The Works of Philo (complete)

For God employs those who commit slight and remedial errors against those who have perpetrated enormous and unpardonable crimes as ministers of punishment ; not, indeed, that he approves of them, but that he avails himself of them as suitable instruments of punishment, so that no one who is himself pure in his whole life and descende-^tfrom virtuous parents may have homicide imputed to him, even if he be the greatest man in the world. Therefore, the law has pronounced the sentence of banishment upon him who has slain a man, yet not of banishment any where, nor for ever ; for it has assigned six cities,* one fourth portion of what the whole sacred tribe received as its inheritance, for those who were convicted of homicide ; which, from the circumstances connected with them, it has named cities of refuge, ibid it fixed the time of this banishment as the length of the life of the high priest, permitting the exiles to return home after his death.

And the cause of the first of these injunctions was this. The tribe which has been mentioned received these cities as a reward for a justifiable and holy slaughter, which we must look upon as the most illustrious and important of all the gallant actions that were ever performed.

Por when the prophet, after having been called up to the loftiest and most sacred of all the mountains in that district, was divinely instructed in the generic outlines of all the special laws,t and was out of sight of his people for many days ; those of the people who were not of a peaceable disposition filled every place with the evils which arise from anarchy, and crowned all their iniquity Avith open impiety, turning into ridicule all those excellent and beautifol lessons concerning the honour due to the one true and living God, and having made a golden bull, an imitation of the Egyptian Typhos, and brought to it unholy sacrifices, and festivals unhallowed, and instituted profane and impious dances, with songs and hymns instead of lamentations ; tuen the tribe aforesaid, being very terribly indignant at their sudden departure from their previous customs, and being enflamed with zeal by reason of their natural disposition which hated iniquity, all became full of rage and of divine enthusiasm, and arming themselves, as at one signal, and with great contempt and one unanimous attack, came upon the people, drunk thus with a twofold intoxication of impiety and of wine, beginning with their nearest and dearest friends and relations, thinking those who loved God to be their only relations and friends.

And in a very small portion of the (lay, four-and-twenty thousand^ men were slain ; the calamities of whom were a warning to those who would otherwise have joined themselves to their iniquity, but who now were alarmed lest they should suffer a similar fate. Since then these men had undertaken this expedition of their own accord and spontaneously, in the cause of piety and holy reverence for the one true and living God. not without great danger to those who had entered in the contest, the Father of the universe received them with approbation, and at once pronounced those who had slain those men to be pure from all curse and pollution, and in requital for their courage he bestowed the priesthood on them.

Therefore the lawgiver enjoins that the man who has committed an unintentional murder should flee to some one of the cities which this tribe has received as its inheritance, in order to comfort him and to teach him not to despair of any sort of safety ; but to make him, while safe through the privilege of the place, remember and consider that not only on certain occasions is forgiveness allowed to those who have designedly slain any person, but that even great and pre-eminent honoxu-s and excessive happiness is bestowed on them. And if such honours can ever be allowed to those who have slain a man voluntarily, how much more must there be allowance made for those who have done so not with any design, so that, even if no honour be bestowed on them, they may at least not be condemned to be put to death in retaliation. By which injunctions the lawgiver intimates that every kind of homicide is not blameable, but only that which is combined with injustice ; and that of other kinds some are even praiseworthy which are committed out of a desire and zeal for virtue ; and that which is unintentional is not greatly to be blamed.

This, then, may be enough to say about the first cause ; and we must now explain the second. The law thinks fit to preserve the man who, without intending it, has slain another, knowing that in his intention he was not guilty, but that with his hands he has been ministering to that justice which presides over all human affairs. For the nearest relations of the dead man are lying in wait for him in a hostile manner seeking his death, while others, out of their excessive compassion and inconsolable grief for the dead, are eager for , their revenge ; in their unreasoning impetuosity not regarding either the truth or the justice of nature.

Therefore, the law directs a man vrho has committed a homicide under these circumstances not to ilee to the temple, inasmuch as he is not yet purified, nor yet into any place which is neglected and obscure, lest, being despised, he should be without resistance given up to his enemies ; but to flee to the sacred city, which lies on the borders between the holy and profane ground, being in a manner a second temple ; for the cities of those who are consecrated to the priesthood are more entitled to respect than the others, in the same proportion, I think, as the inhabitants are more venerable than the inhabitants of other cities ; for the lawgiver's intention is by means of the privilege belonging to the city which has received them to give more complete security to the fugitives.

Moreover, I said before, he has appointed a time for their return, the death of the high priest, for the following reason.* As the relations of each individual who has been slain treacherously lie in wait to secure themselves revenge and justice upon those who treacherously slew him ; in like manner the high priest is the relation and nearest of kin to the whole nation ; inasmuch as he presides over and dispenses justice to aU who dispute in accordance with the laws, and offers up prayers and sacrifices every day on behalf of the whole nation, and prays for blessings for the people as for his own brethren, and parents, and children, that every age and every portion of the nation, as if it were one body, may be united into one and the same society and union, devoted to peace and obedience to the law.

Therefore, let every one who has slain a man unintentionally fear him, as the champion and espouser of the cause of those who have been slain, and let him keep himself close within the city to which he has fled for refuge, no longer venturing to advance outside of the waUs, if he has any regard for his own safety, and for keeping his life out of the reach of danger. "When, therefore, the law says, let not the fugitive return till the high priest is dead, it says something equivalent to this : ITutil tlie higli priest is dead, who is the common relation of all the people, to whom alone it is committed to decide the afiaira of those who are living and those who are dead.

Such, then, is the reason which it is fitting should be communicated to the ears of the younger men. But there is another which may be well set before those who are elder and settled in their characters, which is this. It is granted to private individuals alone to be pure from voluntary oflences, or if any one chooses, he may add the other priests also to this list ; but it can only be given as an especial honour to the high priest to be pure from both kinds, that is from both voluntary and involuntary offences ; for it is altogether unlawful for him to touch any pollution whatever, whether intentionally or out of some unforeseen perversion of soul, in order that he, as being the declarer of the will of God may be adorned in both respects, having a disposition free from reproach, and prosperity of life, and being a man to whom no disgrace ever attaches. Now it will be consistent with the character of such a man to look with suspicion on those who have even unintentionally slain a man, not indeed regarding them as under a curse, but also not as pure and wholly free from offence, even though they may have appeared most completely to obey the intention of nature, who used them as her instruments to avenge herself on those whom they have slain, whom she had privately judged by herself and condemned to death.

Tliis is enough to say concerning free men and citizens. The lawgiver proceeds in due order to establish laws concerning slaves who are killed by violence. Now servants are, indeed, in an inferior condition of life, but still the same nature belongs to them and to their masters. And it is not the condition of fortune, but the harmony of nature, which, in accordance with the divine law is the rule of justice. On which account it is proper for masters not to use their power over tlieir slaves in an insolent manner, displaying by such conduct their insolence and overbearing disposition and terrible cruelty ; for such conduct is not a proof of a peaceful soul, but of one whicli, out of an inability to regulate itself, covets the irresponsiYOL, Til. Z bility of a tyrannical power, Por the man who fortifies his own house like a citadel, and does not allow a single person within it to speak freely, but who behaves savagely to every one, by reason of his innate misanthropy and barbarity, which has perhaps even been increased by exercise, is a tyrant in miniature ; and by his conduct now it is plainly shown that he will not stop even there if he should acquire greater power.

For then he will at once go forth to attack other cities and countries, and nations, after having previously enslaved his own native land, so as to prove that he is not inclined to behave mercifully to any one who shall ever become subject to him. Let, then, such a man be well assured that he will not always escape punishment for his continual ill-treatment of many persons ; for justice, which hates iniquity, will be his enemy, she who is the assistant and champion of those who are treated with injustice, and she will exact of hhn a strict account of, and reckoning for, those who have fallen into calamity through his means, even if he should say that he had only inflicted blows on them to correct them, not designing to kill them. For he will not at once get off with a cheerful countenance, but he will be brought before the tribunal and examined by accurate investigators of the truth, who will inquire whether he slew him intentionally or unintentionally. And if he be found to have plotted against him with a wicked disposition, let him die ; not having any excuse made for him on the ground of his being the servants' master, so as to procure his deliverance.

But if the servants who have been beaten do not die at once after receiving the blows, but live one day or two, then the master shall no longer be liable to be accused of murder, having this strong ground of defence that he did not kill them on the spot by beating, nor afterwards when he had them in his house, but that he suffered thetn to live as long as they could, even though that may not have been very long. Besides that, no one is so silly as to attempt to distress another by conduct by which he himself also will be a loser. But any one who kills his servant injures himself much more, since he deprives himself of the services which he received from him while alive, and, moreover, loses the price which he paid for him which, perhaps, was large. If, however, the servant turn out to have done any thing worthy of death, let him bring him before the judges and prove his offence, making the laws the arbiters of his punishment and not himself. CAUSES or A man's death. If a bull gore a man and kill him, let him be stoned.* For his flesh may not be either offered in sacrifice by the priests, nor eaten by men. Why not ?

