The Works of Philo (complete)

And, thirdly, that quality, on account of which ak,4 all others, the good will of the beings above-mentioned is con- ' ■ ciliated, and that is the improvement and amelioratiun of th.^se l-ersons who are brought to treaties and agreements, who have I with great difficulty, been able to come from a i)atldeis wIU-t" ' ness into a beaten road, the end of which is no other than tlut I of pleasing God as sons please a father. And when they come cities will be rebuilt which Imt a short I time ago were in complete ruins, and the desert will be liiled ' with inhabitants, and the barren land will change and become fertile, and the good fortune of their fathers and ancestors will be looked upon as a matter of but small importance, on account of the abundance of wealth of all kinds which ihcv will iiave at the present moment, llowing forth from the graces of \ast wealth separately on each individual, and also on nil tho citizens in common, to an amount beyond the reach even of envy.

And the change in everything will be immediate, for Oo«i will nourish the virtues against the enemies of those who hate repented, who have delighteil in the ruined fortunes of tho nation, reviling them, and making a mockery of them, a.s if they themselves were destined to have a season of good fortune, which could never be put an end (o. winch they hojie to leave, in regular succession, to their children and to ihi-ir posterity ; thinking, -at the same time, that they will for ever behold their adversaries in lasting and unchangeable mi>fnr tunes, laid up for even remote future genenitions ; not |>crceiving, in their insanity, that they enjoyed that bnllmiit fortune which fell to their share a little while Iwjforc. not for their own merits, but for the sake of giving a wr • -nJ admonition to others, for wiiuni, as they had for ■ ir national and hereditary customs, tho only wiiutanr.'Mi«-«lj which could be found was the gri.'f which they felt to vxciM when their enemies curried olF their property.

Therefore, weeping for and bewailing their own <l«fe*l. tlicj will turn back again to the ancient prosperity ..f il ■ tors, retracing all their steps with great exaclnr^s. ..■ . its even happening to them to stray from th« pn-fwr ooufM and to be wrecked ; but they who have turned their lamrnl*. tions into ridicule, and have decided on celebrating, as public festivals, the days which they consider unlucky, and of feasting in memorial of matters for which they mourn, and who, in short, make themselves happy at all the unhappiness of others, when they begin to receive the due reward of their inhumanitj', will learn that they have sinned, not against obscure and neglected persons, but against men of noble birth, having fuel to kindle their nobleness to a proper warmth, which, when it is properly fanned into a flame, then their glory, which a little while ago appeared to be extinguished, blazes out again.

For as, when the trunk of a tree is cut down, if the roots are not taken away, new shoots spring up, by which the old trunk is again restored to life as it were ; in the very same manner, if there be only left in the soul ever so small a seed of virtue, when everything else is destroyed, still, nevertheless, from that little seed there spring up the most honourable and beautiful qualities among men ; by means of which, cities, which were formei'ly populous and flourishing, are again inhabited, and nations are led to become wealthy and powerful.

We ought to rebuke in no measured language those who celebrate nobility of birth as the greatest of all blessings, and the cause also of great blessings, if in the first place they think those men nobly born who are sprung from persons who were rich and glorious in the days of old, when those very ancestors themselves, from whom they boast to be descended, were not made happy by their unlimited abundance ; since, in truth, that which is really good does not naturally or necessarily lodge in any external thing, nor in any of the things which belong to the body, and indeed I may even say not in every part of the soul, but only in the dominant and most important portion of it.

For when God determined to establish this in us out of his own exceeding mercy and love for the human race, he could rot find any temple upon earth more beautiful or more suited for its abode than reason : for the mind makes, as it were, aa ON NOBILITY. j,j« image of the good aud consecrates it within itself aud if anv persons disbeheve in it of those who liave either never Uisio'd wisdom at all, or else have done so only with the eeh'os of tlieir hps (for silver and gold, and honours.' and oftices.mid vigour and beauty of body, resemble those men who are ap{>ointcd i.. situations of authority and power, in order to serve virtue as if she were their queen), never having obtained a sigbt of the most brilliant of all liglits. Since, then, nobility of mind, perfectly purified by cotnplete 1 purifications, is the proper inheritance, we ought to call tlios*- men alone noble who are temperate and just, even thou-jli they may be of the class of domestic slaves, or may hav.- been bought with money.

But to tliose persons wbo, beinj; sprung from virtuous parents, do themselves turn out wicked, the region of nobleness is wholly inaccessible : for everv l>ad man is destitute of a house, and destitute of a city, luiving been driven from his proper country, namely, virtue ; which is the real, genuine country of all wise men : and igiioblencss does of necessity attach itself to such a man, even though he be descended from graudfathci's and great gmiullatlicn* whose lives were wholly irreproachable, since lie studies lo alienate himself from them and detaches himself fmui and removes to the greatest possible distance from real nubility in all his words and actions. But moreover, besides tiiat wicked men cannot possibK be noble, 1 also see that they ari' all of them irreconcileable enemies to nobility, inasmuch a» they have destroyed the reputation which accrued to them from their ancestors, and have diiiinud and extinguished all the brilliancy which did exist in their race.

And it is for this reason, as it api>eni> to me, timt ^>wr most affectionate fathers disown and disiiilicril ihcir hon.-, cutting them off from tlieir homes and from their kiiulrtnl, when the wickedness which is di-sjilavcd in thcin ha. owrmastered the exceeding and all pervading love uluch iimplanted by nature in piireiits. And the truth of U»m assertion of mine is easy to be seen from other on also. What good could it ever be to any man that i tors had been endowed with ever such great acuteiK.H,H of vi.«on if he himself were deprived of his eyes ? How could l u»i fart assist him to see '? Or again. sujMKising a pei^oii to luo,. ,,n impediment in his speech, how vvould his ullcrunce Uw^^i.uA .y 498 PHILO JUD^US. by the fact that his parents or his grandfathers had had fine voices ? And how will a man who has been emaciated and exhausted by a long and wasting disease, be assisted to recover his former strength, if the original founders of his race are, on account of their strength as athletes, enrolled among the Olympic conquerors, or the victors at any other periodical games ?

For their bodily infirmities will equally remain in the same condition as before, not receiving any amelioration from the successes of their relations. In the same manner, just parents are of no advantage to unjust men, nor temperate parents to intemperate children, nor, in short, are ancestors of any kind of excellence of any advantage to wicked descendants ; for even the laws themselves are of no advantage to those who transgress them, as they are meant to punish them, and what is it that we ought to look upon as unwritten laws, except the lives of those persons who have imitated virtue? On which account, I imagine, that nobility herself, if God were to invest her with the form and organs of a man, would stand before those obstinate and unworthy descendants and speak thus : " Relationship is not measured by blood alone, where truth is the judge, but by a similarity of actions, and by a careful imitation of the conduct of your ancestors.

But you have pursued an opposite line of conduct, thinking hateful such actions as are dear to me, and loving such deeds as are hateful to me ; for in my eyes modesty, and truth, and moderation, and a due government of the passions, and simplicity, and innocence, are honourable, but in your opinion they are dishonourable ; and to me all shameless behaviour is hateful, and all falsehood, and all immoderate indulgence of the passions, and all pride, and all wickedness. But you look upon these things as near and dear to you. Why, then, do you, when by your actions you show all possible eagerness to alienate yourselves from them, aheltering yourselves under a plausible name, hypocriticlaly pretend in words to a relationship? For I cannot endure seductive insinuations falsely put on, or any deceit ; because it is easy for any persons to find out specious arguments, but it is not easy to change an evil disposition into a good one. J "

And I, looking therefore at these facts, both now consider and shall always think those persons who have kindled sparks of enmity my enemies, and I shall look upon them with more suspicion than upon those who have been reproached openly k for want of nobility ; for they, indeed, have this to allege in their defence, that they have no connection at all with excellence. But you are justly liable to punishment who act thus after having been born of noble houses, and being fond of making your boast of your noble descent, and of looking upon it as your glory ; for, though archetypal models of virtue have been established in close connection with, and in a manner implanted in you, you have determined to give no good impression of them yourselves. But that nobility is placed only in the acquisition of virtue, and that you ought to imagine that he who has that is the only man really noble, and not the man who is born of noble and virtuous parents, is plain from many circumstances."

