, has made its Avay among and been let loose upon cities, namely, the love of boys, which formerly was accounted a great infamy even to be spoken of, but which sin is a subject of boasting not only to those who j)raetise it, but even to those who suffer it, and who, being accustomed ,to bearing the affliction of being treated like women, waste away as to both their souls and bodies, not bearing about them a single spark of a manly character to be kindled into a flame, but having even the Lair of their heads conspicuously curled and adorned, and having their faces smeared with vermilion, and paint, and things of that kind, and having their eyes pencilled beneath, and having their .skins anointed with fragrant perfumes (for in such persons as these a sweet smell is a most seductive quality), and being well appointed in everything that tends to beauty or elegance, are not ashamed to devote their constant study and endeavours to the task of changing their manly characteiinto an effeminate one.

And it is natural for those who obey the law to consider such persons worthy of death, since the Jaw commands that the man-woman who adulterates the precious coinage of his nature shall die without redemption, not allo'wing him to li-\e a single day, or even a single hour, as he is a disgrace to himself, and to his family, and to his country, and to the whole race of mankind. And let the man who is devoted to the love of boys submit to the same punishment, since he pursues that pleasure whicb is contrary' to nature, and since,, as far as depends upon him, he would make the cities desolate, and void, and (nnpty of all inhabitants, wasting his power of propagating his species, and moreover, being a guide and teacher of those greatest of all evils, unmanliness and effeminate lust, stripping young men of the flower of their beauty, and wasting their prime of life in effeminacy, which he ought rather on the other hand to train to vigour and acts of courage ; and last of all, because, like a worthless husbandman, he allows fertile and productive lands to lie fallow, contriving that they shall continue barren, and labours night and day at cultivating that soil from which he never expects any produce at all.

And I imagine that the cause of this is that among many nations there are actually rewards given for intemperance and effeminacy. At all events one may see men-women continually strutting through the market place at midday, and leading the processions in festivals ; and, iiupious men as they are, having received by lot the charge of the temple, and beginning the sacred and initiating rites, and concerned even in the holy mysteries of Ceres.

And some of these persons have oven can-ied their admilation of these delicate pleasures of youth so far tliat they have desired wholly to change their condition for that of women, and have castrated themselves and have clothed themselves in piirple robes, like those who, having been the cause of great blessings to their native land, walk about attended by body-guards, pushing down every one whom they meet. !But if there was a general indignation against those who venture to do such things, such as was felt by our lawgiver, and if such men were destroyed without any chance of escape as the common curse and pollution of their country, then many other persons would be warned and corrected by their example. Tor the punishments of those persons who have been already condemned cannot be averted by entreaty, and therefore cause no slight check to those persons who are ambitious of distinguishing themselves by the same pursuits.

But some persons, imitating the sensual indulgences of the Sybarites and of other nations more licentious still, have in the first place devoted themselves to gluttony and wine-bibbing, and other pleasures aifeeting the belly and the parts adjacent to the belly, and then when fully sated have behaved with such extraordinary insolence (and it is natural for satiety to produce insolence) that in their insanity of passion they have gone frantic and been so maddened as to desire no longer human beings, whether male or female, but even brute beasts, as they say that in ancient times in Crete, the wife of Minos the king, by name Pasiphae, fell in love with a bull, and became very violent in her passion from her despair of being able to gratify it (for love which fails in its object is usually increased in no ordinary degree), so that at last she reported to Daedalus the affliction by which she was overwhelmed, and he was the most ykilful of all workmen of his time.* vEneid vi. 24. Hie erudelis amor tauri, suppostaque furto Pasiphae mistumque genus prolesque biformis Minotaurus inest, Veneris monumenta nefandse. Or, as it is translated by Dryden — " There too, in living sculpture, might be seen The mad affection of the Cretan queen :

And he, being very ingenious, so as by bis contrivances to discover things undiscoverable to any one else, made a cow of wood, and put Pasiphae into it at one of the sides, and the bull rushed at the wooden cow as if it had been an animal of its own kind. And Pasiphae, becoming pregnant at a certain period, brought forth an animal half man and half beast, called the niinotaur.f And it is very likely that there may be other Pasiphaes also, with passions equally unbridled, and that not women only, but men likewise may fall madly in love with animals, from whom, perhaps, indescribable monsters may be born, being memorials of the excessive pollution of men ; owing to which, perhaps, those unnatural creations of unprecedented and fabulous monsters will exist, such as hippocentaurs and chimseras, and other similar animals. But so great are the precautions which are taken against them in the holy laws of Grod, that in order to prevent the possibility of men ever desu"ing any unlawful connection, it is expressly commanded that even animals of different kinds shall not be put together.

