For it was not the same thing, to destroy a perfect and an imperfect work of the mind, nor is what is only likened by a figure similar to what is really comprehended, nor is what is only hoped for similar to what really exists. On this account, in one case, an uncertain penalty is affixed to an uncertain action; in another, a definite punishment is enacted by law against an act which is perfected, but which is perfected not with respect to virtue, but with reference to what is done in an irreproachable manner, according to some act. For it is not she who has just received the seed, but she who has been for some lime pregnant, who brings forth this offspring, professing boasting rather than modesty. For it is impossible that she who has been pregnant some time should miscarry, since it is fitting that the plant should be conducted to perfection by him who sowed it; but it is not strange if some mishap should befall the woman who was pregnant, since she was afflicted with a disease beyond the art of the physician.
XXV. And do not suppose that Hagar is represented as beholding herself as pregnant, by the words, " seeing that she had conceived," but as beholding her mistress Sarah; for after- * Exodua xxi. 22.
186 PniLO JUD^EUS.
wards she speaks of herself, and says, " Seeing that she was pregnant, she was despised before her.'** Why so? Because the intermediate and indifferent arts, and the sciences in accord ance with them, see indeed of what they are pregnant, but they nevertheless see in every respect but dimly; but the sciences comprehend clearly and very distinctly. For science is something beyond art, having derived from reason a certain firmness and exemption from error; for this is the definition ot art, a system of comprehensions well practised with reference to some desirable end, the word desirable being very properly added by reason of the abundance of evil arts. But the definition of science is a safe and firm comprehension, which, through reason, is not liable to any error. Therefore we call music and grammar, and other pursuits, arts; for those also who are made perfect in them, as musicians, or grammarians, are called artists. But we call philosophy and the other virtues, sciences, and those who are possessed of the knowledge of them we call scientific; for they are prudent, and temperate, and philosophical, not one of whom is ever deceived in the doctrines of a philosophy which he himself has cultivated, any more than the artists, whom I have mentioned before, err in their speculations with respect to their indifferent arts.
For as the eyes see, and still the mind sees more clearly by means of the eyes; and as the ears hear, but nevertheless the mind hears better through the medium of the ears; and as the nostrils smell, and yet the soul smells more precisely through the instrumentality of the nostrils; and in like manner, as the other external senses comprehend their respective appropriate objects, still the mind comprehends them also more purely and distinctly by their ministration. For to speak properly, it is the mind which is the eye of eyes, the hearing of hearing, and the more pure external sense of each of the external senses, using them as ministers in a court of justice, and itself deciding on the nature of the objects submitted to it. so as to approve of some and to reject others. In the same way, those that are called the intermediate arts, resembling the faculties of the body, indulge in contemplations according to certain simple observations of them, but the sciences do so with greater accuracy and with an exceedingly careful investigation.
For the same relation that the mind bears to the outward * Genesis xvi. 4.
ON SEEKING INSTRUCTION. 187 souse, that same does science bear towards art; for, as has been said before, the soul is as it were the outward sense of the outward sense; therefore each of them has attracted to itself some slight things of nature, concerning which it labours and occupies itself, geometry having appropriated lines, and music sounds, and philosophy the whole nature of existing things. For this world is its subject matter, and so is the whole essence, both visible and invisible, of existing things.
What then is there wonderful if the soul, which sees both the whole and the parts, sees them too better than they do, as if it were furnished with larger and more acute eyes? Very naturally, therefore, proper philosophy will behold intermediate instruction its handmaiden, and see that she is pregnant, more than the other will see that she is.
XXVI. And yet even this is not unknown to any one, namely, that philosophy has bestowed upon all the particular sciences their first principles and seeds, from which speculations respecting them appear to arise. For it is geometry which invented equilateral and scalene triangles, and circles, and polygons, and all kinds of other figures. But it was no longer geometry that discovered the nature of a point, and a line, and a superficies, and a solid, which are the roots and foundations of the aforementioned figures. For from whence could it define and pronounce that a point is that which has no parts, that a line is length without breadth; that a super- ficies is that which has only length and breadth; that a solid is that which has the three properties, length, breadth, and depth? For these discoveries belong to philosophy, and the consideration of these definitions belongs wholly to the phi- losopher. Again, to write and read is the undertaking of this more imperfect kind of grammar, which some people, pervert- ing the name of, call grammatistica. But to the more perfect kind of grammar belongs the explanation of the great works of the poets and historians.
When, therefore, men are going through the different parts of speech, are they not in so doing trying to drag over to themselves and appropriate as a kind of accessory the dis- coveries of philosophy? For it is the peculiar province of philosophy to inquire what a conjunction, what a noun, what a verb, what a common noun, what a particular noun, what is deficient in a speech, what is superfluous, what is an affirma- 188 PIIILO JUD.EUS.
