And these most pitiless of all men have not been restrained by shame from stripping the man of his only garment, namely, speech; " For," says the scripture, " it is his only covering." — What is a man's only covering, except speech? For, as neighing is the peculiar attribute of a horse, and barking of a dog, and lowing of an ox, and roaring of a lion, so also is speaking, and speech itself, the peculiar property of man: for this is what man has received above all other animals as his peculiar gift, as a protection, and bulwark, and panoply, and wall of defence; he being, of all living creatures, the most beloved by God.
XVIII. On which account the scripture adds, " This is the only covering of his nakedness;" for what can so becomingly overshadow and conceal the reproaches and disgraces of life, as speech? For ignorance is a disgrace akin to irrational nature, but education is the brother of speech, and an orna- ment properly belonging to man. In what then will a man lie down to rest? That is to say, in what will a man find tranquillity and a respite from his labours, except in speech? For speech is a relief to our most miserable and afflicted race? As therefore, when men have been overwhelmed by grief, or by fear, or by any other evil, tranquillity, and constancy, and the kindness of friends have often restored them; so it happens, not often, but invariably, that speech, the only real averter of evil, wards off that most heavy burden which the necessities of that body in the which we are bound up, and the unforeseen accidents of external circumstances which attack us, impose upon us; for speech is a friend, and an acquaintance, and a kinsman, and a companion bound up within us; I should rather say, fitted close and united to us by some indissoluble and invisible cement of nature.
On this account it is, that it forewarns us of what will be expedient for us, and when any unexpected event befalls us it comes forward of its own accord to assist us; not only bringing advantage of one kind only, such as that which he who is an adviser without acting, or an agent who can give no advice, may supply, but of both kinds: for he does not display a half- nun plete power, but one which is perfect in every part. Inasmuch, as even if it were to fail in his endeavour, and 316 PHILO JUD.-EUS.
in any conceptions which may have been formed, or efforts which may have been made, it still can have recourse to the third species of assistance, namely, consolation.
For speech is, as it were, a medicine for the wounds of the soul, and a saving remedy for its passions, which, " even before the setting of the sun," the lawgiver says one must restore: that is to say, before the all-brilliant beams of the almighty and all-glorious God are obscured, which he, out of pity for our race, sends down from heaven upon the human mind. For while that most God-like light abides in the soul, we shall be able to give back the speech, which was deposited as a pledge, as if it were a garment, in order that he who has received this peculiar possession of man, may by its means conceal the discreditable circumstances of life, and reap the benefit of the divine gift, and indulge in a respite combined with tranquillity, in consequence of the presence of so useful an adviser and defender, who will never leave the ranks in which he has been stationed.
Moreover, while God pours upon you the light of his beams, do you hasten in the light of day to restore his pledge to the Lord; for when the sun has set, then you, like the whole land of Egypt,* will have an everlasting darkness which may be felt, and being stricken with blindness and ignorance, you will be deprived of all those things of which you thought that you had certain possession, by that sharp-sighted Israel, whose pledges you hold, having made one who was by nature exempt from slavery a slave to necessity.
XIX. We have discussed this subject at this length with no other object except that of teaching that the mind, which is inclined to practise virtue, having irregular motions towards prolificness and sterility, and as one may say, being in a manner always ascending and descending, when it becomes prolific and is elevated to a height is illuminated with the archetypal and incorporeal beams of the rational spring of the all-perfecting sun; but when it descends and becomes unpro- ductive, then it is again illuminated by those images of those beams, the immortal words which it is customary to call angels. On which account we now read in the scripture, " He met the place; for the sun was set."f For when those beams of God desert the soul by means of * Exodus x. 21. f Genesis xxviii. 2.
ON DREAMS BEING SENT FHOM GOD. 317 which the clearest comprehensions of affairs are engendered in it, then arises that second and weaker light of words, and the light of things is no longer seen, just as is the case in this lower world. For the moon, which occupies the second rank next to the sun, when that body has set, pours forth a some- what weaker light than his upon the earth; and to meet a place or a word is a most sufficient gift for those who cannot discern that God is superior to every place or word; because they have not a soul wholly destitute of light, but because, since that most unmixed and brilliant light has set, they have been favoured with one which is alloyed.