Again, who is there who would deny that those men who were born of him who was made out of the earth were noble themselves, and the founders of noble families ? persons who have received a birth more excellent than that of any succeeding generation, in being sprung from the first wedded pair, from the first man and woman, who then for the first time came together for the propagation of offspring resembling themselves. But, nevertheless, when there were two persons so born, the elder of them endured to slay the younger ;* and, having committed the great and most accursed crime of fratricide, he first defiled the ground with human blood. Now, what good did the nobility of his birth do to a man who had displayed this want of nobleness in his soul? which God, who surveys all human things and actions, detested when he saw it ; and, casting it forth, affixed a punishment to it, not slaying him at once, so that he should arrive at an immediate insensibility to misfortunes, but suspending over him ten thousand deaths in his external senses, by means of incessant griefs and fears, so as to inflict upon him the sense of the most grievous calamities.

Now there was, in the subsequent generations, a man very greatly approved of, a most holy man, whose piety the sacred historian, who has written the books called the law, has thought worthy of being recorded in the sacred volumes. Accordingly, in the great deluge when all the cities of the world were utterly destroyed (for even the highest mountains were overwhelmed by the increase and continual rising of the • Genesis iv. 1.

K K -^ rapid flood), he alone was saved, with all his kindred, having received such a reward for his virtue that it is not possible to imagine a greater one.* This man, again, had three sons ; and, though they had had their share in the blessing thus bestowed upon their father, one of them dared to turn his father, the cause of his safety, into ridicule, laughing at him, and mocking and reviling him, because of an error which he committed unintentionally, and displaying to those who did not see it what he ought to have concealed, so as to bring disgrace on him who had begotten him.f Therefore, having now fallen from his brilliant nobility of birth and having become accursed, and having also become the beginning of misery to all his posterity, he suffered all those evils which it was fitting for a man to suffer who had disregarded all the honour due to his parents.

But why should I speak of these men, and pass over the first man who was created out of the earth ? who, in respect of the nobleness of his birth can be compared to no mortal whatever, inasmuch as he was fashioned by the hand of God, and invested with a form in the likeness of a human body by the very perfection of all plastic art. And he was also thought worthy of a soul, which was derived from no being who had as yet come into existence by being created, but God breathed into him as much of his own power as mortal nature was capable of receiving. Was it not, then, a perfect excess of all nobleness, which could not possibly come into comparison with any other which is ever spoken of as favours ? for all persons who lay claim to that kind of eminence rest their claims on the nobility of their ancestors. But even those men who have been their ancestors were only animals, subject to disease and to corruption, and their prosperity was, for the most part, very unstable. But the father of this man was no mortal at all, and the sole author of' his being was God.

And he, being in a manner his image and o likeness according to the dominant mind in the soul, though it W8S his duty to preserve that image free from all spot or blf mish, following and imitating as far as was in his power the virtues of him who had created him, since the two opposite qualities of good and evil (what is honourable and what is disgraceful, what is true and what is false) were set before him for his choice and avoidance, deliberately chose what was false, ♦ Genesis vii. 1. t Genesis ix. 22. and disgraceful, and evil, and despised what was good and honourable, and true ; for which conduct he was venfairly' condemned to change an immortal for a mortal existence, "being deprived of blessedness and happiness, and therefore he naturally was changed so as to descend into a laborious and miserable life.*

But, however, let these men be set down as common rules and limits for all men, in order to prevent tlieni from priding themselves on their noble birth, and so departing from and losing the rewards of excellence. But there are also other especial rules given to the Jews besides the connnon ones which are applicable to all mankind ; for they are derived from the original founders of the nation, to whom the virtues of their ancestors were absolutely of no benefit at all, inasnmch as tlii-y were detected in blameable and guilty actions, and were convicted, if not by any other human being, at all events by their own consciences, which is tlie sole tribunal in the world which is never led away by any artifices of speech. The first man of them had a numerous family, inasmuch a.s he had children by three wives, not forming these connections for the sake of pleasure, but because of his hope of multiplying his race.

But, of all his children, one alone was apiioinicd u> be the inheritor of his father's possessions ; and all the rest, being disappointed of their reasonable hopes, and having failed to obtain any portion wliatever of their father's wealth, departed to live in different countries, having been completely alienated from that celebrated nobility of birth.

Again, to the one who was approved of as (he heir, there were born two sons, twins, resembling one another in no particular except in the hands, and even in (hem only by some especial providence of God, inasnmch as (hey were idike neither in their bodies nor iu their minds, for (be younger one was obedient to both his parents, and was really amiable and pleasing, so that he obtained the praises even of <lo<l ; wlnle the elder was disobedient, being infemin'rate in respeei ..f (lie pleasures of the belly and of the parts bcneuth the belly, by a regard for'which he was induced even (o par( with bis biitli right, as far as he himself was concern.nl. tlioiigh bo rej^-nted immediately afterwards of the randitions on wliieh be hud forfeited it, and sought to slay bis brotber. nnd. in fact, lo do everything imaginable by wbicli he cmild be likely to pain hit • Geuesis iii. 1?. parents ; therefore they, in the first place, offered up prayers lor his brother to the supreme God, who accepted them, and who did not choose to leave any one of them unaccomplished ; while to the others they gave, out of compassion, a subordinate rank, appointing that he should serve his brother, thinking, as indeed is the truth, that the fact of not being his own master, is good for a wicked man.

And if the elder brother had cheerfully submitted to the servitude, he would have been thought worthy of a secondary reward, as having come off second in a contest of virtue ; but as the case stands, having behaved in a self-willed manner, and having refused to submit to servitude, he became the cause of great reproach, both to himself and to his descendants, so that his miserable life has been indelibly recorded for a most manifest proof that nobility of birth is of no service whatever to those who do not deserve to have it.

These men therefore are both of that class which is open to reproach ; men whom, as they showed themselves wicked men,though descended from virtuous fathers, the virtues of their fathers failed to profit in the least, while the vices which existed in their souls did them infinite mischief ; and I can also speak of others, who, on the conti'ary, ranged themselves in a better class, after having been born in a worse, since their forefathers were guilty, while their own life was to be admired and was full of praise and virtue. The most ancient person of the Jewish nation was a Chaldaean by birth, born of a father who was very skilful in astronomy, and famous among those men who pass their lives in the study of mathematics, who look upon the stars as gods, and worship the whole heaven and the whole world ; thinking, that from them do all good and all evil proceed, to every individual among men ; as they do not conceive that there is any cause whatever, except such as are included among the objects of the outward senses. Now what can be more horrible than this ?

What can more clearly show the innate ignobleness of the soul, which, by consequence of its knowledge of the generality of things, of secondary causes, and of things created, proceeds onwards to ignorance of the one most ancient uncreated Being, the Creator of the universe, and who is most excellent on this account, and for many other reasons also, which the human reason is unable to comprehend by reason of their magnitude ? But this man, baviug formed a proper conception of him in his muid, and being under the influence of inspiration left his country, and his family, and his father's house, well knowing that, if he remained among them, the deceitful fancies of the liolytheistic doctrine abiding there likewise, must render his mind incapable of arriving at the proper discovery of the one true God, who is the only everlasting God and the Father of all other things, whether appreciable only by the intelk-ct or perceptible by the outward senses ; while, on" the other hand. he saw, that if he rose up and quitted his native land, deceit would also depart from liis mind, changing his false opinions into true belief.

At the same time, also, the divine oracles of God which were imparted to him excited still further that desire whi.-h longed to attain to a knowledge of the living God, by which lie was guided, and thus went forth with most unhesitating earliestness to the investigation of the one God. And he never desisted from this investigation till he arrived at a more distinct perception, not indeed of his essence, for that is inipos -ible, but of his existence, and of his over-ruling providence a.^ far as it can be allowed to man to attain to such ; for which reason he is the fu'St person who is said to have believed in God,* since he was the first who had an unswerving and fimi comprehension of him, apprehending that there is one suprr'Mie cause, and that he it is which governs the world by Ins |)n)vidence, and all the things that are therein.

And having attained to a most firm comprehension of the virtues, lio acquired at the same time all the other virtues and excellencies also, so that he was looked upon as a king by those who received liim,t not indeed in respect of his appointinenls. for he was only a private individual, but in his nuignaniiuil/ and greatness of soul, inasmuch as he was of a royul spirit. For, indeed, his servants at all times stoadfu-stly ohsprvcd him, as subjects observe a ruler, looking with u.lniinuioii nt the universal greatness of his nature and disposition, which was more perfect than is customary to meet with in a iiinn ; for he did not use the same conversation as ordinar)- men, but. like one insiiired, spoke in general in more dignili.d language Whenever, therefore, he was possessed by the Holy Spirit ho at once changed everything for the better, hw eyes nnd hii • Genesis xv. 6. t Ocncu. ixiii. 0. complexion, and his size and his appearance while standing, and his motions, and his voice ; the Holy Spirit, which, beiag breathed into him from above, took up its lodging in his soul, clothing his body with extraordinary beauty, and investing his words with persuasiveness at the same time that it endowed his hearers with understanding.

