The Works of Philo (complete)

On which account, making a display of her bounteous disposition, when he has satisfied himself with the water, she offers to give his camels water also, which we have already said are here put symbolically for memory. For the animal while eating its food ruminates, and when, having stooped down it has received a heavy burden, with exceedingly great vigour of muscle it rises up lightly ; and in the same manner also, the soul of the man who is devoted to learning, when the burden of its speculations is placed upon it, becomes more lowly, and when it has risen up it rejoices ; and from the mastication, and as it were the softening, of the first food that is placed down before it, arises its memory of those speculations. But she, beholding the nature of the servant to be well calculated for the reception of virtue, emptied her whole pitcher into the cistern, that is to say, she emptied the whole knowledge of the teacher into the soul of the learner. For the sophists, from a desire of gain and also from envy, repressing the natural characters of their pupils, keep silence about many things which ought to be mentioned, laying up for themselves a source of gain for future times.

But virtue is an ungrudging and most liberal feeling, so that it does not hesitate to assist another with hand and foot, as the proverb goes, and with all its power. Therefore, pouring all that she knew into the mind of the pupil as into a cistern, she went again to the well to draw water, that is to say, she went to the ever-flowing wisdom of God, that what had been already imparted might be firmly fixed in by memory, and that he might also be irrigated with the knoweldge of other and newer things. For the wealth of the wisdom of God is illimitable, and as a tree which is continually putting forth new shoots after the old ones, so that it never ceases growing young again, and being in the flower of its strength.

So that they are marvellously simple people who have ever had an idea of coming to the end of any branch of knowledge whatever. For that which has seemed to be near and within reach is nevertheless a long way distant from the end ; since no created being is perfect in any department of learning, but falls as far short of it as a thoroughly infant child just beginning to learn T does, in comparison of a man -wlao both by age and skill is qualified to be a master.

And we must inquire the cause why the handmaid gave the servant drink from the fountain, but gave the camels water from the well. May it not perhaps be that the sti'eam here signifies the sacred scripture itself, which irrigates the sciences, and that the well is rather akin to memory ? For the depths which he has already mentioned, he produces by means of memory as it were out of a well ; and such persons as these one ought to admit because of the goodness of their natural disposition. But there are some men among those who practise virtue to whom the all-beneficent God has shown the way that leads to virtue, such that at first it is accounted rough, and steep, and difficult, but subsequently level and easy, having changed the bitterness of the wayfarer's labour to sweetness. And how he has wrought this change we will now tell.

When he led us forth out of Egypt, that is to say, out of the passions which excite the body, we, travelling in the desert, that is to say, in the path of pleasure, encamped in the place called Marah, a place which had no drinkable water, but where all the water was bitter.* For still the pleasures which are brought into action by means of the eyes, and ears, and belly, and the parts adjacent to the belly, were tempting to us, and charmed us exceedingly, sounding close to us. When, therefore, we desired to be entirely separated from them, they dragged us back, exerting themselves in opposition to us, and entwining themselves round us, and soothing us with all kinds of juggling tricks and assiduous blandishments; so that we, yielding to their unremitting caresses, became alienated from and disinclined to labour, as something very bitter and intolerable, and designed to nan back again to Egypt, that is to say, to the condition of an intemperate aud lascivious life, if the Saviour had not speedily taken pity on lis, and thrown a sweetening branch like a medicine upon our soul, causing it to love labour instead of hating it.

For he knew, inasmuch as he was our Creator, that we could not possibly survive any existing thing unless there were in us an intense love of doing so. Therefore, men never succeed in attaining any object that they desire if they pursue it without any connection with or consideration of fitness. But when fiiendship is added, • Exodus XV. 23, and also a familiarity with the loved object, their endeavours then succeed rightly.

This is the food of a soul which is inchned to the practice of virtue, to consider labour a very sweet thing instead of a bitter one, which, however, it is not allowed to all persons to participate in ; but to those only by whom the golden calf, the animal made by the Egyptians, the body, is sprinkled over with water after having been bunat with fire, and broken to pieces. For it is said in the sacred scriptures, that " Moses having taken tlie calf burnt it with lire, and broke it up into small pieces, and threw the pieces into the water, and caused the children of Israel to drink thereof."* For the love of virtue being inflamed and excited by the brilliant appearance of virtue, burns to ashes the pleasures of the body, and then cuts them to pieces and pounds them to nothing, using the divine word which can at all times divide everything.

And in this manner he teaches us that among the bodily advantages are health, and beauty, and the accuracy of the outward senses, and the perfection of bodily vigour with strength and mighty energy ; but still that all these things are common to accursed and wicked persons, while if they were really good no wicked person would be allowed to partake of them. But these men, even if they are utterly wicked, still, inasmuch as they are men, and so far partake of the same human nature as virtuous men, do also partake of these advantages of the body. And, in fact, at present those wild beasts which are the most untanieable, enjoy these good things, if indeed they are in reality good things, in a greater degree than rational beings ; for what wrestler could be compared in might with the strength of a bull or of an elephant ? And what runner could put himself on a level with the speed of a hound or of a hare ? And the most sharp-sighted of men is absolutely blind if his sight is compared with that of antelopes or eagles.

Again, in hearing and in smell, often other animals are veiy far beyond man ; as, for instance, the ass, which appears to be the stupidest of all animals, would show that our sense of hearing is very obtuse if he were brought into comparison with us. The dog, too, would make the nostrils in man appear a perfectly useless part from the exceeding superiority of the quickness of his own sense of Y a o-U PHILO JUD-EUS. smell ; for, in him, tbat sense is pushed to such a degree that it almost equals the rapidity of the eye-sight.

And why need I dwell on the subject more, going'' through each of the senses and animals separately ? For this ix)int has been long agreed upon among all the most eminent historians and philosophers, who have all said that nature is the mother of the in-atioual animals, and the step-mother of men. perceiving the bodily weakness of men. and the surpassing strength of brute animals in everytliing. ^Yith great propriety, therefore, the artist poimded the ciilf to pieces ; that ig to say, dividing it into parts, he showed that all the things which the body has in abundance are very iav removed from real good, and are in no respect different fixim those things which are scattered on the water.

On which account the scripture tells us that the calf, afterhaving been poundedto pieces, was scattered on the water, to signify that no genuine plant of good can ever flourish in corniptible. matter ; for as a seed, when thrown into the stream of a river or into the sea, cannot display its proper powers ; for it is impossible, unless it has once taken hold with its roots, as with anchors, of some firm portion of earth, that anv branch should be firmlv fixed or should shoot up, I do not say to any height, but even as a creeper along the ground, or that it should ever bring forth fruit at the periodical seasons of the year, for any great and violent nish of water eominsj on washes awav all the eferminatino; vifjour of the seed. In the same manner all the superfluities contained in the vessel of the soul which are ever spoken of or celebrated are destroyed before they can have any existence, the corporeal substance continually flowing off from them.

For how can there be such things as disease and old age and all kinds of corruptions, if there were not a continual drawing off of words, which are theoretical streams : the hierophant, 'there fore, thinks it right* to irrigate our minds with these words, for the sake of burning up the pleasures, of pounding to pieces and reducing to a thin and impalpable dust, and utterly destixiying the system of the corporeal goods ; and of making us recollect that the true good has never at any time germinated or blossomed from any one of them, just as nothing flourishes from seeds which are sown in water. tliough he prints the latter in the text as the reading of all the MSS.

But Lulls, and rams, and goats, which Egypt holds in honour, and all other images of corruptible matter vhich, in report alone, are accounted God's, have no real existence, but are all fictitious and false ; for those who look upon life as only a tragedy full of acts of arrogance and stories of love, impressing false ideas on the tender minds of young men, and using the ears as their ministers, into ■which they pour fabulous trifles, waste away and corrupt their minds, compelling them to look upon persons who Avere never even men in their minds, but always effeminate creatures as God's ; for the calf was not made of every description of female ornament, but only of the earrings of the women. The lawgiver showing us by this that nothing wTought with hands is a visible and true God, but only so by report, and as far as he is thought so, and that, too, the report of a woman and not of a man ; for it is the conduct of a soul utterly enervated and ren dered completely effeminate to receive such nonsense.