188 PIIILO JUD.EUS.
tive, what an interrogative, what an indirect question, what is a comprehensive expression, what is a supplicatory form of address. For this is a science which has been compounded for the purpose of the investigation of independent propo- sitions, and axioms, and categorems. But, moreover, has not the whole question of semi-vowels, or vowels, or such elements as are completely mute, and the consideration of the sense in which each of these expressions is ordinarily used, and in short every notion connected with the voice, and the elements, and the parts of speech, been thoroughly worked out and brought to an accurate system by philosophy? And those thieves, after having as it were carried off a few drops from her torrent, and having sought to impregnate their own shallow souls with what they have stolen, are not ashamed to bring forth her resources as their own.
XXVII. On which account, being elated and proud, they disregard the mistress to whom in reality the authority and the complete confirmation of their contemplations belong. But she, perceiving their neglect, will convict them, and will speak freely to them, and say, " I am treated unjustly, and in utter violation of our agreement, as far as depends on you who transgress the covenants entered into between us; for from the time that you first took to your bosom the elementary branches of education, you have honoured above measure the offspring of my handmaiden, and have respected her as your wife, and you have so completely repudiated me that you never by any chance came to the same place with me. And perhaps this may be only a suspicion of mine respecting you, arising from your open connection with my servant, which leads me to conjecture your alienation from myself, though it is not really manifest. But if your disposition is contrary to that which I suspect, still it is impossible for any one else to know this, but it is easy to God alone." On which account she says very appropriately, " May God judge between thee and me;* not making haste to condemn him beforehand as having done her wrong, but intimating a doubt, that perhaps he may speedily do her right, which in point of fact is seen to be the case not long afterwards, when he, excusing himself and remedying her doubts, says to her, " Behold thy handmaiden is in thy hands, do unto her as it seemeth good to thee."
* Genesis xvi. 5.
ON SEEKING INSTRUCTION. ]89 For also, when he calls her her handmaiden, he confesses both fads, both that she is a slave and also that she is a child; for the name of the handmaiden {naihi<r%r\) suits both these circumstances. At the same time also, he confesses the contrary things, opposing the child to the full-grown woman, and the mistress to her slave, all but crying out in plain words: I embrace indeed encyclical instruction as a younger maiden and as a handmaiden, but I honour knowledge and prudence as full-grown and a mistress.
And the expression, " She is in thy hands," means, she is in thy power and subject to thee. And this is also a symbol of something else of this nature, namely, that the qualities of the handmaiden come to the hands of the body; for the encyclical branches of knowledge have need of the bodily organs and faculties; but the qualities of the mistress reach the soul; for the things which belong to prudence and know- ledge come under the province of reason; so that in proportion as the mind is more powerful and more efficacious than, and in short superior to, the hand, in the same proportion also do I look upon knowledge and wisdom as more admirable than encyclical accomplishment, and I honour them in a higher degree.
Do thou, therefore, 0 thou who both art the mistress, and who art so accounted by me, take all my encyclical instruction and use it as thy handmaid, doing to it as it shall seem good to thee; for I am not unaware that whatever pleases thee is in all respects good even though it may not always be pleasant, and is useful even though it be far removed from being agreeable. But admonition and reproof are both good and profitable to those who stand in need of correction, which indeed the holy scriptures call by another name, and de- nominate affliction.
XXVIII. On which account the historian presently adds, "And she afflicted her;" an expression equivalent to, she admonished and corrected her. For a sharp spear is very profitable for those who are corrupted by over security and indolences, just as it is of use with restive horses; since they can scarcely be subdued and made manageable by the whip and by gentle leading. Do you not see how they are utterly unaffected by the prizes proposed to them?* They are fat, * Thia is scarcely sense, but the truth probably is that the passage 190 rniLO jud^eus.
they are stout, they are sleek, they breathe hard; then they take up the actions of impiety, miserable and wretched mat that they arc, seeking a melancholy reward, being proclaimed and crowned as conquerors by ungodliness. For by reason of the prosperity which was constantly flowing gently towards them, they looked upon themselves as silver or golden gods, after the fashion of adulterated money, forgetting the real and true coinage.
And Moses testifies to this view of the matter when he says, " He got fat, he became stout, he became swollen, and forsook God who had created him."* So that if excessive relaxation begets the greatest of all evils, impiety, its contrary, affliction, in accordance with the law produces that perfect good, much praised correction; and proceeding outward from this point, he also calls the unleavened bread the symbol of the first festival, " the bread of affliction."t And yet who is there who does not know that feasts and festivals produce cheerful joy and delectation, and not affliction? But it is plain that he is here usiug in a perverted sense this word for the labour of him who is the corrector. For the most numerous and greatest blessings are usually acquired by laborious practice and exer- cise, and by vigorously excited labour. But the festival of the soul is emulation, which is labour to attain those things which are most excellent and which are brought to perfection; on which account it is expressly commanded to " eat the unlea- vened bread with bitter herbs;"J not by way of an additional dish, but because men in general look upon the fact of being prevented from swelling and boiling over with their appetites, but being forced to contract and restrain them as a grievous thing, thinking it a bitter thing to unlearn the indulgence of their passions, which is the real feast and festival of a mind which loves honourable contests.