And no Jewish shepherd w^ill endeavour to cross a sheep with a he-goat, or a ram with a she-goat, or a cow "vvith a horse ; and if he does, he must pay the penalty as breaking a solemn law of nature who is desu-ous to keep the original kinds of animals free from all spurious admixture. And some persons prefer mules to every other kind of animal for the yoke, since their bodies are very compact, and are very strong and powerful ; and accordingly, in the pastures and stalls where they keep their horses?, they also keep asses of an extraordinary size, which they call celones, in order that they may breed with the mares ; and then the mares produce a mixed animal, half horse and half ass, Then how she cheats her bellowing lover's ej-e : The rushing leap ; the doubtful progeny : The lower part a iDeast, a man above ; The monument of their polluteil love." Dccdalus ut clausit, conceptum crimiue matria Semibovemque virum, semivirumque bovem. A. A. ii. 21. And again — Nee tua mactasset nodoso stipite Theseu, Ardua pai-te virum dextera, parte bovem.

Her. x. 101. which, since Moses knew that its production was wholly contrary to nature, he forbade the existence of with all his might by a general injunction, that that no union or combination between different kinds of animals should on any account be permitted. Therefore he provided thus against those evUs in a manner suited to and consistent with nature ; and from a long distance off, as from a watchtower, he admonished men and kept them in the straight path, in order that both men and women, learning from these precepts of his, might abstainfrom unlawful connections. If, therefore, a man seek to indulge himself with a quadruped, or if a woman surrender herself to a quadruped, they shall all die, both the man or woman and the quadruped. The human beings, because they have gone beyond even the bounds of intemperance itself, becoming discoverers of unprecedented appetites, and because with their new inventions they have introduced most detestable pleasures, the very mention of which is infamous ; and the beasts shall die, because they have been subservient to such iniquities, and also to prevent their bringing forth or begetting any thing intolerable, as would naturally be the residt of such pollutions.

Moreover, those who have even a slight care for what is becoming would never use such animals as those for any purpose of life, but would reject and abominate them, loathing their very sight, and thinking that whatever they touched would at once become impure and polluted. And it is not well that those things which are of no use for life should live at all, since they are only a superfluous bm-deii on the earth, as some one has called them.

Again, according to the injunctions of the sacred scriptures the constitution of the law does not recognise a harlot ; as being a person alienated from good order, and modesty, and chastity, and all other virtues, who has filled the souls both of men and women with intemperance, polluting the immortal beauty of the mind, and honoiu-in* above it the short-lived perishable beauty of the body prostituting herself to every chance comer, and selling her beauty as if it were some vendible thing in the market, doing and saying every thing with a view to catch the young men. And she excites her lovers to contests with one another, proposing ox SPECIAL LAWS. 317' herself as the most disgraceful prize for those wlio gain the victory. Let her, therefore, be stoned as an injury and mischief to, and a common pollution of, the whole state, having corrupted the graces of nature, which she ought to have adorned further by her own excellence.

The law has pronounced all acts of adultery, if detected in the fact, or if proved by imdeniable evidence, liable to the punishment of death ; but cases in which guilt is only suspected, it does not choose should be investigated by men, but it brings them before the tribunal of nature ; since men are able to judge of what is visible, but God can judge also of what is unseen, since he alone is able to behold the soul distinctly, therefore he says to the man who suspects such a thing, " Write an accusation, and go up to the holy city with thy wife, and standing before the judges, lay bare the passion of suspicion which aifects you, not like a false accuser or treacherous enemy, seeking to gain the victory by any means whatever, but as a man may do who wishes accurately to ascertain the truth without any sophistry.

And the woman, having incurred two dangers, one of her life, and the other of her reputation, the loss of which last is more grievous than any kind of death, shall judge the matter with herself; and if she be pure, let her make her defence with confidence ; but if she be convicted by her own conscience, let her cover her face, making her modesty the veil for her iniquities, for to persist in her impudence is the very extravagance of wickedness. But if the charge which is made against her be contested, and if the evidence be doubtful, so as not to incline to either side, tlien let the two parties go up to the temple, and let the man stand in front of the altar, in the presence of the priest for tlie day, and then let him state his suspicions and his grounds for them, and let him produce and offer some barley flour, as a species of oblation on behalf of his wife, to prove that he accuses her, not out of insult, but with an honest intention, because he has a reasonable doubt.