Would not any one, then, be quite correct to say that this man who thus left his native land, who thus forsook all his relations and all his friends, was the most nobly related of all men, as aiming at making himself a kinsman of God, and labouring by every means in his power to become his disciple and friend ? And that he was deservedly ranked in the very highest class among the prophets, because he trusted in no created being in preference to the uncreated God, the Father of all ? And being honoured as king, as I have said before, by those who received him among them, not as having obtained his authority by warlike arms, or by armed hosts, as some persons have done, but having received his appointment from the all-righteous God, who honours tlie lovers of piety with independent authority, to the great advantage of all who are associated with them.

This man is the standard of nobleness to all who come to settle in a foreign land, leaving that ignobleness which attaches to them from foreign laws and unbecoming customs, which give honours, such as are due only to God, to stocks, and to stones, and, in short, to all kinds of inanimate things ; and who have thus come over to a constitution really full of vitality and life, the president and governor of which is truth.

This nobleness has been an object of desire not only to God-loving men, but likewise to women, who have discarded the ignorance in which they have been bred up, which taught them to honour, as deities, creatures made with hands, and have learnt instead that knowledge of there being only one supreme Ruler of the universe, by whom the whole world is governed and regulated ; for Tamar was a woman from Syria Palestina. who had been bred up in her own native city, which was devoted to the worship of many gods, being full of statues, and images, and, in short, of idols of every kind and description. But when she, emerging, as it were, out of pi-ofound darkness, was able to see a slight beam of truth, she then, at the risk of her life, exerted all her energies to arrive at piety, caring little for life if she could not live virtuously ; and living virtuously was exactly klentical with living for the service of and in constant supplication to the one true God.

And yet she, having married two wicked brothers in turn ')ne after the other, first of all the one who was tlie hiislnind of jier virginity, and lastly him who succeeded to her bv the law which enjoined such a marriage, in the case of the'first husband not having left any family, but nevertheless, having preserved her own life free from all stain, was able to attain to Miat fair reputation which falls to the lot of the good, and to 1)6 the beginning of nobleness to all those who came after her.

But even though she was a foreigner still she was nevcrtlipless a freeborn woman, and born also of freebom parents of no insignificant importance ; but her handmaidens were born of parents who lived on the other side of the Enphnites on the extremities of the country of Babylon, such as were given iu> part of their dowTy to maidens of high rank when they were married, but still were often thought worthy to be taken to the bed of a wise man ; and so they first of all were raised from ) the title of concubines to the name and dignity of wives, and ' in a short time, I may almost say, instead of being looked u]>on j| as handmaidens they were raised to an equality in p<iint of dig- ' nity and consideration with their mistresses, and, which is tinmost extraordinary circumstance of all, were even invited by their mistresses to this position and dignity.

For envy does not dwell in the souls of the wi.se, and whenever that is not present they all have all things in common. i) And the illegitimate sons borne by those handrnaidmH differed in no respect from the legitimate chilih-on of tlic niil wives, not only in the eyes of the father who begot tlirni, for it is not at all surprising if he who was the father of tlwin iill displayed an equal degree of good-will to thoiu all, >.in.-e tlioy were all equally his children; but they iJso wore eqiiiJly esteemed by their stepmothers, b'or they, laying aside all that dislike which women so couinioidy f.'el towards tJieir stepsons, changed it into an unceasing alTection with which they united themselves to them. -'\n<l the stepHons.

Hhowing a reciprocal good will to them, honoured their stopmotlirrs us if they had been their natural mothers. .\nd their br»thor». being separated from them only by the mi.xture m th.-ir l.l.xxl. nevertheless did not think them worthy of only n half degrw of affection, but even increased their feelings so tlinl ihry entertained a twofold degree of love for them. U-ing equally I beloved by them in return ; and thus more than filled up what might else have appeared likely to be deficient, showing an eagerness to exhibit the same harmony and union of disposition ■with them that they did with their brethren by both parents.

We must not, therefore, give in to those persons who seek to creep stealthily into the possession of a property belonging to others, namely, nobility of birth, as though it were of right their own, and who, with the exception of those whom I have mentioned, might justly be looked upon as enemies not only of the race of the Jews but of all the human race in every quarter. Of the one because they give a truce to those of the same nation, allowing them to despise sound and stable virtue, through trusting implicitly in the virtue of their ancestors ; and of the others because, even if they could attain to the highest and most absolute perfection of all excellence, they would still derive no advantage themselves, becaus i of their not having irreproachable fathers and grandfathers. Than which I do not know that there can possibly be a more mischievous doctrine, if there is no avenging punishment to follow those who being descended of virtuous parents have made themselves, and if on the contrary no honour is to be assigned to those who have become good though born of wicked parents, though the law judges each man by himself, and does not praise or blame any one with reference to the virtues or vices of his ancestors.

My former treatise, 0 Theodotus, was intended to prove that every wicked man was a slave, and that proposition I fully established by many natural and unquestionable arguments ; and this other treatise is akin to that one, being its full brother both by the father's and the mother's side, and being even, in some sort, a twin with it, since in it we will proceed to show that every virtuous man is free.

Now it is said, that the most aacred sect of the Pythagoreans, among many other excellent doctrines, taught tliis one also, that it was not well to proceed by the plain ordinary roiuls, uot meaning to urge us to walk among precipices (lor it was not their object to weary our feet with labour), but imiinuting, by a figurative mode of speech, that we ought not, either in respect of our words or actions, to use only such as are ordinary and unchanged ; and all men who have studied pliilosophy in a genuine spirit, showing themselves obedient to this injunction, have looked upon it as a sentence, or rather us a law of equal weight with a divine oracle ; and, departing from the common opinions of men, they have cut out for tlamselves a new and hitherto uutravelled path, inaccessible to such as have no experience of wise maxims and doctrines, building up systems of ideas, which no one who is not pure either may or can handle.

Now when I speak of men not being pure, I mean those who have either been utterly destitute of education, or else who have tasted of it obliquely, and not in a straight-forward manner, changing the stauqj of the beauty of wisdom so as to give an impression of the unsightlincss of sophistry. These men, uot being able to discern that light which is apitreciable only by the intellect, by reason of the weakness of the eyes of their soul, which are by nature easily dazzled by too much brightness, like men living in night and darkness, do not believe those who live hi the light of day, and regard everything which they speak of as having seen them most distinclJy through the beams of the sun shining i)0\verfully upon tlieni. as prodigious pictures, like so many visions ur tirnmis. in no respect different from the exhibitions of jugglers ; f^>r liow can it be anything but a complete marvel and absurdity t.. call those men exiles, who do not only live in il..' middle ol tJie city, but who even take a part in the councils, and ;•«"»■'««' justice, and public assemblies, un.l vvho. at tunes, f.dl.l iho duties of clerks of the market, and of .snp.nnlendanu of gymnastic games, and of other ollices of dilV.rent km.

Is ; and on the other hand, to call those men cil.z.ns wl... hu..- ni cr never been enrolled as such at all. or else have »ul seniu u« of infamy or of banishment pronounced ugan.s tl.cm me who have been driven beyond the bou.ularic, , tluland, a who are unable, not only to set foot u,H.n the ;r^>. ' even to behold their native soil Iron. '7'"'"'^;:' l/i^ . are urged on by some insiuie frenzy to ru..h upon uriaiu death; for there are innumerable persons to detect and to punish all those who return from banishment, being both sharpened by their own feelings, and acting in obedience to the commands of the laws.

Again, how can it be anything but a most unreasonable assertion, one full of complete shamelessness or insanity, (or I really know not what to call it, for the preposterousuess of such a saying is so great that it is not easy to find a proper name for it), to call those men rich who are in a state of complete indigence, and destitute of even necessaries, living hardly and miserably, scarcely procuring enough for their daily subsistence, exposed to famine, as their own peculiar lot among the general plenty and abundance of others, feeding only on the breath of virtue, as they say that grasshoppers feed on air ; and then, on the other hand, to call those men poor who are surrounded on all sides by silver and gold, and abundance of possessions and revenues, and an inexhaustible supply of endless good things of eveiy sort, the wealth of which has not only advantaged all their I'elations and friends, but has even proceeded beyond the family, and been of benefit to great crowds of persons of he same borough, or of the same tribe as the owners ; aye, and going further still, it even supplies the city itself with everything which is needful in either peace or war.