But he who is truly God is perceived, and felt, and recognised, not only by means of one's ears, but also by the eyes of our mind, through his mighty works which are done in the ■world, and through the rapidity of his operations ; on which account in the great song it is said (the speaker assuming the character of God), "Behold! behold! it is I!'"* as if that real existing God could be more easily conceived by the mind than proved by verbal demonstration ; but it is not correct to say that the living God is visible, that is rather an abuse of language, arising from referring God himself to his separate acts of power ; for even in the passage cited above, he does not say, " Behold me," for it is wholly impossible that God according to his essence should be perceived or beheld by any creature, but he says, "

Behold ! it is I," that is to say, behold my existence ; for it is sufficient for the reasoning powers of man to advance so far as to learn that there is and actually exists the great cause of all things, and to attempt to proceed further, so as to pursue investigations into the essence or distinctive qualities of God, is an absolute piece of folly ; for God did not grant this even to the allwise Moses ; not though he addressed innumerable requests to him, all having this object; but an oracle was delivered to him, telling him, • Deuteronomy ixiii 39. 3-26 PHILO JUD.EUS. see ; "* and the meaning of this is, that all the things which are behind Ood are within the comprehension of a virtuous man, but he himself alone is incomprehensible ; and he is incomprehensible by any direct and immediate access (for by 6uch means it is only explained what kind of being he is), but he may be understood in his subsequent and consistent faculties ; for they, by means of the works accomplished by them, declare not his essence, but his existence.

Therefore the mind having generated the foundation of good . . . . f and the primary principle of virtue, namely Seth, or irrigation, boasts with an honourable and holy boast ; for she says, " God has raised up to me another seed, instead of Abel whom Cain slew, "J for it has been said with great exactness and neatness, that no single divine seed ever falls to the ground, but that they all rise up from the things of earth, and leave them, and are borne upwards to heaven ; but the seeds which are sown by mortals, whether for the generation of animals or of plants, do not all come to perfection ; but we must be content if more are not wasted than those which remain above ; and God sows nothing in our souls which is incomplete ; but his seed is all so seasonable and so perfect that every one of them is at once borne forward to produce abundance of its appropriate fruit.

But when Moses says here that Seth sprung up as another or different seed, he does not say from which it was different ; was it different from Abel who was treacherously slain, or from Cain who slew him ? But may we not say perhaps that the original seed from which each of these sprung was different ? That from which Cain sprung, inasmuch as it was hostile ; for a thirst for virtue is the most hostile thing possible to that deserter, wickedness ; that from which Abel sprang, as friendly and kindred ; for that which is beginning to exist is a different thing from, but not a contrary thing to, that which is perfected ; and so that which pertains to creation is different from that which pertains to the uncreate. On this account Abel, after having quitted the mortal body, t There is again a hiatus in the text here. Mangey conjectures Siayo)yriQ, "way of life," to be the word which has fallen out. Z Qenes-'s iv. 25. departed to the better nature, and took up his abode with that. But Seth, as being the seed of human virtue, will never quit the I'ace of maidvind.

But hrst of all lie will receive his growth up to the number ten, that perfect number, according to which the just Noah exists ; and then he will receive a second and a better growth from his son Shem, ending in a second ten, fiom which the faithful Abraham is named. And he will also have a third growth, and one more perfect than the number ten, extending from him to Moses, that man who is wise in all things, for he is the seventh from Abraham, not revolving, like an initiated worshipper, in the circle which is exterior to holy things, but like a hierophant, making his abode in the inmost shrines.

And consider the advances towards improvement made by the soul of the man who is eager for, and insatiable in, his craving after good things ; and the illimitable riches of God, who gives the end of some things to be the beginnings of others ; for the end of the knowledge which is according to Sethis the beginning of the just Noah; and his perfection again is the beginning of the education of Abraham ; and the most perfect wisdom of Abraham is the first instruction of Moses ; and the two daughters of Lot, the man who was subdued and overthrown by the weakness of the soul, namely, intention and agreement, desire to become pregnant by the mind, that is to say, by their father, acting in opposition to him who said, " God has raised up for me ...."* For that which the living God did for him, this they affirm that the mind is able to do for them, introducing the doctrine of an intoxicated and frenzied soul. It is indeed the act of sober reason, both to confess that God is the Creator and the Father of the universe ; and the conduct of one utterly fallen in intoxication and drunkenness, to fancy that he himself is the bringer about of each of human afifairs.

Evil opinions therefore will not come into association with their father, before a great quantity of the unmixed wine of folly has been found upon him, and destroyed any sense that may have previously been in him ; for it is written, " They made their father drink wine." So that if they do not give him diink, they will never receive legitimate seed from hira while he is sober ; but when he has been soaked in wine, and • Genesis xix. 32. has become utterly intoxicated and senseless, then they will lieconie pregnant, and have a culpable labour and otFspring, which will be truly accursed. LI I. On which account Moses has separated his impious and obscure progeny from the whole of the divine company ; for he says, "

The Ammonites and the Moabites shall not come into the assembly of the Lord :"* and these are the descendants of the daughters of Lot, supposing that everjlhing is generated of the outward sense and of mind, being male and female like a father and mother, and looking upon this as in real truth the cause of all generation : but as, even if we were to commit such an error as this, still emerging as it were out of that troubled sea, Ave may lay hold on repentance, which is a firm and saving thing, and must never let it go till we have completely escaped from the billo\\'y sea, the headlong violence of sin : as Rachel, when formerly praying for mind, as if that were able to raise up children, and when she received the answer, "Am I equal to God?"f attended to what was said to her, and when she understood it, made a most pious recantation ; for the recantation of Rachel is recorded in scripture, a most God-loving prayer, " May God grant to me another son, "J such a prayer as no foolish person is permitted to make, who pursues no object but his own pleasure, and who thinks everything else mere folly and ridiculousness.

And the leader of this opinion is Onan the brother of the skin-wearing Er. " For he," says the scripture, " knowing that the seed would not be his, when he went in unto his brother's wife, spilled his seed upon the ground :"§ he transgressed all the boundaries of self-love and of fondness for pleasure. Should T not say to this man, If you have a regard to your own advantage you will destroy everything that is excellent, and that too without deriving any advantage therefrom? You will put an end to the honour due to parents, the attention of a wife, the education of children, the blameless services of servants, the management of a house, the government of a city, the firm establishment of laws, the guardianship of morals, reverence to one's elders, the habit of speaking well of the dead, good fellowship with the living, piety towards God as shown both in words and in deeds : for you are overturning and throwing into confusion all these J Genesis xxx. 24. J Genesis xxxviii. 9. things, sowing seed for yourself alone, and nursing up pleasure, that gluttonous intemperate origin of all evil.

From which that priest and servant of the only good God, Phineas, rising up* — that wise regulator of all the coi-poreal words and expressions, so as never to behave erroneously or insolently through the medium of them ; for the interpretation of the name Phineas is " the biidle of the mouth" — having taken a coadjutor, that is to say, having inquired into and examined the nature of things, and having found that nothing is more honourable than virtue, stabbed and slew with a sword the creature devoted to pleasure, and hostile to virtue, and all the places from which all false and illegitimate delights and enjoyments spring : for the law says that, " he tlu'ust the woman through her belly."

Thus, therefore, having caused the difference that existed in him to cease, and having discarded his own pleasure, and burning with zeal for God, the First Cause and holy God, he was honoured and crowned with the two most valuable of all prizes, peace and the priesthood ; with the one because both his name and his conduct are akin to peace : for it follows of necessity that a consecrated mind, being its minister and servant, must do everything in which its master delights ; and he delights in the firm establishment of good law, and tranquillity, and stability, and in the discarding of wars and f meaning not only such as cities make upon one another, but also those which take place in the soul ; and these are more important and more injurious, inasmuch as they injui-e the more divine portion of us, namely, our reason, while arms and weapons can only reach to the injury of our bodies or possessions, but have never any power to injure a healthy soul.

Piightly therefore have cities established a custom, that before they turn arms and engines of destruction against one another to lead to slavery and utter destruction, they should seek to persuade all the citizens to put an J end to the great and formidable and unceasing factions which exist in themselves, for faction • Numbers xxv. 11. + There is another hiatus here, which Mangey proposes to fill up with the words Kai aracrewv, " and seditious." X The text is coirupt here. Ihe text has KarayTja, a word manifestly mutilated. Mangey proposes KarapyiiaaaQai, and translates it " ut toUerent." of wars, and if that be destroyed, there will no longer be any wars which are made in imitation of it ; but the race of mankind will attain to the blessing and enjoyment of profound peace, being taught by the law of nature, that is, by virtue, to honour God, and to cleave to the employment of serving him, for this is the source of happiness and lengtli of life.