And the priest shall take the barley and offer it to the woman, and shall take away from her the head-dress on her head, that she may be judged with her head bare, and deprived of tlie symbol, of modesty, which all those women are accustomed to wear who are complebdy blameless ; and there shall not be any oil used, nor any frankincense, as in the case of other sacrifices, because the sacrifice now offered is to be accomplished on no joyful occasion, but on one which is very grievous. And the reason why the flour is to be made of barley is, perhaps, because the food which is made of barley is of a somewhat ambiguous character, and is suited for the use both of irrational animals and of needy men ; and is therefore a sign that a woman who has committed adultery differs, in no respect from the beasts, whose connections with one another are promiscuous and incessant ; but she who is pure from all such accusations is devoted to that manner of life which befits human beings.

Then the law proceeds to say, the priest, having taken an earthen vessel, shall pour forth pure water, having drawn it from a fountain, and shall also bring a lump of clay from the ground of the temple, which also I think has in it a symbolical reference to the search after truth ; for the earthenware vessel is appropriate to the commission of adidtery because it is easily broken, and death is the punishment appointed for adulterers ; but the earth and the water are appropriate to the purging of the accusation, since the origin, and increase, and perfection of all things, take place by them : on which account it was very proper for the lawgiver to set them both off by epithets, saying, that the water which the priest was to take must be pure and living water, since a blameless woman is pure as to her life, and deserves to live ; and the earth too is to be taken, not from any chance spot, but from the soil of the ground of the temple, which must, of necessity, be most excellent, just as a modest woman is.

And when all these things are previously prepared, the woman with her head uncovered, bearing the barley flour in her hand, as has been already specified, shall come forward ; and the priest standing opposite to her and holding the earthenware vessel in which are the water and the earth, shall speak thus : " If you have not transgressed the laws of your marriage, and if no other man has been associated with you, so that you have not violated the rights of him who is loined to you by the law, you are blameless and innocent ; but if you have neglected your husband ctmd liavc followed empty appetites, either loving some one yourself or yielding to some lover, betraying your nearest and dearest connections, and adulterating them by a spurious mixture, then learn that you are deservedly liable to every kind of curse, the proofs of which "you vsdll exhibit on your body. Come then and drink the draught of conviction, which shall uncover and lay bare all thy hidden and secret actions." Then the priest shall write these words on a paper and dip it in the water which is in the earthenware vessel, and give it to the woman.

And she shall drink it and depart, awaiting the reward of her modesty or the extreme penalty of her incontinence ; for if she has been falsely accused she may hope for seed and children, disregarding all apprehensions and anxieties on the subject of barrenness and childlessness. But if she is guilty then a great weight and bidk, form her belly swelling and becoming full, will come upun her, and a terribly evil condition of her womb will afflict her, since she did not choose to keep it pure for her husband, who had married her according to the laws of her nation. And the law takes such exceeding pains to prevent any irregularity taking place with respect to marriages, that even in the case of husbands and wives who have come together for legitimate embraces, in strict accordance with the laws of marriage, after they have arisen from their beds it does not allow them to touch anything before they have had recourse to washings and ablutions ; keeping them very far from adultery and from all accusations referring to adultery.

But if any one should offer violence to a widow after her husband is dead, or after she has been otherwise divorced from him, and defile her, committing a lighter oftence than adultery, and one that may perhaps be about half as serious, he shall not indeed be liable to tbe punishment of death, but he shall be impeached for violence, and insolence, and intemperance, having thus adopted the most infamous conduct as if it had been the most creditable ; and the tribunal of the judge shall decide and condemn him to the penalty that he deserves to suffer. Again, seduction is an offence which is similar and nearly related to adultery, as they are both sprung from one common mother, incontinence. But some of those persons who are accustomed to dignify shameful actions by specious names, call this love, blushing to confess the real truth concerning its character. But, nevertheless, though it may be akin to it, it is not in every respect similar to it, because it is an offence that does not spread so as to affect many families, as is the case with adultery, b'ut it is limited to one house alone, that of the virgin who lias been seduced.

Thei'efore we must say to a man who desires to enjoy a virgin who is a free-born citizen, " My good man, rejectiug your sham(>less rasluiess and audacity, the sources ot" treachery and faithlessness, and all such feelings, do not allow yourself to be discovered to be wicked, either openly or secretly, but if, indeed, you have any legitimate feeling of love for the maiden in your soul, go to her parents, if tlunare alive, and if they are not, then go to lier brother or to her guardians, or to any other persons wlio chance to be her l)i'otcctors, and liaving discovered to them your feelings towards her, as a free-born man should do, ask her in marriage, and implore them not to account you unworthy. "