Moreover, those who speak thus have, in obedience to the same dream, ventured to speak of slavery as the real condition of men of the greatest importance and genuine nobility of birth, men who can refer not only to their immediate parents, but to their grandfathers and remote ancestors up to the very first founders of their race, as having been in the highest esteem both among men and women ; while, on the other hand, they speak of men, whose last three generations have been branded as slaves, born of slaves, who have never been anything but slaves, as free. But all these things are, as I have said before, the inventions of men whose intellects are obscured, and who are slaves to opinions utterly under the influence of the outward senses, whose judgment is continually corrupted by those who are brought before its tribunal, and as such is unstable. But they ought, if they had really been at all anxious for the truth, not to show themselves, in respect of their minds, inferior to those wl:o have been diseased in their bodies ; for such invalid^?. outof tbeir desire for good health, commit themselves to the I physicians.

But these other men hesitate to get rid of that ' disease of the soul, ignorance, hy becoming the associates of 1 wise men ; from whom they might not only learn U) escapo ignorance, but they might also acquire that peculiar possession of man, namely, Imowledge. And since, as that sweetest of all writers, Plato, says, envy is removed far from the divine company, but wisdom, that most divine and communicative of all things, never closes its school, but is continually open to receive all who thirst for salutarsdoctrines, to whom she pours forth tlie inexhaustible stream of unalloyed instruction and wisdom, and pei-suadcs tiicm to yield to the intoxication of the soberest of all drunkenness. And her disciples, like persons who have been initiated into the sacred and holy mysteries, when they are at last entirely fdled with the knowledge proffered to them, repmarh llicniselvcH bitterly for their previous neglect, as not having taken proper care of their time, but having lived a life which was jmrilly deserving to be called life, in wliich they have been ultirly destitute of wisdom.

Those men, therefore, act worthily who, in ever>- case and everywhere, have resolved to dedicate the whole of their youib as the first fruits of their earliest vigour to nothing in preference to education, in which it is well for a ninn to speiid Unh his youth and his age ; for as they say tliat \cssels even wii<n empty do nevertheless retain the odour of whatever was oufimally poured into them,* so also are the souls of tinyoimj? deeply impressed with the indelible diameter d those conrei>. tions which were the first to be offered to their nund.s. « uc . cannot be at all washed away by the torrent ..f anv ideas wJu.l. flow over the mind afterwiu-ds. but they to the lu.st ^lu.w ih.- character originally given to them. Ill However, we have said enough of thex nmti.n. \W must now examine with accuracy that wh..-h we liuvo taken m the subject of our investigation, that wo may not bo led wir»T through being deceived by the '"'>"^»"""'7,"^ .'7;' . '"*. expressions ; but that, understanding accurately »- 't '^"j which we are speaking. wx« may frame our dctorniuml.u,- felicitously. "You ni.ay b'reak, you may «lmttor O.o rM« ' X'"; T^ But the scent of the rose.-, will hAng round It .till.

Slavery, then, is of two kinds; slavery of the soul and slavery of the body. Now, of our bodies, men are masters ; but over our souls, wickedness and the passions have the dominion. And we may speak of freedom in the same manner. For one kind of freedom gives fearlessness of body in respect of any dangers which can come upon it from men of still more powerful body ; while the other produces peace to the mind, by putting a check upon the authority of the passions. Now, about the former kind, scarcely any one ever raises any question ; for the chances of fortune which happen to men are infinite in number, and it often happens that men of the highest virtue have fallen into unexpected misfortunes, and so have lost the freedom which belonged to them through their birth. But there is room for inquiry about those manners which neither desires, nor fears, nor pleasures, nor pains, have ever brought under the yoke, as if they had come forth out of confinement, and as if the chains by which they had been bound were now loosened.

Therefore, discarding all mention of those kinds of freedom which are only a pretence, and of all those names also which are quite unconnected with nature, but which owe their existence only to opinion, such as slaves born in the house, slaves purchased with money, slaves taken in war, let us now investigate the character of the man who is truly free, who is alone possessed of independence, even if ten thousand men set themselves down as his masters ; for he will quote that line of Sophocles, which differs in no respect from the doctrines of the Pythagoreans — " God is my ruler, and no mortal man." * For, in real truth, that man alone is free who has God for his leader ; indeed, in my opinion, that man is even the ruler of all others, ajid has all the afi'airs of the earth committed to him, being, as it were, the viceroy of a great king, the mortal lieutenant of an immortal sovereign. However, this assertion of the actual authority of the wise man may be postponed to a more suitable opportunity. We must at present examine minutely the question of his perfect freedom.

If now any one advancing deeply into the matter should choose to investigate it closely, he will see the Incerta Fragmenta, No 89, by Brunck. rlearly that there is no one thing so nearly related to another as independence of action. On which account there are a -reat many thmgs which stand in the way of the lil.ertv of a wicked man; covetousness of money, the desire of glorv the lOve of pleasure, and so on. But the virtuous man has"al.solately no obstacle at all since he rises up against, and resists, .Old overthrows, and tramples on love, and fear, and cowardice! ind pain, and all things of that kind, as if they were rivals lefeated by him in the public games.

For he has learnt to • lisregard all the commands which those most unlawful masters •>f the soul seek to impose upon him, out of his admiration and desire for freedom, of which independence and spontaneousness of action are the most especial and inalienable inheritnice ; and by some persons the poet is praised who composed ibis iambic — " No man's a slave who does not fear to die,"* IS having had an accurate idea of the consequences of such courage ; for he conceived that nothing is so calculatoil to enslave the mind as a fear of death, arising from an excessive desire of living.

But we must consider that not only is the niiin who feels no anxiety to avoid death incapable of being made ii slave, but the same privilege belongs to those who are indifferent to poverty, and want of reputation, and piin, nn.I nil those other things which the generality of men look ujx'ti a.s evils, being themselves but evil judges of thing<^, since they pronounce a man a slave from a compntntion of what ihinj^t he has need of, looking at the duties which ho is coni|vllcd lo perform, when they ought to look rather at his free and indomitable disposition; for the man who nut of a lowly and slavish spirit submits himself to lowly and slavish nctu>m in spite of his deliberate judgment, is reidly atni tndy a kImvo; but he who adapts his circumstances and actions to tho present occasion, and who voluntarily and in nn cn.lunnR spirit bears up against the events of fortune, not ookniK at any thing of human affairs as extraordnmrv-. but h.isin^' l.y diligent consideration fully nssur.'d hnnself ih.'.t nil . iv.nr things are honoured by eternal order and lii.it""-< : "'"I «»>««[ all mortal things are tossed about in an everla.slJnK stonn an.l • This line is from an unknown tragedy by Kuripidc..

Prm:n«>«> Licertit, 348. fluctuation of affairs so as to be subject to the greatest variety of changes and vicissitudes, and who, from those considerations, bears all that can befall him with a noble courage, is at once both a philosopher and a free man. On which account he will neither obey every one who imposes a command upon him, not even if he threatens him with insults, and tortures, and even still more formidable evils ; but he will bear a gallant spirit, and will cry out in reply to such menaces — " Yes, burn and scorch my flesh, and glut your hate, Drinking my life-warm blood ; for heaven's stars , Shall quit their place, and darken 'neath the earth, And earth rise up and take the place of heaven. Before you wring from me a word of flattery." *

I have before now seen among the competitors in the pancratium, at the public games, one man inflicting all kinds of blows both with his hands and feet, all of them with great accuracy of aim and omitting nothing which could conduce to victory, and yet after a time fainting and desponding, and at last quitting the arena without the crown of victory ; and the other who has received all his blows, being thoroughly hardened with great firmness of flesh, and being tough and unyielding, and filled with the true spirit of an athlete, and invigorated throughout his whole body, being like so much iron or stone, not at all yielding to the blows inflicted by the other, at last, by the endurance and' resolution of his spirit, defeating the power of his adversary so as to obtain a complete victory. And the condition of the virtuous man appears to me very much to resemble that of tliis person. For having thoroughly fortified his soul with strong and powerful reasoning, he so compels the man who is offering him violence to desist from weariness, before he himself can be compelled to do any thing contrary to his opinion of propriety.

But perhaps this is incredible to those who do not know by experience that virtue is of the character that I have mentioned, just as that other case would be to those who have never seen the combatants in the pancratium ; but nevertheless it is strictly true. And it was from a regard to this fact that Antisthenes said that " the virtuous man was a burden hard to be borne." For as folly is a light thing easily tossed about in every direction, so, on the contrary, wisdom is a well established and immovable thing of a weight which is not easily agitated. • This is a fragment of Euripides from the Syleus. Fr. 2. Vccordingly the lawgiver of the Jews* represents the hands of the wise man fiS heavy, intimating by this figurative expri'ssimi the gravity of his actions, which are supporteil in no superficial but in a soUA manner by his inflexible mind. Therefore, he is not under the compulsion of any thing, as being one who despises pains, and who looks with contempt on death, an J who, by the law of nature, has all foolish men for his subjects.