" x\nd it came to pass when there began to be manv men upon the earth, that daughters also were born to them." - ' I think it here worth while to raise tl^e question why, after the birth of Noah and his sons, our race increased to a degree of great populousness. But, perhaps, it is not difficult to explain the cause of this ; for it always happens if anything appears to be rare that its contrary is found exceedingly numerous. Therefore, the good disposition of one displays the evil disposition of myriads, and the fact of those things which are done in accordance with art, and science, and virtue, and beauty, being few, shows how incalculable a number of things devoid of art, and of science, and of justice, and, in short, utterly worthless, lie concealed beneath. Do you not see that in the universe, also, the sun, being one body, by his shining forth dissipates the thick and dense darkness which is shed over earth and sea? With great propriety, therefore, the generation of the just Noah and his sons is represented as bringing into existence a great number of unjust persons; for it is by the contrary that it is especially the nature of contraries to be known.

And no unjust man at any time implants a masculine generation in the soul, but such, being unmanly, and broken, and effeminate in their minds, do naturally become the parents of female children ; having planted no tree of virtue, the fruit of which must of necessity have been beautiful and salutary, but only trees of wickedness and of the passions, the shoots of which are womanlike. On account of which fact these men are said to have become the fathers of daughters, and that no one of them is said to and sedition, if we must speak the truth, is the archetypal model have begotten a son; for since the just Noah had male children, as being a man who followed reason, perfect, and upright, and masculine, so by this very fact the injustice of the multitude is proved to be altogether the parent of female children. For it is impossible that the same things should be born of opposite parents ; but they must necessarily have an opposite offspring.

" And when the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, they took unto themselves wives of all of them whom they chose."* Those beings, whom other philosophers call demons, Moses usually calls angels ; and they are souls hovering in the air. And let no one suppose, that what is here stated is a fable, for it is necessarily true that the universe must be filled with living things in all its parts, since every one of its primary and elementary portions contains its appropriate animals and such as are consistent with its nature ; — the earth containing terrestrial animals, the sea and the rivers containing aquatic animals, and the fire such as are born in the fire (but it is said, that such as these last are found chiefly in Macedonia), and the heaven containing the stars ; for these also are entire souls pervading the universe, being unadulterated and divine, inasmuch as they move in a circle, which is the kind of motion most akin to the mind, for every one of them is the parent mind. It is therefore necessary that the air also should be full of living beings. And these beings are invisible to us, inasmuch as the air itself is not visible to mortal sight.

But it does not follow, because our sight is incapable of perceiving the forms of souls, that for that reason there are no souls in the air ; but it follows of necessity that they must be comprehended by the mind, in order that like may be contemplated by like. Since what shall we say? Must we not say that these animala which are terrestrial or aquatic live in air and spirit ? What ? Are not pestilential afflictions accustomed to exist when the air is tainted or corrupted, as if that were the cause of all such assuming vitality ? Again, when the air is free from all taint and innocent, such as it is especially wont to be when the north wind prevails, does not the imbibing of a purer air tend to a more vigorous and more lasting duration of life ? It is then natural that that medium by wliich all other animals, whether aquatic or terrestrial, are vivified should itself be empty and destitute of souls ? On the contrary, even if all other animals were barren, the air by itself would be bound to be productive of life, having received from the great Creator the seeds of vitality by his especial favour. in.

Some souls, therefore, have descended into bodies, and others have not thought worthy to approach any one of the portions of the earth ; and these, when hallowed and surrounded by the ministrations of the father, the Creator has been accustomed to employ, as hand-maidens and servants in the administration of mortal affairs. And they having descended into the body as into a river, at one time are carried away and swallowed up by the voracity of a most violent whii-1pool ; and, at another time, striving with all their power to resist its impetuosity, they at first swim on the top of it, and afterwards fly back to the place from which they started. These, then, are the souls of those who have been taught some kind of sublime philosophy, meditating, from beginning to end, on dying as to the life of the body, in order to obtain an inheiitance of the incorporeal and imperishable life, which is to be enjoyed in the presence of the uncreate and everlasting God.

But those, which are swallowed np in the whirlpool, are the souls of those other men who have disregarded wisdoixi, giving themselves up to the pursuit of unstable things regulated by fortune alone, not one of which is referred to tlie most excellent portion of us, the soul or the mind ; but all rather to the dead corpse connected with us, that is to the body, or to things which are even more lifeless than that, such as glory, and money, and offices, and honours, and all other things which, by those who do not keep their eyes fi.xed on what is really beautiful, are fashioned and endowed with apparent vitality by the deceit of vain opinion.

If, therefore, you consider that souls, and demons, and angels are things differing indeed in name, but one and identical in reality, you will then be able to discard that most heavy burden, superstition. But as men in general speak of good and evil demons, and in like manner of good and evil souls, so also do they speak of angels, looking upon some as worthy of a good appellation, and calling them ambassadors of man to God, and of God to man, and sacred and holy ou account of this blameless and most excellent office; others, again, you will not err if you look upon as unholy and unworthy of any address. And the expression used by the writer of the psalms, in the following verse, testifies to t?ie truth of my assertion, for he says, "

He sent upon them the fuiy of His wrath, anger, and rage, and affliction, and he sent evil angels among them."* These are the wicked who, assuming the name of angels, not being acquainted with the daughters of right reason, that is with the sciences and the virtues, but which pursue the mortal descendants of mortal men, that is the pleasures, which can confer no genuine beauty, whicli is perceived by the intellect alone, but only a bastard sort of elegance of form, by means of which the outward sense is beguiled ; and they do not all take all the daughters in marriage, but some of them have selected some of that innumerable company to be their wives ; some choosing them by the sight, and others by the ear, others again being influenced by the sense of taste, or by the belly, and some even by the pleasures below the belly ; many also have laid hold of those the abode of which is fixed at a great distance, putting in action various desires among one another. For, of necessity, the choices of all the various pleasures are various, since different pleasures are established in different places.

And, in all such matters, it is impossible for the spirit of God to remain and to pass all its time, as the law-giver himself shows. " For," says Moses, " the Lord said, My spirit shall not remain among men for ever, because they are flesh, "f For, at times, it does remain ; but it does not remain for ever and ever among the greater part of us ; for who is so destitute of reason or so lifeless as never, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to conceive a notion of the all good God. For, very often, even over the most polluted and accursed beings, there hovers a sudden appearance of the good, but they are unable to take firm hold of it and to keep it among them ; for, almost immediately, it quits its former place and departs, rejecting those inhabitants who come over to it, and who live in defiance of law and justice, to whom it never would have come if it had not been for the sake of convicting those who choose what is disgraceful instead of what is good. But the spirit of God is spoken of in one manner as being air flowing upon the earth, bringing a tliird element in addition to -water. In reference to which.

Moses saj'S, in his account of the creation of the worhJ, " The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."* Since the air, as it is very hght, is raised and borne aloft, having water, as it wei'e, for its foundation ; and, in another manner, unalloyed knowledge is said to be so, which every wise man naturally partakes of. And Moses shows us this, when speaking of the creator and maker of the holy work of the creation, in these words : " And God Bummoned Bezaleel, and filled him with his Holy Spirit, and with wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge, to be able to devise every work."f So that, what the spirit of God is, is very definitively described in these words.

Such also is the spirit of Moses, which came upon the Beventy elders, for the sake of making them differ from, and be superior to the rest of the Israelites, who could not possibly be elders in real truth, unless they had partaken of that allwise spirit. For it is said, " I will take of my spirit which is upon thee, and I will pour it upon the seventy elders."{ But think not that thus this taking away, could be by means of cutting off or separation ; but it is here, as is the case in an operation effected by fire, which can light ten thousand torches, without itself being diminished the least atom, or ceasing to remain as it was before. Something like this also is the nature of knowledge. For though it has made all its pupils, and all who have become acquainted with it, learned, still it is in no degree diminished itself, but very often it even becomes improved, just as, they say, that fountains sometimes are by being drained dry ; for, it is said, that they sometimes become sweeter by such a process. For continual association with others, engendei'ing diligence and practice, gradually works out entire perfection.

If, then, the individual spirit of Moses, or of any other creature, was about to be distributed to so great a multitude of pupils, then, if it were divided into such a number of small portions, it would be diminished. But now, the spirit which is upon him is the wise, the divine, the indivisible, the undistributable, the good spirit, the spirit which is everywhere diffused, so as to fill the universe, which, while it benefits others, is not injured by having a participation in it given to another, and if added to some- • Genesis i. 2. f Exodus xxsi 1. + Numbers xi. 17. thing else, either as to its understanding, or its knowledge, or its wisdom.