For no one of those who have the guardianship of tlie maiden entrusted them could be so base as to oppose an earnest and persevering entreaty, and especially as to refus(> you since you, would be found, by strict examinatioii, not to have falsely pret(;nded a passion which you do Jiot feel, or to have conceived only a superficial love for her, but one which is genuine and thoroughly established." * But if any one, being insane and frantic, repudiating and discarding all the suggestions of reason, were to submit himself wholly to passi(jn and desii'c as his masters, and looking, as people say, on might as stronger than right, were to ravish and seduce women, treating i'ne-born women as slaves, and doing acts of war in timc! of |)eace, let such a man be led before the judges. And if the damscd who has been forced has a father, let him take counsel and deal with the ravisher about espousing her ; then if he refuse to do so, he shall give the damsel a dowry for anotlier husband, being lined in a sum of money sullicient for this purpose.

But if he consents and registers her as hia wife, let him marry her at once without any delay, confessing a second time that ha owes her the same dowry, and let him have no permission to delay or evade the fullilment of this marriagi' ; both because of his own conduct, in order that tlie mishap which took place respecting her first connection with a man may be comforted by a firm marriage, which nothing shall ever separate but death. But if the damsel be an orphan and have no father, then let her be asked by the judges whether she is willing to take this man for her husband or not ; and whether she agrees to do so or whether she refuses, still let her have the same dowry that the man \^'ould have agreed to give her while her father was yet alive.

Some people think that a licensed concubinage is an offence something between seduction and adultery, when the two parties come together, and agree to live as man and wife by a certain agreement, but before the marriage ceremony is completed, some other man meeting with the woman, or forcing her has connection with her ; but in my opinion this also is a kind of of adultery ; for such an agreement as is here mentioned is equivalent to a marriage, for in it the names of the woman and of the man are both registered, and all other things which were to lead to their union ; on which account, the law orders both the parties to be stoned if with one and the same mind they agree together to commit adultery ; for it is impossible that, unless they both set out with the same intention, they should be looked upon as equal in iniquity, if they had not both sinned in an equal degree ; at all events it often happens that the offence is enhanced or diminished, with reference to the difference of place in which it is committed.

For, as it seems, such an oftence is greater if it be committed in a city, and less if it be conmiitted outside the walls of any city, in a wilderness ; for in such a place there is no one to assist the maiden, even though she may have said and done everything, which could conduce to the preservation of her virginity, unattacked and undefiled ; but in a city there are halls of council, and. courts of justice, and great assemblies of generals, and aidiles, and rulers of the markets, and other magistrates ; and besides all these there is tho people ; for there is in the soul of every man, even though he may be a private individual, a feeling which is hostile to iniquity, which, when it is excited, makes the man who cherishe'i it a champion for the time being, and a spontar neous and voluntary defender of the person wto appears to be unjustly treated.

Therefore justice in every case pursues the man who has committed violence, nor is his iniquity excused by the difference of the place, so that cannot be any plea to defend him from the consequence of his violence and' lawlessness ; but as I have said before, there will be compassion and pardon for the damsel in the one case, and in the other inexecrable punishment will visit her. And concerning her the judge must examine the matter very carefully, not referring everything to or making everything depend upon the place ; for it is possible that a woman may be ravished against her will even in the middle of the city ; and on the other hand even if outside the city, she may have voluntarily given herself up to an illicit connection. Wherefore the law, making a very careful and very admirably conceived defence, on behalf of a damsel ravished in the wilderness, says, " for the damsel cried out, and there was no one to help her;"* so that if she neither cried out nor resisted, but willingly consented to her ravisher, she must be looked upon as guilty, having only put forward the fact of the place, "as a sophistical excuse to make it appear that she had been ravished.

And yet in the city what advantage can her efforts be to a damsel, who is willing to do everything for the sake of preserving her own reputation, but who is unable to succeed by reason of the strength of the man who is assaulting her ? for what advantage could she derive from those who live in the same house if he were to bind her with ropes, or to gag her mouth, so that she could not utter even a word ; for in some sense she then, although dwelling in a city, is in reality in a wilderness, inasmuch as she is destitute of all protection ; but if she be in a wilderness, and yet wilUngly gives herself up to her ravisher, she is in no diflerent condition from a woman in a city.

There are also some persons easily sated with their connection with the same woman, being at once both mad for women and women haters, full of promiscuous and irregular dispositions, who at once give themselves up to their first impulses whatever they may be ; letting those passions proceed without restraint which they ought to curb, and like blind men, without any consideration, without any prudence, stumbling upon any bodies or any things, upsetting, and overturning, and confusing everything in their violent impetuosity and haste, and suffering evils as great as those which they inflict ; and concerning these men we have this law enacted.