For in the same manner as goatherds, and cowherds, and shepherds lead their respective flocks of goats, and cattle, and sheep, but shepherds cannot manage a drove of oxen, so in the same manner the generality of men, being like so many cattle. stand in need of a guide and governor. And their proper governors are virtuous men, being placed in the position of shepherds to the multitude ; for Homer is constantly in the habit of calling kings shepherds of their people.! Hut nature has appropriated this appellation as more peculiarly belonging to the good, since the wicked are rather tended by others than occupied in serving them ; for they are led captive by strong wine, and by beauty, and by delicate eating, and sweetm.-aLM and by the arts of "^cooks and confectioners, to say nothing of the thirst of gold, and silver, and other things of a h.-b-r character. But men of the other class are not allured or ltd astray by any thing, but are rather inclined to admonish tho«J whom they perceive to be caught in the toils of i)leMsuro.

VI And of the assertion that the being compelled to perform services to others is not of itself an indication of slaven-. there is a most clear proof in what occurs in wir : for one ran r behold men engaged in military expeditions, .dl acting l-y H.-.r own means, and not only carrying complete ;y-"';''';;>"' " ';; also loaded like beasts of burden with ever.- hing rcq^'<> ^; their necessary wants, and going out to f.teh «';'•;•"';; and fodder for' the cattle.

And why need 1 d wel la h- ^h - what is done against the enemy in such '^'^P-''; " ;'" 7. ,j' of their labours in cutting ditehes, or erec .ng "^ • '^ » ^ ^ ing ships, and f^^^^^zJ;^^^ t:::^^^jeverything which relates to e\t.iy -Cr. there . in P^o. ^-^.Wr Kin,| ..f ..^. necessary things excites, by which men are compelled and constrained to put their hands to the most ignominious and slavish tasks, digging and cultivating the ground and labouring at the employments of handicrafts-men, and serving without hesitation for the sake of procuring food to support life ; very often even bearing burdens through the middle of tlie market-place, in the sight of those who are of their own age, and have grown up with them, and been their school-fellows and companions through life. There are others also who are slaves by birth, and who have nevertheless been raised by the bounty of fortune to the condition of freemen ; for they have become stewards of houses, and properties, and large possessions, and sometimes they are even appointed rulers of their fellow slaves. .

And many such have had committed to them the guardianship of the wives and orphan children of their masters, being preferred to the confidential offices which belong properly to friends and relations, but, nevertheless they are slaves, though employed in borrowing, in buying, in collecting revenues, and though they are themselves attended by other servants. What is there wonderful then if, on the contrary also, some persons, originally nobly born, by a sudden failure of good fortune, are subjected to such necessities as properly belong to slaves, and by being compelled to obey others are deprived of their own freedom ? Moreover, in some degree, children are forced to submit to the commands of their father or their mother ; and pupils, also, submit to whatever their teachers enjoin; for no one is willingly a slave. Now, parents will never display such an extravagant and unnatural dislike to their children as to compel their own offspring to submit to such menial offices as are only a symbol of slavery.

And if any one beholding some persons who may have been bought and sold by traffickers in men, looks upon them at once as slaves, he is widely removed from the truth ; for an act of selling does not make him who purchases the master, nor him who is sold the slave, since fathers at times have paid a price for their sons, and sons have often laid down a ransom for their fathers, in cases where they have been carried away as prisoners by some piratical sally, or have been taken captive in regular warfare, though still the laws of nature, which are more stable than those of men, describe them as free. And, before now, some persons in the excess of their confidence have brought matters into so completely altered a condition that they have actually become masters instead of slaves, in spite of having been bought.

At all events, I have often seen some young persons of great beauty, and of great wit in conversation, getting the complete mastery over those who had purchased them, by two great incentives, the exquisiteness of their beauty and the elegance of their language ; for these are engines able to overthrow any soul which wants stability and a solid foundation, being the most powerful of all the contrivances which were ever invented for the overthrow of cities. And a proof of this may easily be given ; for we may see that those who have become the masters of such persons serve them, and address entreaties to them, and eagerly entreat their favour as they would that of fortune or of the good genius ; and if they are neglected by them they are vexed, and if they only obtain a gentle or favourable look from them they dance for joy.

Unless, indeed, any one would say that a man who has bought a lion has become the master of the lion, when if he merely look with a threatening glance at him he will soon learn to his cost what kind of a master, what a savage and ferocious tyrant he has purchased. What shall we say then ? Shall we not look upon a wise man as more difl&cult to enslave than a lion, when he in his freedom and invincible soul has much more courage than any creature can have which consists of a body which is by nature a slave, however great his strength may be by which he resists his masters.

And every one may learn to appreciate the true freedom of which the virtuous man is in the enjoyment from other circumstances. "No slave can e'er true happiness enjoy."* For what can be more miserable than to have no power over anything, not even over one's self? But then a man is happy, inasmuch as he bears within himself the foundation and complement of virtue and excellence, in which consists the supreme power over all things,t so that beyond aU controversy and of necessity the virtuous man is free.

Besides all this, would not any one affirm that the friends of God are free ? unless indeed o»e can think it consistent to is not known whei-e it comes from if it is one. f There is a considerable hiatus in the text here. attribute to the companions of kings, not only freedom bat even at times a great degree of authority, when they commit magistracies to them, and -when they, in consequence, fulfil the offices of subordinate rulers ; and yet, at the same time, to speak of slavery in connection with the gods of heaven, when those men, on account of the love which they have shown to God, have also at once become beloved by God, being requited by him with good will equal to their own, truth being the judge, so that they, as the poets say, are universal princes and kings of kings.

But the lawgiver of the Jews ventures upon a more bold assertion even than this, inasmuch as he was, as it is reported, a student and practiser of plain philosophy ; and so he teaches that the man who is wholly possessed with the love of God and who serves the living God alone, is no longer man, but actually God, being indeed the God of men, but not of the parts of nature, in order to leave to the Father of the universe the attributes of being both and God. Is it right, then, to think a man who is invested with such privileges as these a slave, or rather as the only one who is free ? Who, even though he may not be thought worthy by himself of being classed as God, one nevertheless ought by all means to pronounce happy, by reason of his having God for his friend ; for God is not a weak champion, nor regardless of the rights and claims of friendship, inasmuch as he is the God of companionship, and as he presides over everything that belongs to companions.

Moreover, as among cities, some being governed by an oligarchy or by tyrants, endure slavery, having those who have subdued them and made themselves masters of them for severe and cruel tyrants ; while others, existing under the superintending care of the laws and under those good protectors, are free and happy. So also in the case of men ; those who are under the dominion of anger, or appetite, or any other passion, or of treacherous wickedness, are in every respect slaves ; and those who live in accordance with law are free. But the unerring law is right reason; not an ordinance made by this or that mortal, a corruptible and perishable law. a lifeless law written on lifeless parchment or engraved on lifeless columns ; but one imperishable, and stamped by immortal nature on the immortal mind.

On which account any one may reasonably marvel at the dim-sightedness of those who do not see the particular characters of things which are so clear, and who say that for those mighty nations of the Athenians and Lacedsemonians, the laws of Solon and Lycurgus are quite sufficient to ensure the liberty of the people if they only have the mastery and dominion, and if the people who live in those cities do dutifully obey them, and who yet affirm that right reason, which is the fountain from which all other laws do spring, is not sufficient for wise men to enable them to arrive at a participation in freedom, even though they obey it in all the particulars as to what it commands and what it prohibits. Moreover, in addition to what has been already said, there is one most undeniable proof of freedom, equality of speech, which all virtuous men use to one another ; on which account they say that the following iambics are inspired with the true spirit of genuine philosopliy : — " For slaves no freedom have, not e'en in speech.'' And again : — " You're but a slave, and may not dare to speak."

As, therefore, musical science gives to all those who have studied music an equal right to speak on matters connected ■with their art ; and as a man who is learned in grammar or in geometr}' has a right to speak among grammarians and mathematicians, so also the law in life allows the same privilege to those who are learned in the way in which men ought to live. But all virtuous men are skilful in all the affairs which belong to life, inasmuch as they also are so with respect to the things which belong to universal nature ; and some of them are free ; and so therefore are they who have the freedom of speaking to them on equal terms; therefore no virtuous man is a slave, but all are free.