XXIX. It is for this reason that the law, as it appears to me, was given in a place which is called Bitterness; for to do wrong is pleasant, but to act justly is laborious. And this is the most unerring law; for the sacred history says, " And after they had gone out from the passions of Egypt they came tt is corrupt. Mangey proposes one or two emendations, but they art not very satisfactory.
* Deuteronomy xxxii. 15. *T Deuteronomy xvi. 3.
I Exodus xii. 8.
ON SEEKING INSTRUCTION. 191 Marah: and they were not able to drink of the water at Marah, for it was bitter. On this account the name of that place was called Bitterness. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And Moses cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him a stick, and he cast it into the water, and the water was made sweet. And then he gave him justification and judgment, and then he tempted him."* For the invisible trial and proofs of the soul are in labouring and in enduring bitterness; for then it is hard to know which way it will incline; for many men are very speedily fatigued and fall away, thinking labour a terrible adversary, and they let their hands fall out of weakness, like tired wrestlers, determining to return to Egypt to the indul- gence of their passions.
But others, with much endurance and great vigour, support- ing the fearful and terrible events of the wilderness pass through the contest of life, keeping their life safe from over- throw and from destruction, and rising up in vigorous contest against the necessities of nature, such as hunger, thirst, cold, and heat, which are in the habit of reducing other persons to slavery, and subduing them with great exuberance of strength. And the cause of this is not merely labour, but also the sweet- ness with which it is combined; for the scripture says, " And the water was made sweet." But sweet and pleasant labour is called by another name, fondness for labour; for that which is sweet in labour is the love of, and desire for, and admiration of, and friendship for, what is honourable. Let no one, there- fore, reject such affliction as this, and let no one think that the table of festivity and cheerfulness is called the bread of allliction for injury rather than for advantage; for the soul which is rightly admonished is supported by the doctrines oi instruction.
XXX. This unleavened cake is so sacred that it is enjoined in the holy scriptures, " to place in the innermost part of the temple, on the golden table, twelve loaves of unleavened bread, corresponding in number to the twelve tribes; and those loaves shall be called the shew-bread."f And, again, it is in the law expressly " forbidden to offer any leaven or any honey upon the altar;" J for it is a difficult thing to consecrate as holy either the sweetnesses of the pleasures according to the * Exodus xv. 23. f Exodus xxv. 30. $ Leviticus ii. 11.
192 PHILO JUDiEUS.
body, or the light and unsubstantial elations of the soul, since they are by their own intrinsic nature profane and unholy.
Does not, then, the prophetic word, by name Moses, very rightly speak in dignified language when he says, " Thou shalt remember all the road by which the Lord God led thee in the wilderness, and how he afflicted thee, and tried thee, and proved thee, that he might know what was in thy heart, and whether thou wouldest keep his commandments. Did he not afflict thee and oppress thee with hunger, and feed thee with manua which thy fathers knew not, that he might make thee know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God?"* Who, then, is so impious as to conceive that God is one who afflicts, and who brings that most pitiable death of hunger upon those who are not able to live without food? For God is good, and the cause of good things, bounteous, the saviour, the supporter, the giver of wealth, the giver of great gifts, driving out wickedness from the sacred boundaries; for thus did he drive out the burdens of the earth, Adam and Cain, from paradise. Let us, then, not be led aside by words, but let us consider and examine what meaning is intended to be conveyed under figurative expressions, and pronounce that the words "he afflicted," are equivalent to "he instructed, and he admonished, and he corrected." And when it is said that he oppressed them with hunger, it does not mean that he caused a deficiency of meat and drink, but of pleasures, and desires, and fear, and grief, and acts of injustice, and, in short, of all things which are the works of wickedness or of the passions. And what is said immediately afterwards is an evidence of this: " He fed thee with manna." Is it, then, proper to call that food which, without any exertion or hardship on his part, and with- out any trouble of his is given to man, not out of the earth as is usual, but from heaven, a marvellous work, afforded for the benefit of those who are to be permitted to avail themselves of it, the cause of hunger and affliction, and not rather, on the con- trary, the cause of prosperity and happiness, of freedom from fear, and of a happy state of orderly living? But men in general and the common herd think that those who are nourished on the word of God live in a miserable and wretched manner; for they are without the taste of the all-nourishing * Deuteronomy viii. 2.