When those men who marry virgins in accordance with the law,* and who have sacrificed on the occasion and celebrated their marriage feast, and who yet afterwards preserve no natural affection for their wives but treat them with insolence, and behave to freeborn citizens as if they were courtesans, if they seek to procure a divorce, and not being able to find any pretext for such a separation, then betake themselves to bringing forward false accusations, and from an absence of any clear grounds of impeachment direct all their charges at things which cannot be made certain, and come forward and accuse them, saying that though they fancied that they had been marrying virgins, they found on the first occasion of their having intercourse together, that they were not so. "When, I say, these men make such charges let all the elders be assembled to decide on the case, and let the parents of the woman who is accused also appear, to make their defence in this their common danger.

For in such a case, not only are their daughters themselves in danger, as to their reputation as having preserved the chastity of their bodies, but their guardians are likewise imperilled, not only because they have not kept them safe till the important period of their marriageable age, but j because they have given in marriage as virgins those who have been defiled by others, deceiving and imposing upon those who have taken them to wife. Then if they appear to have justice on their side, let the judges impose a pecuniary fine on those who have invented these false accusations, and let them also sentence those who have assaulted them to corporal punishment, and let them also pronounce, what to those men will be the most unpleasant of all things, a confirmation of their marriage, if their wives will still endure to cohabit with them ; for the law permits them at their own choice to remain with them or to abandon them, and will not allow the husbands any option either way, on account of the false accusations which they have brought.

The name of homicide is that affixed to him who has slain a man ; but in real truth it is a sacrilege, and the very greatest of all sacrileges, because, of all the possessions and sacred treasures in the whole world, there is nothing more holy in appearance, nor more godlike than man, the allbeautiful copy of an all-beautiful model, a representation admirably made after an archetypal rational idea. We must therefore, without hesitation, pronounce the homicide or murderer an impious and atrociously wicked person, committing as he does the greatest of all atrocities and impieties, andj he ought to be put to death as having done things which can never be pardoned, since, being worthy of ten thousand deaths, he escapes by one only, because the way to death being easy, does not permit his existence to be protracted, so as to endure a multitude of punishments ; but there can be nothing wrong in his suftering the same treatment as that which he has inflicted on others, and yet how can it be the same, if it be difiierent as to its time, as to its mode of infliction, as to the intention, and as to the persons ?

Does not the beginning of acts of violence come first, and the repelling or retaliating them come subsequently ? And is not murder the most lawless of all things, but the punishment of murderers the most lawful action possible ? Again, he who has slain a man has satisfied his desire which he entertained when he slew him ; but he who has been slain, inasmuch as he is now put out of the way, can neither attack him in retaliation, nor can he gratify himself by taking revenge. Moreover, the one was able by his own hands to carry out the designs which he conceived by himself; but the other can never succeed in procuring his punishment, unless his relations and friends become his champions, takiag compassion on him for the calamity which has befallen him. If now any one aims a blow with a sword at any one, with the intention of killing him, and does not kill him, he will still be guilty of murder, since he was a murderer in his intention, even though the end did not keep pace with his wish.

Again, let that man be liable to the same punishment who, by previous contrivance and machinations (not daring to behave bravely, and to stand face to face with his enemy and attack him openly), treacherously plots aud compasses his slaughter ; for such a man is equally liable to the curse denounced against murderers, and even though he may not be one with his hands he is so in his soul ; for as, in my opinion, one must not only look upon those people as enemies who fight against us by sea or by land, but also those who are prepared for either kind of warfare, and wlio are erecting battering rams and engines against our harbours and our walls ; and as we do in fact judge thus of them, even though they come to no actual conflict, so also we must consider murderers, not only those who perform the mere act of killing, but those who do anything which tends to slaying, whether openly or secretly, even if they do not eventually perpetrate the action.

Aud if out of fear or out of audacity, two very contrary feelings, but both blameable, they venture to flee to the temple as if they would there find an asylum, we must prevent their doing so, if we can : but if they are beforehand with us, and do efliect their entrance, then we must take them out and give them up for execution, affirming the principle that the temple does not give an asylum to impious men ; for every one who commits actions of incurable guilt is an enemy to Grod ; and murderers do commit such actions, since those who are murdered have suffered disasters which are incurable. Or shall we say that to those who have done no wrong the temple is still inaccessible until they have washed themselves, and sprinkled themselves, and purified themselves w'ith the accustomed purifications; but that those who are guilty of indelible crimes, the pollution of which no length of time will ever efface, may approach and dwell among those holy seats ; though no decent per^-on, who has any regard for holy things would even receive them in his house ?