Because it is not tionsistent with the law of Grod that man should take for food or for a seasoning to his food the flesh of an animal which has slain a man. But if the owner of the beast knew that he was a savage and ferocious animal, and did not confine him, nor shut him up and take care of him, or if he had heard from others that he was not quiet, and still allowed him to feed at liberty, he shall be liable to a prosecution as guilty of the man's death. And then the animal which gored the man shall die, and his master shall be put to deatli also, or else shall pay a ransom and a price for his safety, and the court of justice shall devise what punishment he ought to suffer, what penalty he ought to pay.

And if it be a slave who has been killed then he shall pay his full value to his master ; but if the bull have gored not a man but another animal, then the owner of the beast which killed him shall take the dead animal and give his master another like him instead of him, because he was aware beforehand of the fierceness of his own beast, and did not guard against it. And if the bull has killed a sheep which belonged to some one else, he shall again restore this man one like it instead of it, and be thankful to him for not exacting a greater penalty of him, since it was he who was the first to do any injury. CONCERNINa pits. I. Some persons are accustomed to dig very deep pits, either in order to open springs which may bubble up, or else to receive rain water, and then tliey widen drains under ground ; in which case they ought either to build round the moutlis of them, or else to put a cover on them ; but still they often, out • Exodus xxi. 28. z 2 of shameful carelessness or folly, have left such places open, by which means some persons have met with destruction.

If, therefore, any traveller passing along the road, not knowing beforehand that there is any such pit, shall step on the hole, and fall in, and be killed, any one of the relations of the dead man who chooses may bring an accusation against those who made the pit, and the tribunal shall decide what punishment they ought to suffer, or what penalty they ought to pay.* But if a beast fall in and perish, then they w^ho dug the pit shall pay its value to its owner as if it were still alive, and they shall have the dead body for themselves. Again, those men also are committing an injury akin to and resembling that which has just been mentioned, who when building houses leave the roof level with the ground though they ought to protect them with a parapet, in order that no one may fall down into the hole made without perceiving it. Por such men, if one is to tell the plain truth, are committing murder, as far as they themselves ai's concerned, even though no one fall in and perish ; accordingly let them be punished equally with those who have the mouths of pits open. II.

The law expressly enjoins that it shall not be lawful to take any ransom from murderers who ought to be put to death, for the purpose of lessening their punishment, or substituting banishment for death. For blood must be atoned for by blood, the blood of him who has been treacherously slain by that of him who has slain him. Since men of wicked dispositions are never wearied of offending, but are always committing atrocious actions in the excess of their wickedness, and increasing their iniquities, and extending them beyond all bounds or limits. Por the laM'giver would, if it had been in his power, have condemned those men to ten thousand deaths. But since this was not possible, he prescribed another punishment for them, commanding those who had slain a man to be hanged upon a tree. And after having established this ordinance he returned again to his natural humanity, treating with mercy even those who had behaved unmercifully towards others, and he pronounced, " Let not the sun set upon persons banging on a tree ;" * but let tbem be buried under tbe earth and be concealed from sight before sunset.

For it was necessary to raise up on high all those who were enemies to every part of the world, so as to show most evidently to the sun, and to the heaven, and to the air, and to the water, and to the earth, that they had been chastised ; and after that it was proper to remove them into the region of the dead, and to bury them, in order to prevent their polluting the things upon the earth. III. Moreover, there is this further commandment given with great propriety, that the fathers are not to die in behalf of their sons, nor the sons in behalf of their parents, but that every one who has done things worthy of death is to be put to death by himself alone.

And this commandment is established because of those persons who set might above right, and also for the sake of those who are too affectionate ; for these last, out of their extraordinary and extravagant good will, will be often willing cheerfvdly to die for others, the innocent thus giving themselves up for the guilty, and thinking it a great gain not to see them punished ; or else eons giving themselves up for their fathers in the idea that, if deprived of them they would for the future live a miserable life, more grievous than any kind of death. But to such persons one must say, "This your good-will is out of season." And all things which are out of season are very properly blamed, just as things that are done seasonably are praised on that account. Moreover, it is right to love those who do actions worthy to attract love. But no wicked man can be really a friend to any one. And wickedness alienates relations, and even those who are the most attached of relations, when men violate all the principles of justice.

For the agreement as to principles of iustice and as to the other virtues, is a closer tie than relationship by blood ; and if any one violates such an agreement, he is set down not only as a stranger and a foreigner, but even as an irreconcilable enemy. " Why then do you pervert and misapply the name of goodwill which is a most excellent and humane one, and conceal the truth, exhibiting as a veil an effeminate and womanly disposition ? For are not those persons womanly in whose 34-2 PHILO JUD^US. minds reason is overcome by compassion ? And you do this in order to effect a double iniquity, delivering the guilty from punishment, and thinking it fair to punish yourselves, who are blameable in no respect whatever, instead of them." lY. But these men have this to say in excuse of themselves, that they are not pursuing any private advantage for themselves, and also that they are influenced by excessive affection for their nearest relations, for the sake of the preservation of whom they will cheerfully submit to die.

But who, I will not say of moderate men, but even of those who are very inhuman indeed in their dispositions, would not reject such barbarous and actually brutally disposed persons as those who, either by secret contrivance or by open audacity, inflict the greatest calamities on one person as a punishment for the faults of another, putting forward as a pretext the plea of friendship, or of relationship, or of fellowship, or something of that kind, as a justification for the destruction of those who have done no wrong ? And at times they even do these things without having suffered any injury at all out of mere covetousness and a love of rapine.

Not long ago a certain man who had been appointed a collector of taxes in our country, when some of those who appeared to owe such tribute fled out of poverty, from a fear of intolerable punishment if they remained without paying, carried off their wives, and their children, and their parents, and their whole families by force, beating and insulting them, and heaping every kind of contumely and ill treatment upon them, to make them either give information as to where the fugitives had concealed themselves, or pay the money instead of them, though they could not do either the one thing or the other ; in the first place, because they did not know where they were, and, secondly, because they were in still greater poverty than the men who had fled.

But this tax-collector did not let them go till he had tortured their bodies with racks and wheels, so as to kill them with newly invented kinds of death, fastening a basket full of sand to their necks with cords, and suspending it there as a very heavy weight, and then placing them in the open air in the middle of the market place, that some of them, being tortured and being overwhelmed by all these afflictions at once, the wind, and the sun, and the mockery of tlie passers by, and the shame, and the heavy burden attached to them, might faint miserably ; and that the rest, being spectators, might be grieved and take warning by their punishment, some of whom, having a more acute sense of such miseries in their minds than that which they could receive through their eyes, since they sympathised with these unfortunates as if they were themselves suffering in the persons of others, put an end to their own lives by swords, or poison, or halters, thinking it a great piece of good luck for persons, liable to such misery, to be able to meet with death without torture.

But those who did not make haste to kill themselves, but who were seized before they could do so, were led away in a row, as in the case of actions for inheritance, according to their nearness of kindred, the nearest relations first, then those next to them in succession, in the second or third place, till they came to the last ; and then, when there were no relations left, the cruelty proceeded on to the friends and neighbours of the fugitives ; and sometimes it was extended even into the cities and villages, which soon became desolate, being emptied of all their inhabitants, who all quitted their homes, and dispersed to places where they hoped that they might escape detection. But perhaps it is not wonderful if men, barbarians by nature, utterly ignorant of all gentleness, and under the command of despotic authority, which compelled them to give an account of the yearly revenue, should, in order to enforce the payment of the taxes, extend their severities, not merely to properties but also to the persons, and even to the lives, of those from whom they thought they could exact a vicarious payment.

But now, even those persons who are the very standard and rule of justice, the lawgivers themselves, having a regard to appearance rather than to truth, have endured to become, instead, standards of injustice, commanding the children of a traitor to be put to death with the traitor himself, and in the case of tyrants the five families most nearly related to them. Why is this I should say ? For if indeed they have shared in their wickedness, then let them likewise share in their punishment ; but if they have not participated in that, and if they have not been imitators of such actions, and ii' they have not been elated by the prosperity ol their kinsmen, so as to exult in it, why should they be put to death ? Is it for this reason alone, that they are their relations ? Are the punishments then inflicted for the relationship, or for the lawless conduct ?

Perhaps you yourselves, O you venerable lawgivers, have had Aartuous relations ; but suppose they had been wicked, then it seems to me that you not only would never yourselves have devised any such commandments as this, but would have been furious with any one else who proposed such a law, because* taking care to avoid all liability to terrible calamity, and desiring to live in security, is now in great danger, and is exposed to an equal degree of misfortune. For the one condition is liable to fear, which, though a person may guard against for himself, he will still not despise the safety of another, but the other state is free from all apprehension, and by it men have often been persuaded to neglect the safetv of innocent men.