ON SEEKING INSTRUCTION. 193 food of wisdom; but they are not aware that they are living in the height of happiness.
XXXI. Thus, therefore, there is a certain description of affliction which is profitable, so that its very most humiliating form, even slavery, is accounted a great good. And there is a father who is recorded in the sacred writings as having prayed for this, for his son, namely, the most excellent Isaac for the foolish Esau; for he says somewhere, " By thy sword shalt thou live, and thou shalt serve thy brother."* Judging that destiny to be the most advantageous one for a man who had chosen war rather than peace, and who was as it were con- stantly armed and engaged in battle, by reason of the sedition and disorder constantly existing in his soul, the destiny namely of being a subject and a servant, and of obeying all the commands which the lover of temperance should lay upon him.
And it is from this consideration, as it appears to me that one of the disciples of Moses, by name the peaceful, who in his native language is called Solomon, says, " My son, neglect not the instruction of God, and be not grieved when thou art reproved by him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth; and scourge th every son whom he receiveth."t Thus, then, scourging and reproof are looked upon as good, so that by means of it agreement and relationship with God arise. For what can be more nearly related than a son is to his father, and a father to his son?
But, that we may not seem to be too prolix connecting one argument with another, we will, besides what we have already said, just add one most evident proof that a certain descrip- tion of affliction is the work of virtue. For there is such a law as this, " Thou shalt not afflict any widow or orphan, but if thou dost afflict them with wickedness." What does this mean? Is it then possible to be afflicted by something else? For if afflictions were the work of wickedness alone, then it would be superfluous to add what would be admitted by all, and which would be understood without any such addition. But, you will most certainly say, I know that meu are reproved by virtue, and instructed by wisdom; on which account I do not blame every kind of affliction, but I very greatly admire that which is the work of justicj and of the * Genesis xxvii. 40. f Proverbs iii. 11.
VOL. II. O KM rniLo jud.eus.
law; for that corrects by means of punishment, but that which proceeds from folly and wickedness and is pernicious, I do, as becomes me, detest, and pronounce real evil. When, therefore, you hear that Hagar was afflicted by Sarah, you must not suppose that any of those things befell her, which arise from rivalry and quarrels among women; for the question is not here about woman, but about minds: the one being practised in the branches of elementary instruction, and the other being devoted to the labours of virtue.
A TREATISE ON FUGITIVES.
I. "And Sarah afflicted her, and she fled from before her face. And the angel of the Lord found her sitting by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by a fountain which is in the way to Shur. And the angel of the Lord said unto her: ' Thou handmaiden of Sarah, whence art thou come? and whither art thou going?' And she answered and said: ' I am fleeing from the face of Sarah, my mistress.' And the angel of the Lord said unto her: ' Return unto thy mistress, and be thou humbled beneath her hands.' And the angel of the Lord said unto her: ' Behold, thou art with child, and thou shalt bring forth a son, and shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard the cry of thy humiliation. He shall be a rude man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him.' "* Having in our former treatise spoken what was becoming respecting the preliminary branches of educatiou, and respecting affliction, we will now proceed in regular order to discuss the topic of fugitives. Now Moses often mentions persons who flee, as here he says concerning Hagar, that being afflicted she fled from the face of her mistress. I think therefore that there are three causes for flight — hatred, fear, and shame. Now women leave their husbands out of hatred, and for the same reason men desert their wives. But children flee from their parents, and servants from their masters, out of fear. And lastly, friends avoid their companions out of shame, when * Genesis xvi. 8.
ON FUGITIVES. 195 they have done anything which is displeasing to them And before now I have known instances of fathers who have led a life of effeminate luxury, reverencing the austere and philo- sophical lives of their sons, and out of shame preferring to live in the country rather than in the city.
Now of all these three causes, one may find instances revealed in the sacred scriptures Accordingly, Jacob, the practiser of virtue, fled from his father-in-law Laban out of hatred, and from his brother Esau out of fear, as I shall show presently. But Hagar flees out of shame. And a proof of this is, that the angel, that is the word of God, met her, with the intent to recommend her what she ought to do, and to guide her in her return to her mistress's house. For he encouraged her, and said unto her: "The Lord has heard the cry of thy humiliation," which you uttered, not out of fear, nor yet out of hatred. For the one is the feeling of an ignoble soul, and the other of one which loves contention, but under t he influence of that copy of temperance and modesty, shame. Tor it was natural, if she had fled out of fear, that he would have encouraged her mistress, who was holding out threats to alarm her, to comfort her, and to restore her to tranquillity. For then it would have been safe for the fugitive to return, and not before. But no one intercedes for her to her mistress, inasmuch as she was already appeased by herself. But this angel, who is reproof, at the same time friendly and full of advice, out of his good-will teaches her not to feel only shame, but also to entertain confidence, for that modesty is but half a virtue, when separated from proper boldness.