Therefore, since they have heaped iniquity upon iniquity, adding lawlessness and impiety to murder, tliey must be dragged out of the temple to luidergo their punishment, since, as I have said before, they have committed actions worthy of ten thousand deaths instead of one ; as otherwise, the temple wouhl be shut against the relations and friends of the man who has been so treacherously murdered, if the murderer were to be dwelling in it, since they could never endure to come into the same place with him. But it would be absurd that, for the sake of one man, and him the most lawless of men, a great number of persons, and those too the very persons who have been injured by him, should be excluded from the temple — men who, besides that they have done no wrong themselves, have even sustained an unseasonable affliction through his actions.

And perhaps, indeed, the lawgiver seeing far into futurity by the acuteness of his reasoning powers, was, by such commandments, providing against any bloodshed ever taking place in the temple by the entrance of any of the friends of the murdered man into it, whom natural affection, a very ungovernable feeling, would urge, full of enthusiasm and violent rage as they would be, almost to slay the murderer with their own hands, while if such an event were to take place it Avould be most impious sacrilege ; for then the blood of the sacrifices would be mingled with the blood of murderers ; that which has been consecrated to God with that which is wholly impure. It is on this account that Moses commands that the murderer shall be given up, even from the altar itself.

But some persons who have slain others with swords, ''^r spears, or darts, or clubs, or stones, or something of that kind, may possibly have done so without any previous design, and without having for some time before planned this deed in their hearts, but may have been excited at the moment, yielding to passion more powerful than their reason, to commit the homicide ; so that it is but half a crime, inasmuch as the mind was not for some long time before occupied by the pollution. But there are others also of the greatest wickedness, men polluted both in hands and mind, who, being sorcerers and poisoners, devoting all their leisure and all their solitude to planning seasonable attacks upon others, who invent all kinds of contrivances and devices to bring about calamities on their neighbours. On which account, Moses commands ON SPECIAL LAWS. ?,27 that poisoners and sorceresses shall not be allowed to live one day or even one hour, but that they shall be put to death the moment that they are taken, no pretext being for a moment allowed them for putting oft' or delaying their punishment.

For those who attack one openly and to one's face, any body may guard against ; but of those who plot against one secretly, and who disguise their attacks by the concealed approaches of poison, it is not easy to see the cunning beforehand. It is necessary, therefore, to anticipate them, inflicting upon them that death which other persons would else have suffered by their means. And again, besides this, he who openly slays a man with a sword, or with any similar weapon, can only kill a few persons at one time ; but one who mixes and compounds poisonous drugs with food, may destroy innumerable companies at once who have no suspicion of his treachery. Accordingly, it has happened before now that very numerous parties of men who have come together in good fellowship to eat of the same salt and to sit at the same table, have suffered at such a time of harmony things wholly incompatible with it, being suddenly killed, and have thus met with death instead of feasting.

On which account it is fitting that even the most merciful, and gentle, and moderate of men should approve of such persons being put to death, who are all but the same as murderers who slay with their own hand ; and that they should think it consistent with holiness, not to commit their punishment to others, but to execute it themselves. For how can it be anything but a most terrible evil for any one to contrive the death of anotlier by that food which is given as the cause of life, and to work such a change in that which is nutritious by nature as to render it destructive ; so that those who, in obedience to the necessities of nature, have recourse to eating and drinking, having no previous idea of any treachery, take destructive food as though it were salutary ? Again, let those persons meet with the same punishment who, though they do not compound drugs which are actually deadly, nevertheless administer such as long diseases are caused by ; for death is often a lesser evil than diseases ; and especially than such as extend over a long time and have no fortunate or favourable end. For the illnesses •whicli arise from poisons are difficult to be cured, and are often completely incurable.

Moreover,- in tbe case of men wbo have been exposed to machinations of this kind, it often happens that diseases of the mind ensue which are worse even than the afflictions of the body ; for they are often attacked by delirium and insanity, and intolerable frenzy, by means of which the mind, the greatest blessing which God has bestowed upon mankind, is impaired in every possible manner, despairing of any safety or cure, and so is utterly removed from its seat, and expelled, as it were, leaving in the body only the inferior portion of the soul, namely, its irrational part, of which even beasts partake, since every person who is deprived of reason, which is the better part of the soul, is changed into the nature of a beast, even though the chai-acteristics of the human form remain.