Therefore our lawgiver, considering these things and perceiving the errors of others, rejects them and hates them as destructive of the most excellent constitution, and consigns lO punishment all those who give way to such, whether it be out of indiiference, or out of inhumanity and wickedness, and never permits any of their countrymen or friends to be substituted for them, making themselves an addition to the crimes which the others have already committed ; on which account he has expressly forbidden sons to be put to death instead of their parents, or parents instead of their sons, thinking it right that they who have committed the crimes should also bear the punishment, whether it be a pecuniary fine, or stripes, and more severe personal chastisement, or even wounds and mutilation, and dishonour, and exile, or any other judicial sentence ; for though he only names one kind of punishment, forbidding one person to be put to death for another, he also comprises other kinds, which he does not expressly mention. want of connection and coherence in the rest of the sentence as it stands now.

Market places, and council chambers, and courts of justice, and large companies and assemblies of numerous crowds, and a life in the open air fidl of arguments and actions relating to war and peace, are suited to men ; but taking care of the house and remaining at home are the proper duties of women ; the A-irgins having their apartments in the centre of the house within the innermost doors, and the full-grown women not going beyond the vestibule and outer courts ; for there are tv\'o kinds of states, the greater and the smaller. And the larger ones are called reallv cities ; but the smaller ones are called houses. And the superintendence and management of these is allotted to the two sexes separately ; the men having the government of the greater, which government is called a poUty ; and the women that of tlie smaller, which is called ceconomy.

Therefore let no woman busy herself about those things which are beyond the province of ceconomy, but let lier cultivate solitude, and not be seen to be going about like a woman who walks the streets in the sight of other men, except when it is necessary for her to go to the temple, it she has any proper regard for herself; and even then let her not go at noon when the market is full, but after the greater part of the people have returned home ; like a well-born woman, a real and true citizen, performing her vows and her sacrifices in tranquillity, so as to avert evils and to receive blessings.

But when men are abusing one another or fighting, for women to venture to rmi out under pretence of assisting or defending them, is a blameable action and one of no slight shamelessness, since even, in the times of war and of military expeditious, and of dangers to their whole native land, the law does not choose that they should be enrolled as its defenders ; looking at what is becoming, which it thinks desirable to preserve unchangeable at all times and in all places, thinking that this very thing is of itself better than victory, or tlian freedom, or than any kind of success and prosperity. Moreover, if any woman, hearing that her husband is being assaulted, being' o\it of her atlection for him carried away by love for her husband, should yield to the feelings which overpower her and rush forth to aid him, still let her not be so audacious as to behave like a man, outrunning the nature of a woman;* but even while aiding him let her continue a woman.

For it would be a very terrible thing if a woman, being desirous to deliver her husband from an insult, should expose herself to insult, by exhibiting human life as full of shamelessness and liable to great reproaches for her incurable boldness ; for shall a woman utter abuse in the marketplace and give vent to unlawful language ? and if another man uses foul language, will not she stop her ears and run away ? But as it is now, some women are advanced to such a pitch of shamelessness as not only, though they are women, to give vent to intemperate language and abuse among a crowd of men, but even to strike men and insult them, with hands practised rather in works of the loom and spinning than in blows and assaults, like competitors in the pancratium or wrestlers. And other things, indeed, may be tolerable, and what any one might easily bear, but that is a shocking thing if a woman were to proceed to such a degree of boldness as to seize hold of the genitals of one of the men quarrelling.

For let not such a woman be let go on the ground that she appears to have done this action in order to assist her own husband ; but let her be impeached and suffer the punishment due to her excessive audacity, so that if she should ever be inclined to commit the same offence again she may not have an opportunity of doing so ; and other women, also, who might be inclined to be precipitate, may be taught by fear to be moderate and to restrain themselves. And let the punishment be the cutting off of the hand which has touched what it ought not to have touched.

And it is fitting to praise those who have been the judges and managers of" the gymnastic games, who have kept women from the spectacle, in order that they might not be thrown among naked men and so mar the approved coinage of their modesty, neglecting the ordinances of nature, which she has appointed for each section of our race ; for neither is it right for men to mix with women when they have laid aside their f^arments, but each of the sexes ought to avoid the sight of the other when they are naked, in accordance with the promptings of nature. Well, then, of those things of which we are to abstain from the sight, are not the hands much more to be blamed for the touch ? For the eyes, being wholly at freedom, are nevertheless often constrained so as to see things which they do not wish to see ; but the hands are ranked among those parts which are completely under sub jection, and obey our commands, and are subservient to us.

And this is the cause which is often mentioned by many people. But I have heard another also, alleged br persons of high character, who look upon the greater part of the injiuictions contained in the law as plain symbols of obscure meanings, and expressed intimations of what may not be expressed. And this other reason alleged is as follows. There are two kinds of soul, just as there are two sexes among human relations ; the one a masculine soul, belonging to men ; the other a female soul, as found in women. The masculine soul is that which devotes itself to God alone, as the Father and Creator of the universe and the cause of all things that exist ; but the female soul is that which depends upon all the things which are created, and as such are liable to destruction, and which puts forth, as it were, the hand of its power in order that in a blind sort of way it may lay hold of whatever comes across it, clinging to a generation which admits of an innumerable quantity of changes and variations, when it ought rather to cleave to the unchangeable, blessed, and thrice happy divine nature.

Very naturally, therefore, the law commands* that the executioner should cut oft" the hand of the woman which has laid hold of what it should not, speaking figuratively, and intimating not that the body shall be mutilated, being deprived of its most important part, but rather that it is proper to extirpate all the ungodly reasonings of the soul, using all things which are created as a steppmg-stone ; for the things which the woman is forbidden to take hold of are the symbols of procreation and generation. And, moreover, keeping up a consistent regard to nature, I will also say this, that the unit is the image of the fir^t cause, and the number two of the divisible matter that is worked upon. • Deuteronomy xxv. 12. Whoever, therefore, receives the number two, honouring it above the unit, must be taught to know that he is, in so doing, approving of the matter more than of God. On which account the law has thought fit to cut off this apprehension of the soul as if it were a hand ; for there can be no greater impiety than to ascribe the power of the agent to that which is passive.

And any one may here fitly blame those who appoint that punishments, in nowise corresponding to the ofiences, are to be inflicted on the offenders, imposing pecuniary penalties for assaults, or stigma and infamy for wounds and mutilations, or a banishment beyond the borders of the land for intentional murders, and everlasting exile or imprisonment for thefts ; for irregularity and inequality are enemies to a constitution which is eager for the truth. And our law, bein» the interpreter and teacher of equality, commands that offenders should undergo a punishment similar to the offence which they have committed ; that, for instance, they should suffer punishment in their property if they have injured their neighbour in his property ; in their persons, if they have injured him in his body, or in his limbs, or the organs of his outward senses ; and, if their evil designs have extended to his life, then the law commands that the punishment should affect the life of the malefactor. Por to exact a difterent and wholly unequal punishment which has no connection with or resemblance to the offence, but which is wholly at variance with it in all its characteristics, is the conduct of those who violate the laws rather than of those who would establish them.

And when we sav this. we mean provided no circumstances occur to give a different complexion to the affair ; for it is not the same thing to inflict blows on one's father and on a stranger, nor to speak ill of a ruler and of a private person, nor to do anythincr which is forbidden on common ground or in holy places, or at the time of a festival, or of a solemn assembly, or of a public sacrifice ; or, again, on the days on which tlaere is no holiday or sacred observance, or on those which are completely common and profane. And all other things of this kind one must examine with a view to judge of the propriety of increasing or diminishing the punishment.

Again, "If," says the law, "' any one strike out the eye of a servant or of a handmaiden, be shall let them depart free."* Because, as nature has assigned the chief position in the body to the head, having bestowed upon it a situation the most suitable to that pre-eminence, as it might give a citadel to a king (for having sent it forth to govern the bodyit has established it on a height, putting the whole composition of the body from the neck to the feet under it, as a pedestal might be placed under a statue), so also it has given the pre-eminence among the organs of the external senses to the eyes. At all events, it has assigned them a position above all the others, as if they were the chiefs, wishing to honour them not only by other things, but also by this most evident and conspicuous of all signs.

Kow it would take a long time to enumerate all the necessities which the eyes supply to, and all the services which they perform for, the human race. But one, the most excellent of all, we may mention. It is the heaven which has showered philosophj'' upon us, it is the human mind which has received and vvhich contains it, but it is sight which has entertained and been its host ; for that is the faculty which was the first to see the level roads through the air. And philosophy is the fountain of all blessings, of all things which are really good. And he who draw"s from this fountain, so as thus to acquire and make use of virtue is praiseworthy ; but he who does it with the object of accomplishing wicked purposes and of condemning others is blameable. For the one is like a man at an entertainment, who is delighting both himself and all who are feasting in his company ; but the other is like one who is swallowing down strong wine, in order to make himself and his neighbour drunk. Now in what way it is that the sight may be said to have entertained philosophy as its host wc must now proceed to explain.