On which account, it is possible that the spirit of God may remain in the soul, but that it should remain for ever is impossible, as we have said. And why need we wonder? since there is no other thing whatever, the possession of which, is stable and lasting ; but mortal affairs are continually wavering in tlie scale, and inclining first to one side, and then to the other, and liable at different times to different changes. And the greatest cause of our ignorance is the flesh, and our inseparable connection with tlie flesh. And this, Moses represents God as admitting, where he says that, " Because they are flesh," the spirit of God cannot abide in them. And yet marriage and the rearing of children, and the furnishing of necessary things, and ingloriousness conjoined with a want of money and business, both private and public, and a countless number of other things cause wisdom to waste away, before it begins to flourish vigorously. But there is nothing which is so great a hindrance to its growth as the fleshly nature. For that, as if it were the principal and most solid foundation of folly and ignorance, is laid down firmly, and then each of the aforenamed evils is built up upon it.

For those souls which are devoid of flesh and of the body, remaining undisturbed in the theatre of the universe, occupied in seeing and hearing divine things, of which an insatiable desire has seized them, enjoy a pleasure to whicli no one offers any interruption. But those Avhich bear the heavy burden of the flesh, being weighed down and oppressed by it, are unable to look upwards to the revolutions of the heaven, but being dragged downwards, have their necks forc-bly pressed to the ground like so many quadrupeds.

In reference to which fact, the lawgiver having determined to put an end to all illegal and illegitimate associations and unions, begins his denunciations in the following manner : " Man shall not come near to any one who is akin to his own flesh, to uncover his nakedness : I am the Lord."* How could any one more forcibly e.xhort man to despise the flesh and what is akin to the flesh than in this Avay ? And indeed he does not only exhort us to abandon such things, but he shows positively that he who is really a man will never come of his own accord to those pleasures which are dear to aud connected mth the body, but will always be meditating to alienate himself from them entirely. For the saying, " man, man," not once but twice, is a sign that what is here meant is not the man composed of body and soul, but him only who is possessed of virtue. For such an one is really a true man, whom some one of the ancient philosophers having lighted a lantern at midday, went in search of, and told those who asked him that he was seeking a man.

And as for the prohibition against every man coming near to any one who is akin to his own flesh, this is induced by necessary reasons. For there are some things wliich we should admit, such for instance as those useful things, by the employment of which we may be able to live in freedom from disease and in good health ; and there are other things which should be rejected, by which, when the appetites become inflamed, they burn up all goodness in one vast conflagration. Let not then our appetites rush eagerly in pursuit of all the things that are pleasant to the flesh, for the pleasures are often untameable, when like dogs they fawn upon us, and all of a sudden, change and bite us, inflicting incurable wounds. So that by cleaving to frugality, which is a friend to virtue, in preference to the pleasures akin to the body, we shall defeat the numerous and infinite multitude of irreconcilable enemies. And if any occasion should seek to compel us to take more than what is moderate or sufficient, let us not yield ; for the scripture saith, " He shall come near to him to uncover his nakedness."

And what is meant by this, it is worth while to explain. It has often happened, that some who have not been themselves providers of wealth, have nevertheless had unlimited abundance. And others, who have not been eager in the pursuit of glory have been thought worthy of public praises and honours. Others again, who have not expected to acquire even a little strength, have arrived at the greatest vigour and activity. Now, let all these men learn not to cleave in their minds to any one of these qualities ; that is to say, not to admire them and grasp at them in an immoderate degree, looking upon them all, that is to say on riches, on glory, and on bodily strength, not only not as intrinsically good, but as the greatest of evils. For to misers, the pursuit of money is appropriate, and the pursuit of glory is so to ambitious men, and the acquisition of bodily strength is so to men fond of athletic and of gymnastic exercises. For that which is the better part of them, namely, the soul, they have abandoned as a slave to those things which are inferior to themselves, namely, to inanimate things.

But as many as are masters of themselves show that all that brilliant prosperity, which is an object of so much contention, is in subordination to the mind, which is the principal part of them, receiving it when it comes, so as to make a good use of it, but not pursuing it if it keeps aloof, as being able to be happy even without it. But he who pursues it eagerly and follows upon its track, fills philosophy with base opinions ; on which account he is said to uncover its nakedness, for how can there be any concealment or ignorance of the reproaches to which those men are justly exposed, who profess indeed to be wise men, but who naake a traffic of wisdom, and bargain for the sale of it, as they say men do 'in the market, who put up their wares for sale, sometimes for a slight gain, sometimes for sweet and caressing speeches, and sometimes for insecure hopes, founded on no sure ground, and sometimes even for promises which are in no respect .better than dreams.

And the sentence which follows, " I am the Lord," is uttered with great beauty and with most excessive propriety, " for," says the Lord, " oppose, my good man, the good of the flesh to that of the soul, and of the whole man ;" therefore the pleasure of the flesh is irrational, but the pleasure of the soul and of tlie whole man is the mind of the universe, namely God ; and the comparison is an admirable one, and one difficult to be instituted, so as for any one to be deceived by the close similitude, unless any one will say that living things are in reality the same as lifeless things, rational things the same as irrational things ; well adapted the same as those ill adapted ; odd numbers identical with even ones ; light with darkness, and day with night ; and in short every thing that is contrary the same as its contrary. And yet even although these things have some kind of union and connection together by reason of their being created, still God is not in any respect like the very best of created beings, inasmuch as these have been born, and are Hable to sufferiug ; but he is uncreated, and always acting not sufiFering.

Now it is well not to desert the ranks of God, in which it follows inevitably that all who are arrayed must be most excellent, and it would be shameful to quit those ranks, to fly to unmanly and effeminate pleasure, which injures its friends and benefits its enemies, for its nature is a very singular one ; for all those to whom it chooses to give a share of its special advantages, it at once chastises and injures ; and those whom it thinks fit to deprive of its good things, it benefits in the greatest possible degree, for it injures them when it gives, but it benefits them when it takes away. If therefore, O my soul, any one of the temptations of pleasure invites you, tm'n yourself away, and directing your views towai'ds another point, look at the genuine beauty of virtue, and having surveyed it, remain, until a desire for it has sunk into you, and draws you to it, like a magnet, and immediately leads you and attaches you to that which has become the object of your desire.

And the expression, "I am the Lord," must be listened to, not only as if it were equivalent to, "I am the perfect, and incorruptible, and true good," with which if any one is surrounded he will reject all that is imperfect, and corruptible, and attached to the flesh ; but also as equivalent to, " I am the ruler, and the king, and the master." And it is not safe for subjects to do wrong in the presence of their ralers, nor for slaves to etr before their masters ; for when the punishers are near, those whose nature is not quick at submitting to admonitions are held in restraint and order by fear ; for God, having filled everything with himself, is near at hand, so that he is looking over everything and standing by, we being filled \^ith a great and holy reverence, or if not with that, at all events, having a prudent fear of the might of his authority, and of the fearful nature of his punishment, which cannot be avoided, whenever he determines to exert his punishing power, shall desist from doing wrong.

In order that the divine spirit of wisdom may not be inclined to quit our neighbourhood and depart, but that it may remain a very long time with us, as it did also with the wise Moses ; for Moses is a being of the most tranquil habits, either standing still or sitting still, and not at all disposed by nature to subject liimself to turns and changes ; for the scripture says, Moses and the arV ,i;/i -an cannot depart l^^vi^tlT;''''' '"'^^^^ ^^ the wise liaWe to move/nor is The ^t, In ''''''^"'^ ^^ ^"^^tue is Z but each of these things L ZlZ ] T"" ^"^^^^^ *« changes of right reason. ^ '' established on t]ie sure foundation which was given to the nronLf i , '^ "*" «^acle of God of unmovel tranqui ift/ bT G 'd' .^'' f''^^'^^ ^^^ to be one fy; for it is indispens^able fhat' ^^"J^''^'' '^^"^« ^^^ov by the side of him must be W f .^^^gs which are placed f-g rule.

Thus also Moses, having fixed his tent outside of the tabernacle and outside of all the corporeal army,* that is to say, having established his mind so that it should not move, begins to worship God, and having entered into the darkness, that invisible country, remains there, performing the most sacred mysteries ; and he becomes, not merely an initiated man, but also an hierophant of mysteries and a teacher of divine things, which he will explain to those whose ears are purified ; therefore the divine spirit is always standing by him, conducting him in every right way : but from other men, as I have said before, it very soon separates itself, and completes their life in the number of a hundred and twenty years. For God says, " their days shall be an hundred and twenty years ;"t but Moses, when he had arrived at that number of years, departed from mortal Hfe to another.