Now the true magical art, being a science of discernment, which contemplates and beholds the books of nature with a more acute and distinct perception than usual, and appearing as such to be a dignified and desirable branch of knowledge, is studied, not merely by private individuals, but even by kings, and the very greatest of kings, and especially by the Persian monarchs, to such a degree, that they say that among that people no one can possibly succeed to the kingdom if he has not previously been initiated into the mysteries of the magi. But there is a certain adulterated species of this science, which may more properly be called wicked imposture, which quacks, and cheats, and buffoons pursue, and the vilest of women and slaves, professing to understand all kinds of incantations and purifications, and promising to change the dispositions of those on whom they operate so as to turn those who love to unalterable enmity, and those who hate to the most excessive affection by certain charms and incantations ; and thus they deceive and gain influence over men of unsuspicious and innocent dispositions, until they fall into the greatest calamities, by means of which great numbers of friends and relations have wasted away by degrees, and so have been rapidly destroyed without any noise being made.

And I imagine that the lawgiver, having a regard to all these circumstances, would on that account not permit the punishments due to poisoners to be postponed to any subsequent occasion, but ordained that the executioners should at once proceed to inflict the due penalty on them ; for delay rather excites the guilty to make use of the time that is allowed them to carry out their iniquities, inasmuch as they are already condemned to death, while it fills those who are already suspicious and apprehensive of misfortune with a more urgent fear, as they look upon the life of their enemies to be their own death.

Therefore, as if we ordy see snakes, and serpents, and any other venomous animals, we at once, without a moment's delay, kill them before they can bite, or wound, or attack us at all, taking care not to expose ourselves to any injurv from them, by reason of our knowledge of the mischief which is inherent in them ; in the same manner it is right promptly to punish those men who, though they have had a gentle nature assigned to them by means of that fountain of reason which is the cause and source of all society, do nevertheless of deliberate purpose change it themselves to the ferocity of untaraeable beasts, looking upon the doing injury to as many people as they can to be their greatest pleasure and advantage.

This may be suflBcient to say on the present occasion concerning poisoners and magicians. Moreover, we ought also not to be ignorant of this, that very often unexpected occasions arise, in which a person slays a man without having ever prepared himself for this action, but because he has been suddenly transported with anger, which is an intolerable and terrible feeling, and which injures beyond all other feelings both the man who entertains and the man who has excited it ; for sometimes a man having come into the market-place on some important business, meeting with some one who is inclined precipitately to accuse him, or who attempts to assault him, or who begins to pick a quarrel with him, and engages him in a conflict, for the sake of separating from him and more speedily escaping him, either strikes his opponent with his fist or takes up a stone and throws it at him and knocks him dow^l. And if the wound which the man has received is mortal, so that he at once dies, then let the man who has struck him also die, suflering the same fate himself which he inflicted on the other.

But if the man does not die immediately after receiving the blow, but is afflicted by illness in consequence and takes to his bed, and having been properly attended to rises up again, even though he may not be able to walk Veil without support, but may require some one to support him or a stick to lean upon, in that case the man who struck him shall pay a double penalty, one as an atonement for the injury done, and one for the expenses of the cure. And when he has paid this he shall be acquitted as to the punishment of death, even if the man who has received the blow should subsequently die ; for perhaps he did not die of the blow, since he got better after that and recovered so far as to walk, but perhaps he died from some other causes, such as often suddenly attack those who are of the most vigorous bodily health, and kill them.

But if any one has a contest with a woman who is pregnant, and strike her a blow on her belly, and she miscarry, if the child which was conceived within her is still unfashioned and unformed, he shall be punished by a fine, both for the assault which he committed and also because he has prevented nature, who was fashioning and preparing that most excellent of all creatures, a human being, from bringing hun into existence. But if the child which was conceived had assumed a distinct shape* in all its parts, having received all its proper connective and distinctive qualities, he shall die ; for such a creature as that is a man, whom he has slain while still in the workshop of nature, who had not thought it as vet a proper time to produce him to the light, but had kept iiim like a statue lying in a sculptor's workshop, reqidring nothing more than to be released and sent out into the world.

On account of this commandment he also adds another proposition of greater importance, in which the exposure of infants is forbidden, which has become a very ordinary piece of wickedness among other nations by reason of their natural inhumanity ; for if it is proper to provide for that which is not yet brought forth by reason of the definite periods of time requisite for such a process, so that even that may not suffer any injury by being plotted against, how can it be otherwise than more necessary to take similar care • Exodus xxi. 22. of the child when brought to perfection and born, and sent forth, as it were, into that colony which has been assigned to the human race, for the purpose of having a share of the bounties of nature which she sends forth from the land, and from the water, and from the air, and from the heaven ? bestowing on men the sight of the heavenly bodies, and the power and supreme authority over all the things on earth, and supplying all the external senses with abundant supplies of all things, and presenting to the mind as the great king, by means of those outward senses as its body-guards, all the things which are visible to them, and, without employing their agency, all those things which are appreciable only by reason.