And from the same principle as a starting-point it will also be clearly shown that the foolish man is a slave ; for as the laws which prevail with respect to music do not give those who are ignorant of it a right of speaking about it in terms of equality with those who are well versed in it ; nor do the laws respecting grammar give those ignorant of that knowledge a right of speaking about it on terms of equality with those who are well skilled in it ; nor, in short, does the law with respect to any art confer such a right on those who are ignorant of it towards those who are learned in it ; so also the law ■which relates to the establishing proper principles of life does not give those who are strangers to any such true principles a right of speaking freely on such topics to those who have studied and learnt them.

But to all free men, perfect equality of speech on all subjects is given by the law ; and some virtuous men are free; and of , the proper principles of life, the foolish are utterly ignorant, but the wise are most profoundly versed in them : therefore it is not the case that ever any foolish or wicked men are free, but they are all slaves. And Zeno, as much as any one else, being under the influence of virtue, ventures boldly to assert that the wicked have not a right to any equality of speech towards the virtuous ; fo?" he says, " Shall not the wicked man suffer if he contradicts the virtuous man ?" Therefore the wicked man has not a right to freedom of speech as respects the virtuous man. I know that many persons wili rail at this assertion as one which is dictated rather by self-conceit than by real wisdom. But if, after they have desisted from mocking and ridiculing it, they will condescend to investigate the matter and to examine clearly into what is really said, then, recognising and admiring its perfect truth, they will become aware that there is nothing for whicli a man will suffer more than for disregarding the words of a wise man.

For loss of money, and the bi'and of dishonour, and banishment, and insults by means of beating, and all other things of that sort, injure a man but little, or rather not at all, wlien compared with acts of wickedness and the things which are the results of acts of wickedness. But it happens that the generality of men, not being able to perceive the injuries of the soul by reason of the mutilated state of their reason, are grieved only at external calamities, being wholly deprived of the faculty of judging correctly, which is the only one by which they can comprehend the injury received by the intellect. But if they were able to look up and see clearly, then, beholding the deceits which arise out of folly, and the perplexities which proceed from covetousness, and all the intoxicated folly to which intemperance gives rise, and all the transgressions of the law in which injustice indulges, they would be filled with interminable grief at the injuries sustained by the best portion of themselves, and would be incapable of receiving comfort by reason of the excessive greatness of the evil.

But Zeno appears to have drawn this maxim of his as it v.ere from tbe fountain of the legislation of the Jews,* in the history of which it is recorded that in a case where there were two brothers, the one temperate and the other intemperate, the common father of them both, taking pity on the intemperate one who did not walk in the path of virtue, prays that he may serve his brother, conceiving that service which appears in general to be the greatest of evils is the most perfect good to a foolish man, in order that thus he may be deprived of liis independence of action, so as to be prevented from misconducting himself with impunity, and that he may be improved in his disposition by the superintending management of him who is appointed to be his master.

What has now then been said with the view of establish ing the truth in the matter inquired into is, in my opinion, sufficient. But since physicians are accustomed to cure various diseases with still more various remedies, it is necessary that we should bring a series of proofs, keeping close to the subject, in order to establish those propositions which appear paradoxical by reason of their unusual character. For some people, even if they are convicted by ever so close a series of proofs, can hardly be brought to see their error. Therefore, it is not an incorrect assertion that the man who does everything wisely does everything well ; and he who does everj'thing well does everything correctly; and he who does everything correctly does everything also in an unerring, and blameless, and irreproachable, and faultless, and beneficial manner : so that he will have free permission to do everything, and to live as he pleases. And he who has this liberty must be free. But the virtuous man does do everything wisely ; therefore he alone is free. And indeed the man whom it is not possible either to compel to do anything, or to prevent from doing anything, cannot possibly be a slave ; and one cannot compel or prevent the virtuous man.

Therefore the virtuous man cannot be a slave ; and that he is never under compulsion or under any restraint is quite plain ; for that man is under restraint who does not obtain what he desires. But the wise man only desires such things as proceed from virtue, in which it is impossible for him to be disappointed. And again, if he is under compulsion, then it is plain that he does something against his will ; but in all cases where there are actions, they are either good ones proceeding from virtue, or evil ones procaeding from ■wickedness, or else they are of an intermediate and indifferent character.

Now the actions which proceed from virtue, the creature man performs, not through compulsion but voluntarily, for everything which he does is the result of his deliberate choice ; and the actions which proceed from wickedness, inasmuch as they ought to be avoided, he does not do even in dreams ; nor again, is it likely that he would perform those actions which are of an indifferent chai'acter, between which the mind, as if in a scale, is equally balanced, not being induced to yield to them, as having any attractive power, nor, on the other hand, to regard them with any particular aversion as worthy of hatred ; from all which it is plain, that the virtuous man does nothing against his will, and nothing under compulsion ; and if he were a slave he would be acting under compulsion : so that the virtuous man must be free.

But since some persons, who have paid but very little attention to literary pursuits, not understanding demonstrative arguments, which establish only general principles of action, are accustomed to ask us, " Who then are the men, whether previously existing or now alive, whom you thus represent to us?" it is well to make answer, that in former times there were some persons who surpassed all their contemporaries in virtue, taking God alone for their guide, and living in strict accordance with the law, that is to say, with the right reason of nature, and who were not only free themselves, but who also filled all who came near to them with a spirit of freedom. And now also, in our own time, there are some who are, as it were, images of them, bearing on themselves the stamp of the virtue of those wise men as their archetypal model ; for it does not follow, that although the souls of such as contradict those virtuous men are deprived of all liberty for having been completely led away and enslaved by folly and other vices, that on this account the whole human race is so too. But it is no wonder if we do not see numerous companies of those men advancing as it were in a sohd body.

In the first place, because whatever is exceedingly beautiful is rare ; secondly, because men who are removed from the main crowd of inconsiderately judging persons, have abundant leisure for the contemplation of the things of nature, endeavouring, as far as it may be in their power, to correct life in general (for %ar~ tue is a thing of great benefit to the whole community) ; but when they are unable to succeed in their object, by reason of the numbers of absurdities which are continually impeding them in the different cities, which the different passions and voices of the soul have given strength to, they then retire into solitude, in order not to be carried away by the violence and rush of these absurdities, as by a wintry torrent. But if there were any real anxiety for improvement in us, we ought carefully to trace out the hiding-places of these men, and to sit down before them as suppliants, and to entreat them to come forward to impart a tincture of civilization to life which was previously savage, by announcing, instead of inward slavery and innumerable evils, peace and an abundance of all other good things to flow over it continually.

But as things are, we do investigate all retreats only for the sake of money, and with this object we open the hard and rugged veins of the earth ; and a great deal of the champaign country is opened in mines, and no small part of the mouatainous district also, while we are seeldng for gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and all kinds of materials. But vain opinion, setting up pride as a god, has descended down to the very lowest depths of the sea in its researches to see whether there is any beautiful thing which might become an object of the outward senses lying covered anywhere ; anu finding many Bpecies of precious stones, some adhering closely to the rocks, and others lying concealed in oyster-shells, which are more valuable still, has thus shown a great desire to deceive the sight ; and for the sake of the requirements of wisdom, or temperance, or courage, or justice, even that portion of the earth which is naturally inaccessible is travelled over, and seas which are dangerous to navigate are sailed over at any season of the year by sailors.

And yet, what need is there, either of long journeys over the land, or of long voyages, for the sake of investigating and seeking out virtue, the roots of which the Creator has laid not at any great distance, but so near, as the wise lawgiver of the Jews says,* " They are in thy mouth, and in thy heart, and in thy hands ; " intimating by these figurative expressions the words, and actions, and designs of men ; all of which stand in need of careful cultivation.

These men, therefore, who prefer idleness to industry, have not only hindered the shoots of virtue from thriving, but have even dried up all the roots, and withered and destroyed them ; while those on the contrary, \vho look upon idleness as per52-2 PHILO JUDJEUS. nieious and who are willing to labuor, cultivate it as husbandmen would cultivate flourishing shoots of good kinds of plants, with incessant care, and thus they raise the virtues to the height of heaven itself in ever-flourishing and undying branches, bearing a fruit of happiness which never ceases, or rather, as some say, not bearing happiness, but rather actually being happiness, which Moses was in the habit of calling by one compound name, oXoxa^Tw/xara (whole offerings of entire fruit). For in respect of those things which grow out of the ground, the fruit is not trees, nor are the trees fruit. But with respect to those which grew in the soul, these their whole branches do entirely change into the nature of the fruit ; for instance, into wisdom, and justice, and courage, and temperance.