Having looked up to heaven it beheld the sun, and the moon, and the planets, and the fixed stars, the most beautiful host of heaven, the ornament of tlie world. After that it arrived at a perception of the rising and setting of these bodies, and their harmonious motions, and the fixed seasons of their periodical revolutions, and their meetings, " • Exodus xxi. 2G. and eclipses, and ro-appearances. After that it proceeded onwards to a comprehension of the increase and decrease of the moon ; of the motions of the sun along the breadth of heaven, as he comes from the south towards the north, and again recedes from the north towards the south, in order to the generation of the fruits of the year, so that they may all be brought to perfection, and ten thousand other wonderful things besides these. And having looked round and surveyed the things in the earth, and in the sea, and in the air, with great diligence displayed all the things in each of these elements to the mind.

But as the mind was unable by itself "to comprehend all these things from merely beholding them by the faculty of sight, it did not stop merely at what was seen by it, but being devoted to learning, and fond of what is honourable and excellent, as it admired what it did see, it adopted this probable opinion, that these things are not moved spontaneously and at random by any irrational impulse of their own, but that they are set in motion and guided by the will of God, whom it is proper to look upon as the Father and Creator of the world. Moreover, that these things are not unrestrained by any bounds, but that they are limited by the circumference of one world, as they might be by the the walls of a city, the world itself being circumscribed within the outermost sphere of the fixed stars. Moreover it considered also that the Father who created the world does by the law of nature take care of that which he has created, exerting his providence in behalf of the whole universe and of its parts.

In the next place it also considered what was the essence of the visible world, and whether all the things in the world had the same essence, or whether different things had different essences, and also of what substances everything was made, and for what reasons it was made, and by what powers the world was held together, and whether these powers were corporeal or incorporeal. For what can the investigation into these and similar subjects be called but philosophy ? And what more fitting name could one give to the man who devoted himself to the investigation of these topics than thi;it of a philosopher ? For by his examination of the nature of God, and ot the world, and of all the things in it, ^\ ^ether plants or animals, and of those models which are only appreciable by the intellect, and again of the perfected representations of those models which are visible to the outward senses, and of the virtues and vices which exist in all created things, he shows that his disposition is one truly devoted to learning, and contemplation, and philosophy ; and this greatest of blessings to mortal man is bestowed upon him by the faculty of sight.

And this faculty seems to me to deserve this pre-eminence, since it is more nearly related to the soul than any one of the other outward senses, for they all of them have some kind of connection with the intellect ; but this one obtains ' the first and principal rank as the nearest relation does in a private house. And any one may conjecture this from many circumstances, for who is there who does not know that when persons are delighted their eyes betray their pleasure, and sparkle, but that when they are grieved their eyes are full of depression and heaviness ; and if any heavy burden of grief oppresses, and crushes, and overwhelms the mind, they weep ; and if anger obtains the preponderance, the eyes swell, and become bloodshot and fiery ; and again change so as to be gentle and soft when the anger is relaxed.

Again, when the man is immersed in deep thought and contemplation, the eyes seem fi:xed as if they in a manner joined in his gravity ; but in the case of those who are of no great wisdom the sight wanders, because of their vacancy of intellect, and is restless, and in short the eyes sympathise with the affections of the soul, and are wont to change along with it in innumerable alternations, on account of tlie closeness of their connection with it ; for it seems to me that there is no one visible thing which Grod has made so complete a representation of that which is invisible as the sight is of the mind.

If therefore any one has ever plotted against this most excellent and most dominant of all the outward senses, namely sight, so as ever to have struck out tlie eye of a free man, let him suffer the same infliction himself, but not so if he have only struck out the eye of a slave ; not because ho is entitled to pardon, or because the injury wliieh he has done is less, but because the man who has been injured will have a still worse master if he has been mutilated in retaliation, since he will for ever bear a grudge against him for 35-3 PHILO JUDiEUS. the calamity whicli lias fallen upon liim, and will revenge himself on him every day as an irreconcilcable enemy by harsh commands beyond his power to perform, by which the slave will be so oppressed that he will be ready to die.

Therefore the law has provided that the man who has thus done injury to his slave shall not be allowed to escape free, and yet has not commanded that the man wlio has already suftered the loss of his eye shall be ill-treated still further, enjoining that if any one strikes out the eye of his servant he shall without hesitation grant him his freedom ; for thus he will sufter a double punishment for the actions which he has committed, in being deprived of the value of his servant and also of his services, and thirdly, which is worse than either of the things already mentioned, in being compelled to do good to his enemy in the most important matters, whom very likely he wished to be able to ill-treat for ever. And the slave has a double consolation f6r the evils which he has been subjected to in being not only emancipated, but also in liaving escaped a cruel and inhuman master.

The law also commands that if any one strike out the tooth of a slave he shall bestow his freedom on the slave ; why is this ? because life is a thing of great value, and because nature has made the teeth the instruments of life, as being those by which the food is eaten. And of the teeth some are fitted for eating meat and all otlier eatable food, and on that account are called incisors, or cutting teeth ; others are called molar teeth from their still further orindin<? and smoothing what has been cut bv the incisors ; on which account the Creator and Father of the universe, who is not accustomed to make anything which is not appointed for some particular use, did not do with the teeth as he did with every other part of the body, and make them at once, at the first creation of the man, considering that as while an infant he was only intended to be fed upon milk they would be a superfluous burden in his way, and would be a severe injury to the breasts, lilled as tliey are at that time with springs of milk, from ^which moist food is derived, as they would in that case be bitten by the child while sucking the milk.

Therefore, having waited for a suitable season (and that is when the child is weaned), he then causes the infant to put forth the teeth which he had prepared for it before, as the most perfect food now supplied to it requires the organs above-mentioned now that tho child rejects the food of milk. If therefore any one, yielding to an insolent disposition, strikes out the tooth of his servant, that organ which is the minister and provider of those most necessary things, food and life, he shall emancipate him whom he has injured, because by the evil which he inflicted on him he has deprived him of the service and use of his tooth. " Is then," some one will say, " a tooth of equal value with an eye ?" "Each," I would reply, " is of equal value for the purposes for which they were given, the eye with reference to the objects of sight, the teeth with reference to those which are eatable."

But if any one were to desire to institute a comparison, he would find that the eye is entitled to the highest respect among all the parts of the body, inasmuch as being occupied in the contemplation of the most glorious thing in the whole world, namely the heaven ; and that the tooth is useful as being the masticator of food, which is the most useful thing as contributing to life. And he who strikes out a man's eye does not hinder him from living, but a most miserable death awaits the man who has all his teeth knocked out. And if any one meditates inflicting injury in these parts on his servants, let him know that he is causing them an artificial famine in the midst of plenty and abundance ; for what advantage is it to a man that there should be an abundance of food, if the instruments by which he may be enabled to make use of it are taken from him and lost, through the agency of his cruel, and pitiless, and inhuman master ?

It is for this reason that in another passage the lawgiver forbids creditors to exact from their debtors a molar tooth or a grinder as a pledge, giving as a reason that the person who does so is taking a man's Jife in pledge; for he who deprives a man of the instruments of living is proceeding towards murder, entertaining the idea of plotting even against life. And the law has taken such exceeding care that no one shall ever be the cause of death to another, that it does not look upon those who have even touched a dead body, which has met with a natural death, as pure and clean, until they have washed and purified themselves with sprinklings and ablations ; and even after they are perfectly clean it does not permit them to go into the temple within seven days, enjoining them to use purifying ceremonies on the third and seventh day.

And again, in the case of persons who have gone into the house in which any one has died, the law enjoins that no one shall touch them until they have both washed their bodies and also the garments in which they were clothed, and, in a word, it looks upon all the furniture and all the vessels, and everything which is in the house, as unclean and polluted ; for the soul of a man is a valuable thing, and when that has quitted its habitation, and passed to another place, everything that is left behind by it is polluted as being deprived of the divine image, since the human mind is made as a copy of the mind of Grod, having been created after the archetypal model, the most sublime reasoning. And the law says, " Let everything which a man that is tmclean has touched be also unclean as being polluted by a participation in that which is unclean."