Accordingly, let those parents who deprive their children of all these blessings, giving them no share of any one of them from the moment of their birth, know that they are violating the laws of nature, and accusing themselves of the very greatest enormities, of a devotion to pleasure, and a hatred of their species, and murder, and the very worst kind of murder, infanticide ; for those men are devoted to pleasure who are not influenced by the wish of propagating children, and of perpetuating their race, when they have connection with women, but who are only like boars or he-goats seeking the enjoyment that arises from such a connection. Again, who can be greater haters of their species than those who are the implacable and ferocious enemies of their own children ? Unless, indeed, any one is so foolish as to imagine that these men can be humane to strangers who act in a barbarous manner to those who are united to them by ties of blood.

And as for their murders and infanticides they are established by the most undeniable proofs, since soiiie of them slay them with their own hands, and stifle the first breath of their children, and smother it altogether, out of a terribly cruel and unfeeling disposition ; others throw them into the depths of a river, or of a sea, after they have attached a weight to them, in order that they may sink to the bottom more speedily because of it. Others, again, carry them out into a desert place to expose them there, as they themselves say, in the hope that they may be saved by some one, but in real truth to load them with still more painful sufl'eriug ; for there all the beasts wliicli devour human flesh, since there is no one to keep them off, attack them and feast on the delicate banquet of the children, while those who were their onlj^ guardians, and who were bound above all other people to protect and save them, their own father and mother, have exposed them.

And carnivorous birds fly down and lick up the remainder of their bodies, when they are not themselves the first to discover them ; for when they discover them themselves they do battle with the beasts of the earth for the whole carcass. And even suppose that some one passing by on his road is moved by a feeling of gentle compassion to take pity on and show mercy to the exposed infants, so as to take them up and give them food, and to show them other portions of the attention that is requisite, what do we think of such a humane action ? Do we not look upon it as an express condemnation of the real parents, when those who are in nowise related to them show the tender foresight of parents, but the parents do not display even the kindness of strangers ? Therefore, Moses has utterly prohibited the exposure of children, by a tacit prohibition, when he condemns to death, as I have said before, those who are the causes of a miscarriage to a woman whose child conceived within her is already formed.

And yet those persons who have investigated the secrets of natural philosophy say that those children which are still within the belly, and while they are still contained ia the womb, are a part of their mothers ; and the most highly esteemed of the physicians who have examined into the formation of man, scrutinising both what is easily seen and what is kept concealed with great care, by means of anatomy, in order that, if there should be any need of their attention to any case, nothing may be disregarded through ignorance and so become the cause of serious mischief, agree with them and say the same thing. But when the children are brought forth and are separated from that which is produced with them, and are set free and placed by themselves, they then become real living creatures, deficient in nothing which can contribute to the perfection of human nature, so that then, beyond all question, he who slays an infant is a homicide, and the law shows its indignation at such an action ; not being guided by the age but by the species of the creature ia whom its ordinances are violated.

If, indeed, it seemed reasonable to be at all influenced bj the age, then I think that a person might very reasonably be even more indignant at those who slay infants. For when full-grown people are killed, there may be ten thousand plausible excuses for assaults upon or quarrels with them ; but in the case of mere infants only just laimched into human life and shown to the light of day, it is impossible for the greatest liar to invent an accusation against them, as they are wholly void of offence. On which account those ought to be looked upon as the most inhuman and pitiless of all men who entertain plots for the destruction of those infants, and justly does the sacred law detest such criminals and pronounce them worthy of death.

The sacred law says that the man, who has been killed without any intention that he should be so on the part of him who killed him, has been given up by God into the hands of his slayers ;* in this way designing to make an excuse for the man who appears to have slain him as if he had slain a guilty person. Por the merciful and forgiving Grod can never be supposed to have given up any innocent person to be put to death ; but whoever ingeniously escapes the judgment of a human tribunal by means of his own cunning and wariness, he is convicted when brought before the invisible tribunal of nature, by which alone the uncorrupted truth is discerned without being kept in the dark by the artifices of sophistical arguments, For such an investigation does not admit of arguments at all, laying bare all devices and intentions, and bringing the most secret counsels to light ; and, in one sense, it does not look upon a man who has slain another as liable to justice, inasmuch as he has only sinned to be the minister of a divine judgment, but still he will have incurred an obscure and slight kind of defilement, which, however, may qbtain allowance and pardon.