How, then, can it be natural for men who are guilty to live an equal length of time with the all-wise prophet ? for the present, it will be sufficient to say this, that things which bear the same name are not in all cases alike, but very often they are distinct in their whole genus ; and also that which is bad may have equal numbers and times with what is good, since they are repi'esented as twofold, but still they have their respective powers, distinct from one another, and as remote and different as possible. And we shall hereafter institute a more exact discussion of this period of a hundred and twenty years, which we will however postpone, till we come to an examination of the whole life of the prophet, when we have become fit to be initiated in it, but at present we will discuss what comes next in order.

"And there were giants on the earth in those days."| Perhaps some one may here think, that the lawgiver is speaking enigmatically and alluding to the fables handed down by the poets about giants, thougla he is a man as far removed as possible from any invention of fables, and one who thinks fit only to walk in the paths of truth itself; in consequence of which principle, he has banished from the constitution, which he has established, those celebrated and beautiful arts of statuary and | painting, because they, falsely imitating the nature of the truth, j contrive deceits and snares, in order, through the medium of the | eyes, to beguile the souls which are liable to be easily won over. Therefore he utters no fable whatever respecting the giants ; but he wishes to set this fact before your eyes, that some men are born of the earth, and some are born of heaven, and some are born of God : those are born of the earth, who are hunters after the pleasures of the body, devoting themselves to the enjoyment and fruition of them, and being eager to provide themselves with all things that tend to each of them.

Those again are born of heaven who are men of skill and science and devoted to learning ; for the heavenly portion of us is our mind, and the mind of every one of those persons who are bona of heaven studies the encyclical branches of education and every other art of every description, sharpening, and exercising, and practising itself, and rendering itself acute in all those matters which are the objects of intellect. Lastly, those who are born of God are priests and prophets, who have not thought fit to mix themselves up in the constitutions of this world, and to become cosmopolites, but who having raised themselves above all the objects of the mere outward senses, have departed and fixed their views on that world which is perceptible only by the intellect, and have settled there, being inscribed in the state of incorruptible incorporeal ideas.

Accordingly, Abraham, as long as he was abiding in the land of the Chaldaeans, that is to say, in opinion, before he received his new name, and while he was still called Abram, was a man born of heaven, investigating the sublime nature of things on high, and all that took place in these regions, and the causes of them, and studying everything of that kind in the true spirit of philosophy; on which account he received an appellation corresponding to the pursuits to which he devoted himself: for the name Abram, being interpreted, signifies the sublime father, and is a name very fitting for the paternal mind, which in every direction contemplates sublime and heavenly things : for the mind is the father of our composite being, reaching as high as the sky and even farther. But when he became improved, and was about to have his name changed, he then became a man born of God, according to the oracle which was delivered to him, "

I am thy God, take care that thou art approved before me, and be thou blameless."* But if the Gcd of the world, being the only God, is also by especial favour the peculiar God of this individual man, then of necessity the man must also be a man of God ; for the name Abraham, being interpreted, signifies, " tlie elect father of sound," the reason of the good man : for he is chosen out of all, and purified, and the father of the voice by -which we speak ; and being such a character as this, he is assigned to the one only God, whose minister he becomes, and so makes the path of his whole life straight, using in real truth the royal road, the road of the only king who governs all things, turning aside and deviating neither to the left hand nor to the right.

But the sons of earth removing their minds from contemplation, and becoming deserters so as to fly to the lifeless and immovable nature of the flesh, " for they two became one flesh,"* as the lawgiver says, adulterated the excellent coinage, and abandoned the better rank which had been allotted to them as their own, and deserted to the worse rank, which was contrary to their original nature, Nimrod being the first to set the example of this desertion ; for the lawgiver says, " that this man began to be a giant upon the earth :"t and the name Nimrod, being interpreted, means, desertion; for it was not enough for the thoroughly miserable soul to stand on neither side, but having gone over to its enemies, it took up arms against its friends, and resisted them, and made open war upon them ; in reference to which fact it is that, Moses calls the seat of Nimrod's kingdom Babylon, and the interpretation of the word Babylon is "change;" a thing nearly akin to desertion, the name, too, being akin to the name, and the one action to the other ; for the first step of every deserter is a change and alteration of mind, and it would be consistent in the truth to say that, according to the most holy Moses, the bad man, as being one destitute of a home and of a city, without any settled habitation, and a fugitive, is naturally a deserter also ; but the good man is the firmest of allies. Having said thus much at present, and dwelt sufficiently on the subject of the giants, we will now proceed to what comes next in our subject, which is this. t Genesis x. 29 is the passage supposed to be alluded to ; but as translated in the bible it only says " He was a mi'Thty hunter before the Lord "

" And after this," says Moses, " it came to pass that the angels of God went in unto the daughters of men, and they hore children unto them." * It is worth while, therefore, to consider what is meant by the expression, "And after this." It is therefore a reference to something that has been said before, for the purpose of explaining it more clearly ; and a mention of the divine spirit has already been made, as he has already stated, that it is very difficult for it to remain throughout all ages in the soul, which is divisible into many parts, and which assumes many forms, and is clothed with a most heavy burden, namely its bulk of flesh ; after this spirit, therefore, the angels of God go in unto the daughters of men. For as long as the pure rays of wisdom shine forth in the soul, by means of which the wise man sees God and his powers, no one of those who bring false news ever enters into the reason, but all such are kept at a distance outside of the sacred tlireshhold.

But when the light of the intellect is dimmed and overshadowed, then the companions of darkness having become victorious, associate themselves with the dissolute and effeminate passions which the prophet calls the daughters of men, and they bear children to them and not to God. For the appropriate progeny of God are the perfect virtues, but that offspring which is akin to the wicked, is unregulated wickedness. But learn thou, if thou wilt, O my mind, not to bear children to thyself, after the example of that perfect man Abraham, who offered up to God " The beloved and only legitimate offspring of his soul," f the most conspicuous image of self-taught wisdom, by name Isaac ; and who gave him up with all cheerfulness to be a necessary and fitting offering to God. "Having bound," | as the scriptui'e says, this new kind of victim, either because he, having once tasted of tlie divine inspiration, did not condescend any longer to tread on any mortal truth, or because he saw that the creature was unstable and moveable, while he recognised the unhesitating firmness existing in the living God, on whom he is said to have believed.*

His disciple and successor was Hannah. The gift of the wisdom of God, for the interpretation of the name is her grace. For when she had become pregnant, having received the divine seed, and after she had completed the time of her labour, she brought forth, in the manner appointed by tlie arrangement of God, a son, whom she called Samuel ; and the name Samuel being interpreted, means " appointed by God." She therefore having received him restores him to the giver ; not loolving upon anything as a good belonging to herself which is not divine grace. For in the first book of Kings,t she speaks in this manner : " I give him unto thee freely," the expression here used being equivalent to, "I give him unto thee whom thou hast given to me." According to that most sacred scripture of Moses, " My gifts and my offerings, and my first fruits, ye shall observe to offer unto me." J For to what other being should one bring gifts of gratitude except to God ? and what offerings can one bring unto him except of those things which have been given to us by him ? For it is not possible for U3 to have an abundance of anything else.

And he has no need of any of those things which he enjoins men to offer unto him, but he bids us bring unto him the things which are his own, through the excess of his beneficence to our race. For we, studying to conduct ourselves with gratitude to him, and to show him all honours, should pmify ourselves from sin, washing off all things tliat can stain our life in words, or appearance, or actions. For it is foolishness to imagine, that it is unlawful to enter into temples, unless a man has first washed his body and made that look bright, but that one may attempt to sacrifice and to pray with a mind still polluted and disordered.

And yet temples arc made of stones and timber, mere lifeless materials, and it is not possilde for the body, if it is devoid of life by its own nature, to touch things devoid of life, without using ablutions and purifying ceremonies of holiness ; and shall any one endure to approach God without being purified as to his soul, shall any one while impure come near to the purest of all beings, and this too without having any intention of repenting ? Let him, indeed who, in addition to having committed no new crimes, lias also endeavoured to wash off his old misdeeds, come cheerfully before him ; but let the man who is without any such preparation, and who is impure, keep aloof. For he will never escape the notice of him who can look into the recesses of the hearty and who walketh in its most secret places.

Xow the most evident sign of a soul devoted to God is that Gong in which that expi-essiou occurs, " She that was barren has borne seven children, and she that had many children has become weak."* And yet she who is sj^eaking is in reality only the mother of one son, namely, of Samuel. How then does she say that she has borne seven children, unless indeed any one thinks that the unit is in its strictest nature identical with the number seven, not only in number, but also in the harmony of the universe, and in the reasonings of the soul which is devoted to virtue ? For he who was devoted to the one God, that is Samuel, and who had no connection whatever with any other being, is adorned according to that essence which is single and the real unit ; and this is the constitution of the number seven, that is to say, of the soul that rests in God, and which no longer concerns itself about any mortal employment, when it has quitted the number six which it allotted to those who were not able to attain to the first rank, but who of necessity contented themselves with arriving at the second.