And this sacred injunction appears to have a wide operation, not being limited to the body alone, but proceeding as it would seem also to investigate the dispositions of the soiJ, for the tinjust and impious man is peculiarly unclean, being one who has no respect for either human or divine things, but who throws everything into disorder and confusion by the immoderate vehemence of his passions, and by the extravagance of his wickedness, so that everything which he touches becomes faulty, having its nature changed by the wickedness of him who has taken them in hand. For in like manner the actions of the good are, on the contrary, all praiseworthy, being made better by the energies of those who apply themselves to them, since in some degree what is done resembles in its character the person who does it. I HAVE in my previous treatises spoken of the laws relating to adultery and murder, and to all the subordiuato oflences Tvhich come under those heads, with, as I persuade myself, all the accuracy which the case admits of, and now, proceeding in the regular order, I must consider what is the third commandment in the second table, but the eighth in all, if the two tables are taken together, namely, the commandment, "

Thou shalt not steal."* Whoever carries off or leads away the propertv of another when he has no right to do so, if he does it openly and bv main force, shall be set down as a common enemy, and shall be prosecuted as having with lawless wickedness contrived a shameless act of audacity. But if he has done it secretly, endeavouring to escape notice like a thief, exhibiting some modesty, and making the darkness the veil of his iniquity, let him then he punished privately as only liable to condemnation in respect of the one indiWdual whom he endeavoured to injure ; and let him restore double the value of the thing stolen, making amends by his own most righteous suffering for the xinrighteous advantage he has endeavoured to gain. But if he is a poor man, and consequently unable to pay the penalty, let him be sold (for it is fitting that that man should be deprived of his freedom who for the sake of lus most iniquitous gain has endured to become a slave to guilt), that he who has been ill-treated may not be allowed to depart without consolation, as if he appeared to have hia claims disregarded by reason of the poverty of the man who has robbed him.

And let no one accuse this ordinance of inhumanity : for the man who is sold is not left aa a slave for ever and ever, but within tlie space of seven years he is released by a common proclamation as I have shown in my treatise on the number seven. And let him be content to pay the double penalty, or even to be sold, since he has committed no slight offence ; sinning in the first place in that, not being content with what he had, he has desired more, encouraging a feeling of covetousness, a treacherous and incurable wickedness. Secondly, because he has cast his eyes on the property of others and longed for it, and has laid plots to deprive his neighbour of his own, depriving the owner of what belongs to him. Thirdly, because through his desire to escape detection, he very often keeps to himself all the advantage that can be derived from the thing he appropriates, and diverts the accusation so as to cause it to full iipon the innocent, thus making the investigation of the truth blind.

And such a man appears in some degree to be himself his own accuser, being convicted by his own conscience of the theft of those things which he has secretly stolen, being filled either with shame or fear, one of which feelings is a proof of his considering his action a disgraceful one, for it is only disgraceful actions which cause shame, and the other is a sign of his thinking it deserving of punishment, for punishment causes fear. If any one being insanely carried away by a desire for the property of others attempts to steal it, and not being able easily to carry it oft' breaks into a house at night, using the darkness as a veil to conceal his wicked action, if he be caught in the fact before the sun has risen, he may be slain by the master of the house in the breaches, having accomplished the lesser object which he had proposed to himself, namely, theft, but having been hindered by some one from accomplishing the greater crime which might have followed it, namely, murder; since he was prepared with iron house-breaking tools which he bore, and other arms, to defend himself from any attack.

But if the sun has risen, then let him no longer be slain by the hand of the master of the house, but let him be led away and brought before the magistrates and judges, to iriifFer whatever punishment they condemn him to. For while men are remaining in their houses at night, and when they have betaken themselves to rest, whether they be rulers or private individuals, in either case there is no refuge or assistance for the offender ; on which account the inmate of the house has the power of punishment in his own hands, being appointed magistrate and judge by the very time itself. But in the day time the courts of justice and the council chambers are open, and the city is full of persons who will help to arrest the criminal ; some of whom have been formally appointed guardians of the laws ; and others, without any such appointment, by their natural disposition which hates iniquity, take up the cause of those who are injured; and before these men the thief must be brought ; for thus the man who seeks revenge will escape the charge of arrogance or rashness, and appear to be acting in the spirit of the democracy.

But if, when the sun has risen and is shining upon the earth, any one slays a robber with his own hand befoi'e bringing him to trial, he shall be held guilty, as having been guided by passion rather than by reason, and as having made the laws second to his own impulses. I shoiild say to such a man, " My, friend, do not, because you have been injured by night by a thief, on this account in the daylight yourself commit a worse theft, not indeed affecting money, but affecting the principles of justice, in accordance with which the constitution of the state is established. Now other thefts are to be atoned for by a payment of double the value of the thing stolen ; but if any one steals an ox or a sheep, the law thinks such a man worthy of a greater punishment, giving a particular honour and precedence to those animals which are the most excellent among all tame flocks and herds, not only by reason of the beauty of their bodies, but also because of the service they are of to the life of man.

And on this account the lawgiver has not affixed a fine of equal amount to the theft of each animal, but having calculated the use of both and the purposes for wliich both are available, he has appraised theiividuo in this way. For he coinmauds that the thief shall restore four sheep and five oxen in the place of the one which he has stolen ; since a sheep gives four kinds of tribute, milk, and cheese, and its fleece, and a lamb, everj year : but an os furnishes five ; three of which are the same as those of the sheep — the milk, the cheese, and the offspring ; but two are peculiar to itself, the ploughing of the earth, and the threshing of the corn ; the first of which actions is the first step towards the sowing of the crops, and the other is the end, being for the purification of the crop after it is gathered in, in order to the more easy use of it for food. A kidnapper also is a thief; but he is, moreover, a thief who steals the very most excellent thing that exists upon the earth.

Now, in the case of inanimate things, and of those animals which are of no very great use indeed in life, he has commanded twice the value of them to be paid to their owners by those who steal them, as has been said before. And again, in the case of those tame and very useful flocks and herds of sheep and oxen, he has ordered the payment to be fourfold or fivefold; but man, as it seems, has been assigned the most pre-eminent position among the animals, being, as it were, a near relation of God himself, and akin to him in respect of his participation in reason ; which makes him immortal, although he is liable to death. On which account every one who feels any admiration of virtue is full of exceeding anger, and is utterly implacable against kidnappers, who for the sake of most iniquitous gain dare to inflict slavery on those who are free by birth, and who partake of the same nature as themselves.

I^or if masters perform a praiseworthy action when they emancipate servants born in their house or purchased with money, even though they have often not done them any great service, from the slavery in which they are held, because of their own humanity by which they are influenced, how heavy ought to be the accusation which is brought against those who deprive of that most excellent of all possessions, freedom, those who are at present in jkossession of it ; when it is an object for which man, who has been well born and properly brought up, would think it glorious to die ?

And before now, some men, increasing their own innate wickedness, and directing the natural treachery oi their characters to a violation of all rights, have studied to bring slavery not only upon strangers and foreigners, but, even upon those of the same nation as themselves ; aud sometimes, even upon men of the same borough aud of the same tribe, disregarding the community of laws and customs, in which they have been bred up with them from their earliest infancy, which nature stamps upon their souls as the firmest bond of good will in the case of all those who are not very intractable and greatly addicted to cruelty ; who, for the sake of lawless gain sell slaves to slave-dealers, and enslave them to any chance persons, transporting them to a foreign land, so that they shall never any more salute their native land, not even in a dream, nor taste of any hope of happiness. Eor these kidnappers would be committing a lighter iniquity if they themselves retained the services of those whom they have enslaved, but as the case stands at present they commit a double wrong, in selling them again, and thus making them two masters instead of one, and raising up two slaveries as enemies to their condition.

For they, being aware of the former prosperous condition of those whom they have carried off, might perhaps repent, feeling a tardy and late compassion for those who are thus fallen, having a proper awe of the uncertainty of fortune eluding all conjectures. But those who buy persons in this condition, out of ignorance of their families, will neglect them as if they were sprung from successive generations of slaves, having no inducement in their souls to display that gentleness and humanity towards them which it would be natural for them to preserve in the case of slaves who had become so after having been originally and naturally free-born. And let whatever punishment the court of justice shall sentence them to be inflicted upon those who kidnap and enslave those of another nation ; but upon those who kidnap those of their own country and of their own blood, and who sell them for slaves, shall be passed the unalterable sentence of death. For, in fact, one's own countrymen are not far from blood relations, and they must very nearly come under the same definition with them. "

In the field also," as some one of the old writers has said, " lawsuits arise ; " since covetousness and a desire for the possessions of others does not exist only in the city, but is found also outside the walls, inasmuch as it has its abode not only in various places, but also in the minds of insatiable and contentious men. On which account those cities which enjoy the best codes of laws elect double superintendents, and rulers, aTid providers of a common regularity and safety ; one class to manage within the walls, whom they call curators of the city ; the others without the walls, to whom also they give an appropriate name, for they call them agrarian magistrates. But what need could there be of agrarian magistrates ii. there were not som.e persons in the fields living only for the injury of their neighbours ? If, therefore, any shepherd or goatherd, or oxherd, or in short any manager of any kind of cattle, drives his herds to feed and pasture upon another man's land, sparing neither crops nor trees, he shall pay a ■fine equal to the value of those crops and trees.