Since, then, we have such great assistance towards anivincf at virtue, must we not blush to assert that there is any necessary deficiency of wisdom in the human race, when we might, by following it up, like a spark smouldering among wood, kindle it into a flame ? But the fact is, that we do display great hesitation and incessant slackness in the pursuit of those objects towards which we ought to hasten eagerly as most closely connected with and nearly akin to us, and by this hesi tation and indolence the seeds of virtue are destroyed ; while,v on the contrary, those things which we ought to neglect we show an insatiable desire ancl longing for. It is owing to this that the whole earth and sea are full of men who are rich and of high reputation, and who indulge in all kinds of pleasure ; but that the number of those who axe prudent, and just, and virtuous, is veiy small ; but that of which the numbers are small, though it may be rare, is nevertheless not non-existent.

And all Greece and all the land of the barbarians is a witness of this ; for in the one country flourished those who are truly called " the seven wise men," though others had flourished before them, and have also in all probability hved since their time. But their memory, though they are now very ancient, has nevertheless not been effaced by the lapse of ages, while of others who are more modern, the names have been lost through the neglect of their contemporaries. And in the land of the barbarians, in which the same men are authorities both as to words and actions, there are very numerous companies of virtuous and honourable men celebrated. Among the Persians there is the body of the Mugi, who, investigating the works of nature for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the truth, do at their leisure become initiated themselves and initiate others in the divine virtues by very clear explanations. And among the Indians there is the class of the gymnosophists, who, in addition to natural philosophy, take great j^ains in the study of moral science likewise, and thus make their whole existence a sort of lesson in virtue.

Moreover Palestine and Syria too are not barren of exemplary wisdom and virtue, which countries no slight portion of that most populous nation of the Jews inhabits. There is a portion of those people called Essenes, in number something more than four thousand in my opinion, who derive their name from their piety, though not according to any accurate form of the Grecian dialect, because they are above all men devoted to the service of God, not sacrificing living animals, but studying rather to preserve their own minds in a state of holiness and purity. These men, in the first place, live in villages, avoiding all cities on account of the habitual lawlessness of those who inhabit them, well knowing that such a moral disease is contracted from associations with wicked men, just as a real disease miglit be from an impure atmosphere, and that this would stamp an incm'able evil on their souls.

Of these men, some cultivating the earth, and others devoting themselves to those' arts which are the result of peace, benefit both themselves and all those who come in contact with them, not storing up treasures of silver and of gold, nor acquiring vast sections of the earth out of a desire for ample revenues, but providing all things which are requisite for the natural purposes of life ; for they alone of almost all men having been originally poor and destitute, and that too rather from their own habits and ways of life than from any real deficiency of good fortune, are nevertheless accounted very rich, judging contentment and frugality to be great abundance, as in truth they are.

Among those men you will find no makers of arrows, or javelins, or swords, or helmets, or breastplates, or shields ; no makers of arms or of military engines ; no one, in short, attending to any employment whatever connected with war, or even to any of those occupations even in peace which are easily pei-verted to wicked purposes ; for they are utterly ignorant of all traffic, and of all commercial dealings, and of all navigation, but they repudiate and keep aloof from everything which can possibly afford any inducement to covetousness ; and there ia not a single slave among them, but they are all free, aiding one another with a reciprocal interchange of good offices ; and they condemn masters, not only as unjust, inasmuch as they corrupt the very principle of equality, but likewise as impious, because they destroy the ordinances of nature, which generated them all equally, and brought them up like a mother, as if they were all legitimate brethren, not in name only, but in reality and truth.

But in their view this natural relationship of all men to one another has been thrown into disorder by designing covetousness, continually wishing to surpass others in good fortune, and which has therefore engendered alienation instead of affection, and hatred instead of friendship ; and lea\'ing the logical part of philosophy, as in no respect necessary for the acquisition of virtue, to the word-catchers, and the natural part, as being too sublime for human nature to master, to those who love to converse about high objects (except indeed so far as such a study takes in the contemplation of the existence of God and of the creation of the universe), they devote all their attention to the moral part of philosophy, using as instructors the laws of their countiy which it would have been impossible for the human mind to devise without divine inspiration. Now these laws they are taught at other times, indeed, but most especially on the seventh day, for the seventh day is accounted sacred, on which they abstain from all other employments, and frequent the sacred places which are called synagogues, and there they sit according to their age in classes, the younger sitting under the elder, and listening with eager attention in becoming order.

Then one, indeed, takes up the holy volume and reads it, and another of the men of the greatest experience comes forward and explains what is not very intelligible, for a great many precepts are delivered in enigmatical modes of expression, and allegorically, as the old fashion was ; and thus the people are taught piety, and holiness, and justice, and economy, and the science of regulating the state, and the knowledge of such things as are naturally good, or bad, or indifferent, and to choose what is right and to avoid what is wrong, using a threefold variety of definitions, and rules, and criteria, namely, the love of God, and the love of virtue, and the love of mankind. Accordingly, the sacred volumes present an infinite number of instances of the disposition devoted to the love of God, and of a continued and uninterrupted purity throughout the whole of life, of a careful avoidance of oaths and of falsehood, and of a strict adherence to the principle of looking on the Deity as the cause of everything which is good and of nothing which is evil.

They also furnish us with many proofs of a love of virtue, such as abstinence from all covetousness of money, from ambition, from indulgence in pleasures, temperance, endurance, and also moderation, simplicity, good temper, the absence of pride, obedience to the laws, steadiness, and everything of that kind ; and, lastly, they bring forward as proofs of the love of mankind, goodwill, equality beyond all power of description, and fellowship, about which it is not unreasonable to say a few words.

In the first place, then, there is no one who has a house so absolutely his own private property, that it does not in some sense also belong to every one : for besides that they all dwell together in companies, the house is open to all those of the same notions, who come to them from other quarters ; then there is one magazine among them all ; their expenses are all in common ; their garments belong to them all in common ; tlieir food is common, since they all eat in messes ; for there is no other people among which you can find a common use of the same house, a common adoption of one mode of living, and a common use of the same table more thoroughly established in fact than among this tribe : and is not this very natural ?

For whatever they, after having been working during the day, receive for their wages, that they do not retain as their own,, but bring it into the common stock, and give any advantage that is to be derived from it to all who desire to avail themselves of it ; and those who are sick are not neglected because they are unable to contribute to the common stock, inasmuch as the tribe have in their public stock a means of supplying their necessities and aiding their weakness, so that from their ample means they support them liberally and a,bundantly ; and they cherish respect for their elders, and honour them and care for them, just as parents are honoured and cared for by their lawful children : being supported by them in all abundance both by their personal exertions, and by innumerable contrivances. ^

Such diligeifbpractisers of virtue does philosophy, unconnected with any superfluous care of examining into Greek names render men, proposing to them as necessary exercises to train them towards its attainment, all praiseworthy actions by which a freedom, which can never be enslaved, is firmly established.

And a proof of this is that, though at different times a great number of chiefs of every variety of disposition and character, have occupied their country, some of whom have endeavoured to surpass even ferocious wild beasts in cruelty, leaving no sort of inhumanity unpractised, and have never ceased to murder their subjects in whole troops, and have even torn them to pieces while living, like cooks cutting them limb from limb, till they themselves, being overtaken by the vengeance of divine justice, have at last experienced the same miseries in their turn : others again having converted their barbarous frenzy into another kind of wickedness, practising an ineffable degree of savageness, talking with the people quietly, but through the hypocrisy of a more gentle voice, betraying the ferocity of their real disposition, fawning upon their victims like treacherous dogs, and becoming the causes of irremediable miseries to them, have left in all their cities monuments of their impiety, and hatred of all mankind, in the never to be forgotten miseries endured by those whom they oppressed : and yet no one, not even of those immoderately cruel tyrants, nor of the more treacherous and hypocritical oppressors was ever able to bring any real accusation against the multitude of those called Essenes or Holy.* But everyone being subdued by the virtue of these men, looked up to them as free by nature, and not subject to the frown of any human being, and have celebrated their manner of messing together, and their fellowship with one another beyond all description in respect of its mutual good faith, wliich is an ample proof of a perfect and very happy life.

But it is necessary for us (since some persons do not believe that there is any perfect virtue in the multitude, but that whatever in such persons appears like virtue only reaches a certain point of increase and growth), to bring forward as corroborative testimonies the lives of some particular good men who are the most undeniable evidences of freedom.