It is therefore not incredible that the barren woman, not being one who is incapable of becoming fruitful, but one who is still vigorous and fresh, striving for the chief reward in the arena of fortitude, patience, and perseverance, may bring forth a seven, equal in honour to the unit, of which numbers, nature is very productive and prolific. And she says, that " she that \ had many children has become weak," speaking accurately and very plainly. For when the soul, although only one, brings forth many children when sepai'ated from the one, it then naturally becomes infinite in number , and then being weighed down and overwhelmed by the multitude of children who depend upon it, (and the greatest part of them are premature and abortive), it becomes weak.

For it brings forth the desire of forms and colours, as gratified by the eyes, and the pleasures ai'ising from sound, as gratified by the ears. It is pregnant also of the pleasures of the belly and of the parts beneath the belly, so that, as many children are attached to it, it becomes exhausted by bearing this heavy burden, and drops its hands from weakness, and faints away. And in this way it comes to pass that all those things are subdued which bring forth perishable children to themselves, who are likewise perishable.

But some persons, through their self-love, have incurred not only defeat but even death also. At all events Onan, " knowing that the seed should not be his,"* did not desist from injuring the rational principle, which is the best thing in kind of all existing things, until he himself met with utter destruction. And this, too, very properly and deservedly ; for if some men do all things for the sake of themselves alone, not with a view to the honour of their parents, or the proper regulation of their children, or the salvation of their country, or the guardianship of the laws, or the preservation of good morals, or with a view to the due performance of any public or private duty, or of a proper celebration of sacred rites, or the pious worship due to the gods, they will be deservedly miserable. For the sake of one of the objects which I have mentioned, it is glorious even to quit life itself. But these men say that, unless they are likely to gain some pleasure by the pursuit of them, they would disregard the whole lot of them — glorious objects as they are. Therefore, the incorruptible G-od banishes the wicked exposition of unnatural opinion, which is named Onan.

And altogether these persons are to be detested who beget children for themselves, that is to say, who, pursuing their own private advantage alone, disregard all other objects, as if they had been born for themselves alone, and not for ten thousand other persons also, for their fathers, and their mothers, and their wives, and their children, and their country, and for all mankind. And if we must go further and add any thing to this enumeration, we may say for heaven, and earth, and the whole universe, and for the sciences, and for the virtues, and for the Father and Ruler of all ; to every one of which a man ought to pay what is due to the best of his power, not looking upon ah the world as an addition to himself, but on himself as an addition to the rest of the world.

However, we have said enough on this head ; let us now connect what follows with it : — •' The Lord God, therefore," says Moses, " seeing that the wickedness of man was multiplied upon the earth, and that every one of them was carefully studying wickedness in his heart all his days ; God considered in his mind that he had made man upon the earth, and he thought upon it; and God said, I will destroy man w'hom I have made from off the face of the earth. "*^ Perhaps some very wicked persons will suspect that the lawgiver is here speaking enigmatically, when he says that the Creator repented of having created man, when he beheld their wickedness ; on which account he determined to destroy the whole race. But let those who adopt such opinions as these know, that they are making light of and extenuating the offences of these men of old time, by reason of their own excessive impiety ; for what can be a greater act of wickedness than to think that the unchangeable God can be changed ?

And this, too, while some persons think that even those who are really men do never hesitate in their opinions, for that those, who have studied philosophy in a sincere and pure spirit, have derived as the greatest good arising from their knowledge, the absence of any inclination to change with the changes of affairs, and the disposition, with all immovable finnness and sure stability, to labom: at every thing that it becomes them to pursue.

And it seems good to the lawgiver that the perfect man should should desire tranquillity ; for it was said to the wise man in the character of God, " But stand thou here with me,"t this expression showing the unchangeable and unalterable nature of the mind which is firmly established in the right way; for it is really marvellous when any one touches the soul, like a lyre tuned in musical principles, not with sharp and flat sounds, but with an accurate knowledge of contrary tones, and employing only the best, not sounding any too loudly, nor on the other hand letting any be too weak, so as to impair the harmony of the virtues and of those things which are good by nature, and when he, preserving it in an equal condition plays and sings melodiously ; for this instrument nature has made to be the most perfect of all, and to be the model of all instruments made by the hand.

And if this t Deuteronomy v. 31. be propei'lj' tuned, it will utter the most exquisite of all symphonies, which consists not in the combination and tones of a melodious voice, but in a harmonious agreement of all the actions in life : therefore, as the soul of man can allay the excessive storm and swell of the sea, which the violent and irresistible gale of wickedess has suddenly raised, by the gentle breezes of knowledge and wisdom, and having mitigated its swelling and boisterous fury, enjoys tranquillity resting in an unruffled calm. Do you doubt whether the imperishable, and everlasting, and blessed God, the Being endowed Avith all the virtues, and with all perfection, and with all happiness is unchangeable in liis counsels, and whether he abides by the designs which he originally formed, without changing any of them.

Facility of change is indeed an attribute of man, which is of necessity incidental to their nature by reason of its external want of firmness ; as in this way, for instance : — often when we have chosen friends, and have lived some short time with them, without having any thing to accuse them of, we then turn away from them, so as to place ourselves in the rank of enemies, or at least of sti-angers to them ; now this conduct shows the facility and levity of ourselves, who are unable steadily to adhere to the professions which we originally made ; but God is not so easily sated or wearied.

Again there are times when we determine to abide by the same judgment that we have formed; but those who join us do not equally abide by theirs, so that our opinions of necessity change as well as theirs ; for it is impossible for us, who are but men, to foresee all the contingencies of future events, or to anticipate the opinions of otliers ; but to God, as dwelling in pure light, all things are visible; for he penetrating into i the very recesses of the soul, is able to see, with the most \ perfect certainty, what is invisible to others, and being possess- ' ed of prescience and of providence, his own peculiar attributes, he allows nothing to abuse its liberty, and to stray out of the reach of his comprehension, since with him, there is no uncertanty even in the future, for there is nothing uncertain nor even future to God.

It is plain therefore that the creator of all created things, and the maker of all the things that have ever been made, and the governor of all the things which are subject to government, must of necessity be a being of universal knowledge ; and he is in truth the father, and creator, and governor of all things in heaven and in the -vrhole world ; and indeed future events are overshadowed by the distance of future time, which is sometimes a short and sometimes along interval.

But God is the creator of time also; for he is the father of its father, and the father of time is the world, which made its own mother the creation of time, so that time stands towards God in the relation of a grandson ; for this world is a younger son of God, inasmuch as it is perceptible by the outward sense ; for the only son he speaks of as older than the world, is idea,* and this is not perceptible by the intellect; but having thought the other worthy of the rights of primogeniture, he has decided that it shall remain with him ; therefore, this younger son, perceptible, by the external senses being set in motion, has caused the nature of time to shine forth, and to become conspicuous, so that there is nothing future to God, who has the very boundaries of time subject to him ; for their life is not time, but the beautiful model of time, eternity ; and in eternity nothing is past and nothing is future, but everything is present only.

Having therefore now sufficiently discussed the question of the living God never knowing repentance, it comes next in order for us to explain what is the meaning of the expression, " God considered that he had made man upon the earth, and he thought within himself."

Then the creator of the world, having attached to himself the two most lasting powers of cogitation and deliberation — the one being a conception conceived within his own breast, and the other the discussion of such conception — and since he continually employs them for the contemplation of bis own worlds, those things which do not leave their appointed station he praises for their obedience, but those which change their place he pursues with the punishment appointed for deserters ; for some bodies he has endowed with habit, others with nature, others with soul, and some with rational soul ; for instance, he has bound stones and beams, which are torn from their kindred materials, with the most powerful bond of habit ; and this habit is the inclination of the spirit to return to itself ; for it begins at the middle and reading in the text is ovckva. proceeds onwards towards the extremities, and then when it has touched the extreme houndar)', itTturns back again, until it has again arrived at the same place from which it originally started. This is the continued unalterable course, up and down, of habit, which runners, imitating in their triennial festivals, in those great common spectacles of all men, displayas a brilliant achievement, and a worthy subject of rivalry and contention.