And lie may be very well content to escape with this punishment, having met with a very merciful and exceedingly indulgent law, which, though he has adopted the conduct of implacable foreign enemies, who are accustomed to lay waste the lands and to destroy the cultivated trees of the inhabitants, has, nevertheless, not chastised him as a common enemy, inflicting upon him dealh, or exile, or of, lastly, a confiscation of all his property ; but has m.erely sentenced him to make good the damage done to the owner. For as the lawgiver was always seeking pretexts by which to lighten whatever misfortunes have been suffered by reason of the excessive gentleness and humanity which he derived from nature and from habit, he found an excuse for the shepherd on the ground that the nature of cattle was inconsiderate and disobedient, and especially so when in pursuit of food. Let the shepherd, then, be guilty, as having originally driven his herd into an unsuitable place, but still let him not bear the blame of every thing that has ensued from his doing so.

For it is natural to suppose that, as soon as he perceived the mischief that had taken place he endeavoured to drive them out again, but that his beasts resisted him, luxuriating in the green pastui-e, and the tender crops, and shoots which they were devouring. And not only do those men do damage who devour the property of others with their flocks and herds, but so also do those who iuconsiderately and carelessly kindle a fire ; for if the power of lire catches hold of any appropriate fuel, it spreads in every direction, and extends and devours all around. And when it has once got ahead it defies all the means of CTtinguishing it which any one seeks to apply, taking the very things employed for that purpose as food for its increase, until having consumed every thing it is at last exhausted by itself It is right, therefore, never to leave any fire either in a house or in any stables in the fields unguarded, since we well know that a single spark has often smouldered long, and at last has been fanned into a flame, and so has consumed great cities, especially when the flame has been borne onwards by a favourable wind.

Accordingly, in savage wars the first, the middle, and the last power which is excited is that of fire, to which the enemies trust more than they do to their squadrons of infantry, or cavalry, or to their fleets, or to their unlimited supplies of arms and naval stores. For if any one with good aim shoots a fiery arrow among a numerous squadron of ships he may burn it with all the crews, or he may thus destroy vast camps with all their baggage, and furniture, and equipments, on which the army rested its hopes of victory. If, then, any one scatters fire among a heap ot brambles or thorns, and the fire kindles and burns a threshing floor full of wheat, or barley, or vetches, or sheaves of corn which have been gathered together, or any fertile plain full of pasture, then the man who scattered the fire shall pay the amount of the damage done, in order that by his suftering he may learn to take good care and to guard against the 36a PHILO JUD.'EUS. beginnings* of things, and raay not awaken and stir up an invincible power which, might otherwise have remained quiet.

A deposit is the most sacred of all those things which relate to the associations of men with regard to property, inasmuch as it depends upon the good faith alone of the man who has received it. For loans are proved by contracts and writings, and things which, independent of loans, are openly used, have all the persons who see them for vdtnesses. But this is not the case with deposits, but the owner by himself gives them privily to the man who receives them by himself, looking carefully round the place, and not even taking a slave with him for the purpose of carrying the thing to be deposited, even though he be ever so affectionate to his master ; for each of the two parties appears to be anxious to avoid discovery ; the one depositing the thing in order to receive it again, and the other being desirous not to be known to have received it.

But we ought by all means to look upon the invisible God as an unseen third party to every concealed action, whom it is natural to make as a Avitness for both parties ; the receiver calling him to witness that he will restore the deposit when it is demanded back from him, and the other making him to see that he receives it back at the proper time. Let, then, the man who commits this great wickedness and denies his deposit not be ignorant that he has deceived him who committed it to him of his hope, and that he is concealing a wicked disposition xmder specious language, and that he is hypocritically pretending a bastard sort of faith while in reality faithless, showing that all his pledges are worthless and all his oaths disregarded, so that he Principiis obsta, sero medieina paratur, Cum mala per longas invalucre muras.

Which may be translated — Check the first rise : all remedy's too late When long delay has made the mischief gi-eat. neglects all human and all divine obligations ; and that he is denying two deposits at once ; firstly, the deposit of him who entrusted his property to his care ; and secondly, that of that most unerring and infallible witness who sees all the actions of all men, and hears all the words of all men, whether they are willing that he should do so or not. But if the man who has received a deposit as a sacred thing thinks that he ought to keep it without fraud, duly honouring truth and good faith, but yet others who are always plotting against their neighbours' property, such as cutpurses or housebreakers, break in treacherously and steal the deposit so entrusted, then he shall pay as a penalty double the value of what has been stolen by the thieves.

And if they are not taken, then the man who received the deposit shall go of his own accord before the divine tribunal, and stretching out his hands to heaven shall swear by his own life that he himself had no hand in the theft from any desire to appropriate what had been deposited with him, and that he did not voluntarily give it up to any one else ; and that, moreover, he is not making a false statement of a robbery which has never taken place.* For it would be absurd to punish a man who has done no wrong, or for a man who had taken refuge in the assistance of a friend when he was being injured by others, now to become the cause of injury to that friend. And deposits consist not only of inanimate things but also of animals : the danger of which last is twofold ; first, that while they share in common with inanimate tilings in being liable to be stolen, and also one which is distinct and peculiar to themselves, that they are liable to die. We have hitherto been speaking only of the first kind of deposit, but we must now also explain the law about the second.

If now any cattle which have been entrusted as a deposit die, then he who has received the deposit shall send for him who committed it to him, and show him the matter, protecting himself from any evil suspicion ; but if the depositor bo absent, then it is not proper to send for any one else, whose notice perhaps the depositor might have been desirous to escape ; but when the depositor returns home, his friend shall swear to him that he has not been concealing any unjust appropriation of the animals by a false statement of their death. And if any one receives anything not as a deposit, but because be has borrowed it to use, whether it is a vessel or an animal ; then if he be robbed of it, whichevei* it may be, or if the animal die, w^hile the man who lent it is living with the borrower, the borrower shall not be liable, as the owner himself can be brought as a witness that there is no false pretence in the business ; but if the lender be not with him at the time, he shall pay the value.

Why so ? because it is possible that the man who used the animal when the owner was not present may have either worn him out by continual labour so as to kill him, or may have worn out tlie vessel, from not taking any care of the property of another of which he ought to have been careful, and to have put it away, and not to have given thieves an easy opportunity of stealing it. But as our lawgiver was acute beyond all other men at discerning the consequences of actions, he proceeds to enact a series of prohibitions, one after another, preserving a due connection between them, and taking care that his later commandments shall be consistent with his earlier ones. And with this harmonious connection of what was to be said by him, he tells us that he was divinely inspired by the person of Grod speaking to him in this manner : — " Ye shall not steal. "Te shall not speak falsely, and bring false accusations against your neighbour.

"And ye shall not swear by my name to compass an unjust end, and ye shall not profane my name."* These injunctions are given with great beauty and very instructively ; for the thief being convicted by his own conscience denies and speaks falsely, fearing the punishment which would ensue upon his confession. And he who denies an action seeks to attach the imputation to some one else, bringing a false accusation against him, and imagines devices to make his false accusation appear probable ; and every false accuser is at once a perjured man, thinking but little of piety, since he has no just proofs ; on which account he has recourse to what is called the inartificial mode of proof, that ♦ Leviticus xix. 11. by oaths, thinking that by the invocation of God he shall produce belief among those who hear him. But let such an one know that he is ungodly and impious, inasmuch as he is defiling that which by nature is undefiied, jj the good and holy name of God.

This is the ninth of the ten commandments, being the fourth in number of those in the second table ; but one which is calculated to bestow ten thousand benefits on human life if it be kept, as, on the other hand, it may injure men in innumerable ways if it is neglected ; for the false accuser is to be blamed, but he who bears witness to what is false is more guilty still ; for the one acts only from a desire to protect himself, but the other is wicked from his wish to cooperate with another in iniquity. And in the comparison of wicked men he who does wrong for his own sake is less unrighteous than he who does so for another. And every judge looks with suspicion on an accuser, as likely to pay but little attention to truth for the sake of coming off" in safety himself, on which account the accuser stands in need of a preface to beg the attention of the hearer while he is speaking ; but if the judge has no prejudice against a witness on any personal grounds he receives his evidence with a willing mind and open ears, while he is covering over those most excellent things, truth and good faith, with specious language.

And the false witnesses use seductive words as a sportsman uses bait for the purpose of attaining the objects which he desires and aims at. For which reasons, in many parts of his enactment of tho law, he commands that we should not approve of any wicked man or action, t For any a]:)probation of what is not virtuous is likely to lead to giving false evidence; since every one to whom iniquity is a disagreeable and hateful thing is a friend of truth. Now there is no great wonder in a man's having connected himself with one wicked person, who has incited him to an action resembling his own character ; but it is a sign of a noble soul, and of a disposition practised in manly resolutions not to follow a multitude to do evil, like a man borne down over a precipice by the collective force of a torrent. For some people, among the xaultitude, think some things lawful and just, even though they be most flagitious, not judging correctly ; for it is well to follow nature, but this impulse of the multitude is wholly at variance with the following of nature.