Calanus was an Indian by birth, one of the gymnosophists ; he, being looked upon as the man wh-^ was possessed of the greatest fortitude of all his contemporaries, and that too, not the word '6<tiwv, " holy." only by his own countrymen, but also by foreigners, -which is the rarest of all things, was greatly admired by some kings of hostile countries, because he had combined virtuous actions with praiseworthy language ; accordingly, Alexander, the king of the Macedonians, wishing to exhibit to Greece the wisdom that was to be found in the territories of the barbarians, as being a sort of faithful copy and representation of an archetypal model, in the first instance invited Calanus to quit his home, and come and take up his abode with him, by which means he said he would acquire the greatest imaginable glory throughout all Asia and all Europe ; and when he could not persuade him by fair means, he said to him, " You shall be compelled to follow me." And he replied with great felicity of expression and in a noble spirit ; " What then shall I be worth, 0 Alexander, when you exhibit me to the Greeks, after I have been compelled to do what I do not like ? "

Now is not this speech, or rather is not tliis idea, fuU of real freedom ? And moreover in his writings also, which are more durable than his expressions, he has erected, as if on a pillar, indelible signs of his indomitably free disposition ; and this is proved by the letter which he sent to the king.

"Your friends are endeavouring to persuade you to apply force and compulsion to the philosophers of the Indians, though not even in their sleep have they beheld our actions ; for you wiU be able indeed to transport our bodies from place to place, but you will not be able to compel our souls to do what they do not like, any more than you would be able to make bricks or timber utter words ; we can cause the greatest troubles and the greatest destruction to living bodies ; now we are superior to this power ; we are burnt even while living , there is no king nor ruler who will ever succeed in compelling us to do what we do not choose to do ; and we are in no respect like unto the philosophers of the Greeks, who study speeches to dehver to a public assembly ; but our actions do always correspond to our words, and our speeches which are short have a power different from that of our actions, and secure for us freedom and happiness."

At such positive refusals then, and at such brave sentiments, is it not natural for any one to quote that saying of Zeno that, " It would be easier to sink a bladder which was full of wind. than to compel any virtuous man whatever, against his will, to commit any action which he had never intended." For the soul of such a man will never submit, and can never be defeated, since it has been fortified by right reason with solid doctrines.

Moreover, both poets and historians are witnesses to the real freedom of vutuous men, in whose doctrines botli Greeks and barbarians are equally bred up almost from their very cradles, and by which they are improved in their dispositions, changing everything in their souls which is adulterated by a blameable way of bringing up and of living, into good coinage ; accordingly just see what Hercules says in Euripides.* " Yes, burn and scorch my flesli, and glut your hate. Drinking ray life-warm blood ; for heaven's stars Shall quit their place, and darken 'neath the tarth. And earth rise up and take the place of heaven. Before you wring from me a word of flattery." For in real truth flattery, and adulation, and hypocrisy, in which what is uttered is at vaiiance with the sentiments wliich ai'e really felt, are the most slavish of things. But witliout any disguise, and in a genuine honest spirit of truth to speak with freedom what is dictated by a clear conscience, is a line of conduct suited to those who are nobly born.

Again, do not you see this same virtuous man himself, that even when he is sold he does not appear to be a servant, but he strikes all who behold him with awe, as not being merely free, but as even being about to prove the master of him who has purchased him? At all events, Mercury replies to a man who inquires whether he is worthless — " By no means worthless, on the contrary, In every part most venerable : never Low, nor of no account, as though a slave. But as to raiment brilliant to behold, And with the club he bears most energetic. But no one willingly becomes the buyer Of one who soon the master will become Of him and all his house. And every one Who sees thee, fears thee, for your eye is fire Like that of any bull prepared for war 'Gainst Afric lions." t Then, again, he speaks in conclusion of his disposition — " I now do blame you for your stubborn silence. As if you were not subject to a master, But sought to govern rather than be governed." • See c. 4. f Eui-ipides Frag. Incert. 495.

ON THE VIRTUOUS BEING ALSO FUEB. 5^9 But when, after Syleus had bought him, he was sent into the fields, he showed by his actions the indomitable freedom of his nature ; for having sacrificed the choicest of the bulls which were there to Jupiter, he made a pretence of a feast, and having drunk a vast quantity of wine at one meal, he lay down very contentedly to digest it ; and when Syleus came, and got angry both at the loss and also at the easy indifference of his servant, and at his preposterous contempt for his master, he never changed colour, nor made any difference in his conduct, but said with the most perfect confidence — " Sit down and drink, and thus you shall At once appreciate my character, And learn to be my master in reality."

Shall we then say that he is the slave, or rather the master of his master, when he dares in this manner not only to accost him with such freedom, but even to impose injunctions on him who has purchased him, as if he would beat and insult him if he were to be stubborn and disobedient, and, if he introduced any one to assist him, as if he would destroy them all to a man ? Therefore the writings which were delivered respecting this purchase must have been an utter absurdity and a mere joke, since they would be trampled upon by the more effectual power of the slave bought under them, being of less value than unwritten covenants, and being likely to be utterly destroyed by moths, or time, or mould and rust.

But it is not right, some one will say, to bring forward the actions of heroes as proofs of the correctness of an argument, for that they were greater than the common run of human nature, and were more on a par with the heavenly beings themselves, as having been born of a sort of mixed generation, and having sprung from mortal and immortal seed at the same time, being correctly entitled demigods, the mortal part of their composition being tempered by the incorruptible part, so that there is nothing extraordinary in the fact of their having despised those mortals who designed to bring slavery upon them. However, let it be so. Are then Anaxagoras and Zeno the Eleatic heroes, or descended from gods? And nevertheless they, when tortured with the most unprecedented devices of cruelty by savage tyrants, wholly pitiless by nature, and even more than usually exasperated against them, looking on their VOL. in.

M M bodies as if tbey belonged to strangers, or even to enemies, disregarded and utterly disdained the formidable evils with which they were afflicted ; for through the love of knowledge having accustomed their souls from the very beginning to keep aloof from all participation with the passions, and to cling to education and wisdom, they easily endured the prospect of its emigrating from the body, and made it a dweller with prudence and courage, and other virtues. Therefore, the one being hung up and violently stretched for the sake of making him divulge some secret, showed himself mightier than fire or iron, though they are the strongest things in nature, and biting off his tongue with his teeth, spit it at his torturer, that he might not involuntarily utter what he ought to bury in silence, under the influence of agony ; and the other said with great fortitude, "

Beat Aristarchus's skin, for you cannot beat Aristarchus himself." These instances of brave fortitude, wholly full of daring, exceed in no slight degree the nobleness of those , heroes, because the one class have a glory handed down to them by their ancestors without any actions of their own, while the fame of the others is founded on deeds of virtue deliberately performed, which very naturally make immortal those who practise them in a guileless spirit,

I know also that combatants in the pancratium very often, out of the excess of their spirit of rivalry, and of their eagerness for victory, when their bodies are exhausted do yet keep up their spirits, and strive with their soul alone, which they have accustomed to look contemptuously on danger, and thus they endure toil and pain to the very end of their life. Shall we then fancy that those men who have practised themselves so as to arrive at vigour of body, have been able to trample on the fear of death, either through hope 'of victory or from the desire of escaping the sight of their own defeat ; but those who train up in themselves the invisible mind, which is really and truly the man himself, bearing about him the appearance perceptible by the outward senses as his house, and who educate it by the principles and maxims of philosophy and the rules of virtue, will not be willing to die for the sake of freedom, in order to perform the journey appointed for them by fate with an indomitable and free spirit?

They say that on one occasion, at one of the sacred games, two athletes who were contending with one another with equally matched strength and courage, doing the same things to one another, and suffering the same things, did not desist from the contest till they bolli fell dead. "My too brave son, thy courage will destroy thee,"* some one may say with reference to such persons. However is the death of such combatants glorious when it is encountered for the sake of some wild olives and parsley-leaves, and must it not be much more so when endured for the sake of freedom, the love of which, if one must tell the plain trnth, is firmly established in the soul alone, as if it were some extraordinary portion of it firmly united with it, which if it were cut off the wliole composition of the man must necessarily be destroyed ?

The indomitable spirit of a Lacedaemonian boy. whether derived from his birth or from nature, is celebrated, in which nation they are accustomed to hunt carefully for the virtues : for when he had been carried off as a prisoner by some one of the soldiers of Antigonus, he submitted to whatever was put upon him which became a free man, but refused to submit to menial offices, saying that he was not going to be a slave ; and yet by reason of his age he could not as yet have been thoroughly educated in the laws of Lj-curgus, because he had only tasted them, but he judged a violent death preferable to the life which was before him, and, despairing of any deliverance, he cheerfully slew himself. It is also related that some Dardauian women who had been taken prisoners by the Macedonians, looking upon slavery as the most disgraceful of all evils, threw their children, whom they were carrying in their bosoms, into the deepest part of the river, saying at the same time, " At all events you shall not be slaves, but, before you can begin to experience such a miserable life, you shall cut off all such necessity, and travel in freedom the inevitable and last road of human existence."