VIII, And he has given to plants a nature which he has combined of as many powers as possible, that is of the nutritive, and the changeable, and the forming power ; for they are nourished when they have need of nourishment ; and a proof of this is that those plants which are not irrigated waste away and are dried up, as on the other hand those which have water supplied to them do visibly grow, for those which for a time were mere creepers on the ground, by reason of their shortness, suddenly spring up and become very long branches. And why need I speak of the changes which they undergo? for at the time of the winter solstice thek leaves wither and fall to the ground ; and the eyes, as they are called by the agricultural labourers, which appear on the young shoots, close up like the eyes of animals, and all the mouths which are calculated to send, forth young buds, are bound up ; their internal nature being at that time confined and quiet, in order that, when it has taken breath, like a wrestler who has gone tlurough a little preliminary exercise, and having again collected its appropriate strength, it may return again to its customary operations.

And this happens at' the seasons of both spring and summer, for then their nature, waking as it were out of a deep sleep, opens its eyes, and expands and widens its previously closed mouth ; and then it brings forth all those things of which it was pregnant, leaves, and young shoots, and tendrils, and feelers, and fruit on all its branches ; and then when these tlnugs have come to perfection it affords nourishment and food to them, as a mother does to her child by some invisible passages which are similar in principle to the breasts in women, and it never ceases to nourish them until the fruit be come to complete ripeness; and that which is thoroughly ripe is then perfected, when, even if no one gathers it, it of its own accord hastens to separate itself from its kindred branch, inasmuch as it no longer stands in need of nourishment from its parent, being able, if it should meet with a fitting soil, itself to sow and beget offspring resembhng its own parents.

And the Creator has made the soul to differ from nature in these things — in the outward sense, and imagination, and impetuosity ; for plants are destitute of impetuosity and devoid of imagination, and without any participation in the outward sense. But every animal partakes of all these qualities abovementioned, all together. Now the outward sense, as indeed its name shows, in some degree is a kind of insertion, placing the things that are made apparent to it in the mind ; for in the mind, since that is the greatest store-house and receptacle for all things, is everything placed and treasured up which comes under the operation of the sense of seeing or hearing, or the other organs of the outward senses. And imagination is an impression of figures in the soul ; for the things which each of the outward senses has brought in, like a ring or a seal, on them it imprints its own character. And the mind, being like wax, having received the impression, keeps it carefully in itself until forgetfulness, the enemy of memory, has smoothed off the edges of the impression, or else has rendered it dim, or perhaps has completely effaced it.

And that which has been visible and has been impressed upon the soul at times affects the soul in a way consistent ^vith itself, and at other times in a different way ; and this passion to which it is subject is called appetite, which philosophers who define such things say is the first motion of the soul. In such important points are animals superior to plants. Let us now see in what man is superior to the rest of the animal creation.

Man, then, has received this one extraordinary gift, intellect, which is accustomed to comprehend the nature of all bodies and of all things at the same time ; for, as in the body, the sight is the most important faculty, and since in the universe the nature of light is the most pre-eminent thing, in the same manner that part of us which is entitled to the highest rank is the mind. For the mind is the sight of the soul, shining transcend ently with its own rays, by which the great and dense darkness which ignorance of things sheds around is dissipated.

This species of soul is not composed of the same elements as those of wliich the other kinds were made, but it has received a purer and more excellent essence of which the divine natures were formed ; on which account the intellect naturally appears to be the only thing in us which is imperishable, for that is the only quality in us which the Father, who created us, thought deserving of freedom ; and, unloosing the bonds of necessity, he let it go unrestrained, bestovi'ing on it that most admirable gift and most connected with himself, the power, namely, of spontaneous will, as far as he was able to receive it ; for the irrational animals, in whose soul there is not that especial gift tending to freedom, namely, mind, are put under the yoke and have bridles put in their mouths, and so are given unto men to be their slaves, as servants are given to their masters. But man, who has had bestowed on him a voluntary and self-impelling intellect, and who for the most part puts forth his energies in accordance with deliberate purpose, very properly receives blame for the offences which he designedly commits, and praise for the good actions which he intentionally performs.

For, in the case of other plants and other animals, we cannot call either the good that is caused by them deserving of praise, nor the evil that they do deserving of blame ; for all then* motions in either direction, and all their changes, have no design about them, but are involuntary. But the soul of man, being the only one wliich has received from God the power of voluntaiy motion, and which in this respect has been madeto resemble God, and being as far as possible emancipated from the authority of that grievous and severe mistress, necessity, may rightly be visited with reproach if she does not pay due honour to the being who has emancipated her. And therefore, in such a case, ehe will most deservedly suffer the implacable punishment denounced against slavish and ungrateful minds. So that God " considered" and thought within himself, not now for the first time, but long ago, and with great steadiness and resolution, " that he had made man ;" that is to say, he considered within himself what kind of being he had made him.

For he had made him free from all bondage or restraint, able to exert his energies in accordance with his own will and deliberate purpose, on this account : that so knowing what things were good and what, on the contrary, were evil, and liaving arrived at a proper comprehension of what is honourable and what is disgraceful, and apprehending what things kp are just and what unjust, and, in short, what things flow from virtue and what from wickedness, he might exercise a choice of the better objects and an avoidance of their opposites ; and this is the meaning of the oracle recorded in Deuteronom}', " Behold, I have put before thy face life and death ; good and evil. Do thou choose life."* Therefore he teaches us by thia sentence both that men have a knowledge of good and of the contrary, evil, and that it is their duty to choose the better in preference to the worse, preserving reason within themselves as an incorruptible judge, to be guided by the arguments which sound sense suggests, and to reject those which are brought forward by the contrary power.

Having now therefore explained these matters sufficiently, let us pass on to what comes next. And this is what follows : " I will destroy," says God, " the man whom I have made from off the face of the earth, from man to beast, from creeping things to the fowls of the air, because I have considered and repent that I have made them." f Now, some persons, when they hear the expressions which I have just cited, imagine that the living God is here giving away to anger and passion ; but God is utterly inaccessible to any passion whatever. For it is the peculiar property of human weakness to be disquieted by any such feelings, but God has neither the irrational passions of the soul, nor are the parts and limits of the body in the least belonging to him. But, nevertheless, such things are spoken of with reference to God by the great lawgiver in an introductory sort of way, for the sake of admonishing those persons who could not be corrected otherwise.

For of all the laws which are couched in the form of injunction or prohibition, and such alone are properly speaking laws ; there are two principal positions laid down with respect to the great cause of all things : one, that God is not as a man ; the other, that God is as a man. J But the first of these assertions is confirmed by the most certain truth, while the latter is introduced for the instruction of the many. j In reference to which, it is said concerning them, " as a man would instruct his son." § And this is said for the sake of instruction and admonition, and not because he is really such by nature.

For of men some are attached to the service of the J Numbers xxiii. 19. § Deuteronomy i. 31. soul, and others to that of the body; now the companions of the soul, being able to associate with incorporeal natures, appreciable only by the intellect, do not compare the living God to any species of created beings ; but, dissociating it with any idea of distinctive qualities (for this is what most especially contiibutes to his happiness and to his consummate felicity, to comprehend his naked existence without any coimection with figure or cliaracter), they, I say, are content with the bare conception of his existence, and do not attempt to invest him with any form. But those who enter into agreements and alliances with the body, being unable to throw off the robes of the flesh, and to behold that nature, which alone of all natures has no need of anything, but is sufficient for itself, and simple, and unalloyed, and incapable of being compared with anything else, from the same notions of the cause of all things that they do of themselves ; not considering that in the case of a being who exists through a concurrence of many faculties, he has need of many parts in order to supply the necessities of each of those faculties. XIT.

But God, inasmuch as he is uncreated, and the Being who has brought all other things to creation, stood in need of none of those things which are usually added to creatures. For what ai-e we to say ? Shall we say, if he is possessed of the different organic parts, that he has feet for the sake of walking? But where is he to walk who fills all places at once with his presence .'' And to whom is he to go, when there is no one of equal honour with himself? And why is he to walk? It cannot be out of any regard for his health as we do. Again, are we to say that he has hands for the purpose of giving and taking? he never receives anything from any one. For in addition to the fact of his wanting nothing he actually has everything; and when he gives, he employs reason as the minister of his gifts, by whose agency also he created the world. Once more, he had no need of eyes, the organs without which tliere can be no comprehension of the light perceptible by the outward senses ; but the light perceptible by the outward senses is a created light ; and even before the creation God saw, using himself as light.