If, then, some persons, being assembled together in companies and numerous multitudes, attempt to make any innovations, one must not consent to them, since they are adulterating the ancient and approved coinage of the state ; for one wise counsel is superior to many attempts, but ignorance, in conjunction with numbers, is a great evil ; but some persons practise such an excess of wickedness that they not only accuse mortal men, but adhere and cliug to their unrighteousness, so as even to raise their lies as high as heaven, and to bear their testimony against the blessed and happy nature of God.

And by these men I mean soothsayers, and diviners, and augurs, and all other persons who practise what they call divination studying, an art without any art, if one must tell the plain truth, a mere bare imitation of the real inspiration and prophetic gift ; for a prophet does not utter anything whatever of his own, but is only an interpreter, another Beiug suggesting to him all that he utters, while he is speaking under inspiration, being in ignorance that his own reasoning powers are departed, and have quitted the citadel of his soul ; while the divine spirit has entered in and taken up its abode there, and is operating upon all the organization of his voice, and making it sound to the distinct manifestatiou of all the prophecies which he is delivering. But all those persons who pursue the spurious and pretended kind of prophecy are inverting the order of truth by conjectures and guesses, perverting sincerity, and easily influenciag those who are of unstable dispositions, as a violent wind, when blowing in a contrary direction, tosses about and overturns vessels without ballast, preventing them from anchoring in the safe havens of truth.

For such persons think proper to say whatever they conjecture, not as if they were things which they themselves had found out, but as if they were divine oracles revealed to themselves alone, for the more complete inducement of great and numerous crowds to believe a deceit. Such persons our lawgiver very appropriately calls false prophets, who adulterate the true prophecy, and overshadow what is genuine by their spurious devices ; but in a very short time all their manoeuvres are detected, since nature does not choose to be always hidden, but, when a suitable opportunity offers, displays her own power with irresistible strength. For as in the case of echpses of the sun the rays which have, for a brief moment, been obscured, a short time afterwards shine forth again, exhibiting an iinclouded and far-seen brilliancy without anything whatever coming over the sun at all, but one unalloyed blaze beaming forth from him in a serene sky ; so also, even though some persons may deliver predictions, practising a lying art of prophecy, and tlisguising themselves under the specious name of prophetic inspiration, Msely taking the name of God in vain, they will be easily convicted.

For, again, the truth will come forth and Avill beam forth, shedding around a most conspicuous light, so that the falsehood which has previously overshadowed it will disappear. Moreover there also was an excellent* commandment that Moses gave when he ordained that the judge should " not receive the testimony of one witness." t First of aE, because it is possible that one person may without designing it have a false impression of a thing, or may be careless about it and therefore be deceived. For there are innumerable false opinions, which frequently arise from an innumerable variety of grounds ; and secondly, because it is most unjust to trust to one witness against many persons, or indeed against only one individual ; in the first place, because many are more entitled to belief than one, since the one is not superior in number to many, and equality of number is inconsistent with any preponderance; for why should the judge trust a single witness, bearing testimony against another, rather than the defendant pleading in hia own behalf? But, as it should seem, it is best to suspend one's opini'/D, where there is no deficiency and no excess to guide the judgment.

The law thinks that all those who adhere to the sacred constitution, established by Moses, ought to be free from all TUireasonable passions, and from all wickedness ; and most especially ought all men to be so, who are either appointed by lot or elected to judge between others ; for it is an absurdity for these men to be themselves liable to the imputation of error, who undertake to dispense justice to others, whom it becomes to give a faithful copy of the works of nature, presenting an accurate representation of a model picture ; for as the power of fire whicli disperses warmth to all other things which it reaches, was, long before doing so, Avarm as far as it was itself concerned, and as, on the contrary, the power of snow cools other things, by the fact of its being itself cooled previously, so also ought the judge to be full of pure unalloyed justice, if he is to irrigate all who come before him with justice, in order that from him, as from a sweet fountain, a wholesome spring may be afforded to all who thirst for a dispensation of good law.

And this will be the case if any one who undertakes the office of a judge looks upon it as if he were at the same time judging and being judged himself, and when he takes up the pebble with which he is to give his vote, were at the same time to take up wisdom so as not to be deceived, and justice so as to dispense to each party what they deserve, and courage so as never to yield to supplications or to feelings of compassion, so as to diminish the punishment due to convicted offenders ; for the man who studies these virtues may reasonably be looked upon as a common benefactor, like a good pilot tranquillising the storms of affairs in such a manner as to secure the preservation and safety of those who have committed their interests to him.

In the first place the law enjoins the judge not to listen to vain reports.* Why is this ? The law says, " My good man, let thy ears be purified." And they will be purified if they are continually washed out with a stream of virtuous language, never admitting the long, and false, and vain, and hackneyed protestations, so deserving to be ridiculed, of fabulists or vain babblers, or hyperbolical exaggerations, who make a great deal of things of no importance ; and this is what is meant by the injunction not to listen to vain reports, and also by another precept in some degree consistent with the former.

For, says the lawgiver, he who attends to those who give evidence on hearsay is attending to vanity and not to sound reason ; because the eyes do indeed dwell with the very things which are done, taking hold of them as one may say, and comprehending and seizing upon them in all their parts, the light co-operating with them, by means of which all things are illuminated and clearly proved ; but the ears, as one of the philosophers of old has very truly said, are less trvistworthy than the eyes, inasmuch as they are not themselves present at the transactions, but are attracted by words as the interpreter of facts, which are not always disposed to tell the truth ; for which reasons some of the lawgivers among the Greeks, having transcribed some of the laws from the two tables of Moses, appear to have established very wise regulations, forbidding any one to mention in his testimony anything that he has heard, on the ground that it is right to look upon what a man has seen as trustworthy, but on what he has heard as not in all respects certain.

The second commandment given to a judge is not to receive gifts ; * for gifts, says the law, blind the eyes that see, and pervert justice, and do not permit the mind to travel along the level road which leads to righteousness ; and to receive bribes to aid in unjust actions is the action of very wicked men indeed ; and even to do so for tlio purpose of furthering good objects is the conduct of persons who are half wicked ; for there are some judges speciously disguised, half wicked, something between just and unjust, armed indeed in the cause of those who are injured, as their champions against those who injure them, but still not desirous to cause them to prevail, without deriving any advantage to themselves from their victory, though tliey ought to prevail ; but making their decision corrupt and mercenary.

Then, when any one blames them, they affirm that they have not perverted justice ; for that those have been defeated vrho ought to have been defeated, and that those have gained their cause who ought to have got the better ; alleging a most unworthy and false defence ; for a righteous judge ought to exhibit two things, a judgment in strict accordance with the law, and incorruptibility ; but he who is a judge for bribes, even though he decides justly, does without perceiving it defile a thing which is beautiful by nature.

Moreover, he also offends in two other points ; in the first place, because he is accustoming himself to be covetous of money ; which is the beginning of the very greatest iniquities ; and secondly, because he is injuring the man whom he ought to benefit ; by making him pay a price for justice ; on which account Moses has very instructively commanded, that the judge shall pursue what is righteous in a righteous manner ; * intimating under this figurative expression, that it is possible to do so in an unrighteous manner, because of those men who sell just and legal decisions for money, not only in the courts of justice, but everywhere in every part of laud and sea, and I had almost said in all the transactions of life.

Por instance, it has happened before now, that a man who has received a deposit of small value, has given it back again when demanded, more by way of laying a snare for liim who receives it back, than with any idea of serving him, in order that by showing good faith in things of small value as a bait he may cover over the look of his faithlessness in greater things, and such conduct is nothing else than pursuing justice in an unrighteous manner; for the restitution of what did not belong to him was just, but it was doue in an unrighteous manner, inasmuch as it was only doue as a bait to attract more. And the cause of all such offences is principally the inclination to and the familiar habit of falsehood, which, from their very birth and swaddling clothes, their nurses and mothers, and all the whole multitude in the house, whether free-born persons or slaves, habituate them to and familiarise them with both by words and actions, adapting it to and uniting it with their souls, as a necessary part of them by nature, though, if it had in truth been implanted in them by nature, it would have been necessary to eradicate it by instilling good habits into them instead.

And what in life is there equally beautiful with truth, which the all-wise legislator erected in the most sacred place, in that part of the dress of the chief priest, where the dominant part of the soiil lies, wishing to adorn it with the most beautiful and glorious of all ornaments ? And next to truth he has placed power as akin to it, which he has in this case called manifestation, being the two images of the two kinds of speech which exist in us, the secret speech and the lettered speech, for the lettered speech requires manifestation, by which the secret thoughts in all our hearts are made known to our neighbour, but the secret speech has need of truth for the perfection of life and actions, by means of which the road to happiness is found out.