And why need we mention the organs of luxury ? For if he has these organs, then he is fed, and when lie has satisfied himself he leaves off eating, and after he has left eating he wants food again ; and I need not enumerate other particulars which are the necessary consequences of this ; for these are the fabulous inventions of impious men, who represent God, in word indeed only as endued with human form, but in fact as influenced by human passions.

Why, then, does Moses speak of the Uncreate as ha\ing feet and hands, and as coming in and as going out? And why does he speak of him as clothed in armour for the purpose of repelling his enemies ? For he does speak of him as girding himself with a sword, and as using arrows, and winds, and destructive fire. And the poets say that the whirlwind and the thunderbolt, mentioning them under other names, are the weapons of the Cause of all things. Moreover, speaking of him as they M-ould of men, they add jealousy, anger, passion, and other feelings like these. But to those who ask questions on these subjects, one may answer, "My good men ! A man who would establish the most excellent system of laws, ought to keep one end constantly in view, namely, to do good to aU who come \vithin his reach." Those, therefore, who have received a fortunate disposition, and an education in all respects blameless, finding the path of life which proceeds in this direction plain and straight, take truth with them as the companion of their journey ; by which they are initiated in the true mysteries relating to the hving God, and therefore they never attribute any of the properties of created beings to him.

Now to these disciples, that principal assertion in the sacred oracles is especially well adapted, that " God is not as man," but neither is he as heaven, nor as the world ; for these species are endued with distinctive qualities, and they come under the perception of the outward senses. But he is not even comprehensible by the intellect, except merely as to his essence ; for his existence, indeed, is a fact which we do comprehend concerning him, but beyond the fact of his existence, we can understand nothing.

But those who have received a duller and more sluggish nature, and v/ho have been wrongly brought up as children, and who are unable to see acutely, stand in need of physicians for law-givers, who may be able to devise an appropriate remedy for the existing complaint, since a severe master is a beneficial thing for imtractable' and foolish servants ; for they, fearing his inflictions and his threats, are chastened by fear, in spite of themselves. Let, therefore, all such men learn false terrors, by' ■which they may be benefited if they cannot be led into the right way by truth. For in the case of men who are afflicted with dangerous illnesses, the most legitimate physicians do not venture to tell them the truth, knowing that by such conduct they will be rendered more desponding, and so that the disease will not be cured ; but that by contrary language and comfort, they will bear the disease which presses upon them more easily, and the illness will be more likely to be allayed. For what man in his senses would say to a patient under his care, " My good man, you shall have the knife applied to you, and cautery, and your limbs shall be amputated," even if such things were absolutely necessary to be endured?

No man on earth would say sp. For if he did, his patient would sink in his heart before the operations could be performed, and so receiving another disease in his soul, more grievous than that already existing in his body, he would ^resolutely renounce the cure ; but if, on the other hand, through the deceit of the physician he is led to form a contrary expectation, he will submit to everything with a patient spirit, even though the means of his salvation may may be most painful. Therefore the lawgiver, being a most admirable physician of the passions and diseases of the soul, has proposed to himself one task and one end, namely, to eradicate the diseases of the mind by the roots, so that there may not be a single one left behind to put forth any shoot of incurable distemper.

In this way, then, he hoped to be* able to eradicate it, if he were to represent the Cause of all things as indulging in threats and indignation, and implacable anger, and, moreover, as employing defensive arms to ward off attacks, and to chastise the wicked ; for the fool alone is corrected by such means : and therefore it is that it appears to me that with these two principal assertions above mentioned, namely, that God is as a man and that God is not as a man, are connected two other principles consequent upon and connected with them, namely, that of fear and that of love ; for I see that all the exhortations of the laws to piety, are referred either to the love or to the fear of the living God. To those, therefore, who do not attribute either the parts or the passions of men to the living God, but who, as becoroes the majesty of God, honour him in himself, and by himself alone, to love him is most natural ; but to the others, it is most appropriate to fear him.

Such, then, are the things which it was proper to premise before we entered upon the following investigation : — But we must now go back again to the original consideration, according to which we were in doubt what the meaning is which is concealed under the expression, " I was indignant that I had made them." Perhaps Moses here means to show, that bad men are made so by the anger of God, but good men by his grace ; for immediately afterwards he proceeds to add, but " Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." But anger, which is a passion peculiar to man, is here spoken of with especial felicity, but still more metaphorically than the real truth, in order to the explanation of a matter which is extremely necessary, namely, to show that everything that we do through anger, or 'fear, or pain, or grief, or any other passion, is confessedly faulty and open to reproach ; but all that we do in accordance with right reason and knowledge is praiseworthy. You see now what great caution he uses in speaking here, when he says, " I was indignant that I had made them," not reversing the order of the words so as to say, "

Because I had made them I was indignant;" for the latter expression would have become a person who repented of what he had done, an idea which is inconsistent with the nature of God, which foresees everything. But the other doctrine is a general one, being the expression of a man who means to explain by it that anger is the fountain of all sins, and reason the source of all good actions. But God, remembering his oyvn perfect goodness in every particular, even if the whole or the greater part of mankind fall off from him by reason of the abundance and extravagance of their sins, stretching forth his right hand, his hand of salvation, supports man and raises him up, not per mitting the whole race to be utterly destroyed and to perish everlastingly.

On which account God now says, that Noah found grace in his sight, when all the rest of mankind appearing ungrateful were about to receive punishment, in order that he might mingle sa\ing mercy with judgment against sinners. As the psalmist has said somewhere, " My song shall be of mercy and judgment."* For if God were to choose to judge the race of mankind without mercy, he would pass on them a sentence of condemnation ; since there has never been a single man who, by his osvn unassisted power, has run the whole course of his life, from the beginning to the end, without stumbling ; but since some men have fallen into voluntary, and some into involuntary sins, that therefore the human race might still subsist, even though many of the subordinate members of it go to destruction. God mingles mercy with his justice, which he exercises towards the good actions of even the unworthy ; and he not only pities them while judging, but judges them while pitying them, for mercy is older than justice in his sight, inasmuch as he knew the man who deserved punishment, not after he had passed sentence on him, but also before sentence.

On which account he says in another passage, " The cup is in the hand of the Lord ; full of the mixture of unmixed wine ;"t and j'et that which is mixed is not unmixed ; but these words are spoken in a sense in the strictest accordance with natural philosophy, and in one perfectly consistent with what has been said before ; for God exerts his power in an uutempered degree towards himself, but in a mixed character towards his creatures ; for it is impossible for a mortal nature to endure his power unmitigated. Do you think that you would be unable to look at the unmodified light of the sun ? If you were to try to do so, your sight would be extinguished by the brilliancy of his rays, and be wholly blinded by a close approach to that luminary, before it could perceive anything, and yet the sun is only one of the works of God, a portion of the heaven, a fragment of compressed sether, but you are nevertheless able to gaze upon those uncreated powers which exist around him, and emit the most dazzling light, without any veil or modification.

As, therefore, the sun extends his rays from heaven to the boundaries of the earth, tempering and dissolving the exceeding violence of tbe heat that is in them by cool air, for he mixes his rays with that, in order that that portion of them which gives light being separated from that portion which gives heat, he may remit somewhat of his power of burning, but retain the power by which he gives light, and so be received with welcome, when meeting that kindred and friendly light which is situated in the eyes of man ; for the meeting of these two lights in the same place, coming from an opposite direction, and the reception of the one by tlie other, is what causes that comprehension Avhich we arrive at by our faculty of sight : but what mortal (jould possibly receive in this manner the knowledge, and wisdom, and prudence, and justice, and all the other virtues of God, in an unalloyed state ? The •whole heaven, the whole world, could not do so.

Therefore the Creator, knowing the way in which he exceeded in all things that were most excellent, and the inherent natural weakness of created beings, even though they boast loudly, does not think either to benefit them or to chastise them to the extremity of his power, but only as far as he sees that those who are to be the objects of his benefits or of his chastisements have power to receive either. If, then, we are able to drink of and to enjoy a gentle and moderate mixture of his powers, we might receive sufficient happiness therefrom, than which the race of man ought not to seek to receive any more complete enjoyment. We have now explained what the mixed and unmixed powers and what those really supreme faculties are which exist in the living God alone.

And similar to what has been previously said, is that passage which occurs in another place, " God spake once, and twice I have also heard the same."* The expression " once " resembles the unmixed power, for the unmixed power is the unit, and the unit is the unmixed power ; but the " twice " resembles the mixed power, for neither one' nor the other is a simple thing, inasmuch as it admits of combination or of division. God, therefore, utters unmixed units : for the word which he utters is not a beating of the air, being absolutely mingled with nothing else whatever, but it is incorporeal and naked, in no respect different from the unit.