The third commandment given to a judge is to investigate the transactions themselves, in preference to showing any regard to the parties to the suit ; and to attempt, in every imaginable manner, to separate himself from all respect of persons ; constraining himself to an ignorance and forgetfulness of all those things of which he has any knowledge or recollection ; such as relations, friends, countrymen or foreigners, enemies or hereditary connections, so that neither affection nor hatred may overshadow his knowledge of justice ; for he must stumble like a blind man, wlio is advancing without a staff, and who has no one to guide him in whom he can rely firmly. Por which reason it is fitting that a righteous judge should have it even concealed from him who the parties to the suit are, and that he should look at the undisguised, simple nature of the transactions themselves ; so as not to be liable to judge in accordance with random opinion, but according to real truth, and to be guided by such an opinion as this, that judgment is of God ;* and that the judge is the minister and steward of his judgment ; and a steward is not allowed To give away the things of his master, as he has received as a pledge the most excellent of all the things • Deuteronomy i. ] 7. wliicli exist in liuman life, from tlie most excellent of all beings.

And in addition to what has already been said, there is another most admirable precept given which enjoins the judge " not to show pity upon the poor man in his judgment."* "While in other precepts the la^^giver has filled nearly the Avhole of the law with precepts of mercy and humanity, and has uttered great threats against arrogant and insolent men, and has proposed great rewards for those who endeavour to make amends for the misfortunes of their neighbours, and who look upon their superfluities not as their own exclusive possessions, but as the common property of every one in want ; for it was a felicitovis and true saying of one of the wise men of old, that men never act in a manner more resembling the gods than when they are bestowing benefits ; and what can be a greater good than for mortal men to imitate the everlasting God ?

Let not then the rich man collect in his house vast quantities of silver and gold, and store them up, but let him bring them forward freely in order by his cheerful bounty to soften the hard condition of the poor ; nor let any man be puffed up with vain glory, and raise himself and boast himself in pride and arrogance, but let a man rather honour equality, and allow freedom of speech to those of low estate. And let the man who enjoys vigour of body be the prop of those who are weaker, and let him not like the men at the gymnastic contests strive by every means to overthrow those who are inferior in strength, but let him be willing and eager to assist with his own power those who, as far as thev themselves are concerned, are ready to faint. For all those who have drunk deep of the fountains of wisdom, having banished envy entirely out of their minds, are of their own accord, and without any prompting, ready to undertake the assistance of their neighbours, pouring the streams of their words into their souls through their ears, so as to impart to them a participation in similar knowledge with themselves.

And when they see young men of good dispositions springing up like flourishing and vigorous shoots of a vine, they rejoice, thinking that they have found proper inheritors for this wealth of their souls, which is the only real riches, and having taken them they cultivate their souls with doctrines and good meditations, until they arrive at full strength and maturity, so as to bring forth the fruit of excellence. Many such ornaments as these are woven into and inserted among the laws, in order to enrich the poor on whom it is always proper to have compassion except at the time of giving judgment, for compassion is due to misfortunes; but he who behaves wickedly with deliberate purpose is not unfortunate but unrighteous, and punishment is due to the unrighteous just as honours should be confirmed to the just, so that no wicked man who is in difficulties, and who conceals the truth, ought to escape punishment through the pity excited by his poverty, since he has done what deserves not pity (how should it ?) but great anger.

Aid let the man who undertakes the duty of a judge, like a skilful money-changer, divide and distinguish between the natures of things, in order that confusion may not be caused by the mixing together of what is good with what is spurious. And there are many other things which may be said with respect to false witnesses and judges ; but for the sake of avoiding prolixity we must proceed now to the last of the ten commandments, which is delivered also in a concise and summary form as each of the others is : and this commandment is, " Thou shalt not covet."

Every passion is open to and deserving of blame, inasmuch as every immoderate and violent impulse, and every irrational and unnatural emotion of the soul is also faulty and blameable, for what is either of these things but an ancient passion spread over a wider extent p If any one, therefore, does not set limits to these feelings, nor jnit a bridle on them as on restive horses, he will be afflicted by an evil difficult to remedy, and then, without -being aware of it, he will, because of their unrestrainable character, be carried away by them, as a charioteer sometimes is by a chariot, and hurried into ravines and pits from which it is difficult to rise up, and very hard to escape with safety.

But of all the passions there is not one so grievous as a covetous desire of what one has not got, of things which are in appearance good, but not in reality ; a desire which produces grievous anxieties which are hard to satisfy ; for such a passion puts the reason to flight, and banishes it to a great distance, involving the soul in great difficulties, while the object which is desired flies away contemptuously, retreating not with its back but with its face to one; for when a person perceives this passion of covetousness after having started up rapidly, then resting for a short time, either with a view to spread out its alluring toils, or because it has learnt to entertain a hope of succeeding in its object, he then retires to a longer distance uttering reproaches against it ; but the passion itself, being left behind and coming too late to succeed, struggles, bearing a Tantalus-like punishment in its miserable future ; for it is said that Tantalus, when he desired to obtain any liquor to drink, was not able to do so, as the water retreated from his lips,* and if he wished to gather any fruit, it all disapKai nqv 'YavToKov tifftlSov ;^aX£7r' aXyt' txovra taraoT iv Xifxvy ; r) St TrpocrtTrXa^f yevdif) arevTo Ss Siil/awv, Trudv S'ovK tT\tv ikiadai baacLKi yap kviI^iC 6 yeptov ttuiiv fiivtaivu)v Toaaux' v5(»p aTroXstrictr' avajSpoxh', afxcpl Se rroaai rala fiiXaivn (paviaKt KaToXrjvaffKi ck daifiwv ckvSpea S' viptTsr/jXa KaroKprjOtv X6£ Kapirbv oyxt'Cii Kai poiai /cai/xy/Xsat dyXaoicapTTOi p; avKai TtyXoKipal Kai tXaiai rtjXsOoojirai Tuiv OTTor' l9v(Tii 6 yep<i)P Ltti X^P"'' fJ-a.(yaa9ai rag d' dptfioQ piirracyKe ttotI vtipea aKiotvTa.

Or, as it is translated »by Pope, " There Tantalus along the Stygian bounds, Pours out deep groans (with groans all hell resounds); Ev'n in the circling floods refreshment craves, And pines with thirst among a sea of waves ; When to the water he his lip applies, Back from his lip the treacherous water flies. Above, beneath, around his hapless head, Trees of all kinds delicious fruitage spread ; There figs, sky-dyed, a purple hue disclose. Green looks the olive, the pomegranate glows ; There dangling pears exalting scents unfold, And yellow apples ripen into gold. The first he strives to seize ; but blasts arise.

Toss it on high, and whirl it to the skies." % i peared, the productiveness of the trees becoming suddenly barren ; for as those implacable and inexorable mistresses of the body, thirst and hunger, do very often strain it more, or at all events not less, than those unhappy persons are strained who are racked by the torture even to death, unless when they have become violent some one appeases them with meat and drink ; in like manner, covetous desire, having first rendered the soul empty through its forgetfulness of what is present and its recollection of what is removed to a great distance, fills it with impetuosity and madness, and introduces into it masters worse than even its former tyrants, but having the same names with them, namely, hunger and thirst, not, however, now of those things which conduce to the enjoyment of the belly, but of money, and glory, and authority, and beauty, and of innumerable other things which appear to be objects of desire and contention in human life.

And as the disease which the physicians call the herpes,* does not stop in one part of the body, but moves about and overruns the skin, and, as its name shows, creeps about (dis^mi), and becomes diffused in every direction, and spreading widely seizes hold of and infects with its contact the whole combination of the different parts of the body from the head to the feet, so in the same manner does covetous desire spread over the whole soul, and leave not even the smallest portion of it free from its inroads, imitating the power of fire when supplied with abimdant fuel, for that spreads and burns away till it has devoured and destroyed everything with which it meets.

So great and so excessive an evil is covetous desire ; or rather, if I am to speak the plain truth concerning it, it is the source of all evils. For from what other source do all the thefts, and acts of rapine, and repudiation of debt, and all false accusations, and acts of insolence, and, moreover, all ravishments, and adulteries, and murders, and, in short, all mischiefs, whether private or public, or sacred or profane, take their rise ? For most truly may covetous desire be said to be the original passion which is at the bottom of all these mischiefs, of which love is one and the most significant offspring, which has not once but many times filled the whole world with indescribable evils ; whicb even tlie wbole circumference of the world has not been large enough to contain, but out of their vast number they, as if carried on by the impetuosity of a torrent, have fallen into the sea, and all seas in every region have been filled with hostile fleets.

It is owing to this passion that all the ten-ible evils which are caused by naval wars have happened ; and, coming upon all continents and all islands together, have thrown them into confusion, spreading everywhere and returning in their own steps like the warriors in the diaulos,* or like the ebb and flow of the tides of the sea, returning to the point from which they originally set out. And by looking at it in this manner we shall more clearly perceive the power of this passion. Everything which covetous desire lays hold of is by it changed for the worse, like poisonoiis serpents or deadly poisons. JN^ow what is it that I mean when I say this ? If this passion is directed towards money, it makes thieves, and cut-piu-ses, and clothes-stealers, and house-breakers, and taints men with the guilt of the repudiation of debts, of the denial of deposits, of bribery and sacrilege, and all such iniquities as those.