" For the children of Israel had light in all their dwell- ings,"* says the sacred historian in the book of the Exodus, so that night and darkness were continually banished from them, though it is in night and darkness that those men live who have lost the eyes of the soul rather than those of the body, having no experience of the beams of virtue. But some persons — supposing that what is meant here by the figura- tive expression of the sun is the external sense and the mind, which are looked upon as the things which have the power of judging; and that what is meant by place is the divine word — understand the allegory in this manner: the practiser of virtue met with the divine word, after the mortal and human light had set; for as long as the mind thinks that it attains to a firm comprehension of the objects of intellect, and the out- ward sense conceives that it has a similar understanding of its appropriate objects, and that it dwells amid sublime objects, the divine word stands aloof at a distance; but when each of these comes to confess its own weakness, and sets in a manner while availing itself of concealment, then immediately the right reason of a soul well-practised in virtue comes in a welcome manner to their assistance, when they have begun to despair of their own strength, and await the aid which is invi- sibly coming to them from without.
XX. Therefore, the scripture says in the next verses, " That he took one of the stones of the place and placed it at his head, and slept in that place." f Any one may wonder not only at the interior and mystical doctrine contained in these words, but also at the distinct assertion, which gives us a lesson in 318 PHILO JUD^US.
labour and endurance: for the historian does not think it becoming, that the man who is devoted to the study of virtue should adopt a luxurious life, and live softly, imitating the pursuits and rivalries of those who are called indeed happy, but who are in reality full of all unhappiness; whose entire life is a sleep and a dream, according to the holy lawgiver.
These men, after they have during the whole day been doing all sorts of injustice to others, in courts of justice, and council halls, and theatres, and everywhere, then return home, like miserable men as they are, to overturn their own house. I mean not that house which comes under the class of buildings, but that which is akin to the soul, I mean the body. Intro- ducing immoderate and incessant food, and irrigating it with an abundance of pure wine, until the reason is overwhelmed, and disappears; and the passions which have their seat beneath the belly, the offspring of satiety, rise up, being carried away by unrestrained frenzy, and falling upon, and vehemently attacking all that they meet with, are only at last appeased after they have worked off their excessive violence of excitement.
But by night, when it is time to turn towards rest, having prepared costly couches and the most exquisite of beds, they lie down in the most exceeding softness, imitating the luxury of women, whom nature has permitted to indulge in a more relaxed system of life, inasmuch as their maker, the Creator of the universe, has made their bodies of a more delicate stamp. Now no such person as this is a pupil of the sacred word, but those only are the disciples of that who are real genuine men, lovers of temperance, and orderliness, and modesty, men who have laid down continence, and frugality, and fortitude, as a kind of base and foundation for the whole of life; and safe stations for the soul, in which it may anchor without danger and without changeableness: for being superior to money, and pleasure, and glory, they look down upon meats and drinks, and everything of that sort, beyond what is necessary to ward off hunger: being thoroughly ready to undergo hunger, and thirst, and heat, and cold, and all other things, however hard they may be to be borne, for the sake of the acquisition of virtue. And being admirers of whatever is most easily pro- vided, so as not to be ashamed of ever such cheap or shabty clothes, thinking rather, on the other hand, that sumptuous apparel is a reproach and great scandal to life.
ON DREAMS BEING SENT FROM GOD. 319 To these men, the soft earth is their most costly couch; their bed is bushes, and grass, and herbage, and a thick layer of leaves; and the pillows for their head are a few stones, or any little mounds which happen to rise a little above the surface of the plain.
Such a life as this, is, by luxurious men, denominated a life of hardship, but by those who live for virtue, it is called most delightful; for it is well adapted, not for those who are called men, but for those who really are such. Do you not see, that even now, also, the sacred historian represents the practiser of honourable pursuits, who abounds in all royal materials and appointments, as sleeping on the ground, and using a stone for his pillow; and a little further on, he speaks of him as asking in his prayers for bread and a cloak, the necessary wealth of nature? like one who has at all times held in contempt, the man who dwells among vain opinions, and who is inclined to revile all those who are disposed to admire him; this man is the archetypal pattern of the soul which is devoted to the practice of virtue, and an enemy of every effeminate person.
XXI. Hitherto I have been uttering the praises of the man devoted to labour and to virtue, as it occurred to me naturally; but now we must examine what is symbolically signified under the expressions made use of.
Now it is well that we should know, that the divine place and the sacred region are full of incorporeal intelligences; and these intelligences are immortal souls. Taking then one of these intelligences, and selecting one of them according as it appears to be the most excellent, this lover of virtue, of whom we are speaking, applies it to our own mind, to it as to the head of a united body; for, indeed, the mind is in a manner the head of the soul; and he does this, using the pretext in- deed as if he were going to sleep, but, in reality, as being about to rest upon the word of God, and to place the whole of his life as the lightest possible burden upon it; and it lis tens to him gladly, and receives the labourer in the paths of virtue at first, as if he were going to become a disciple; then when he has shown his approbation of the dexterity of his nature, he gives him his hand, like a gymnastic trainer, and invites him to the gymnasia, and standing firmly, compels him to wrestle with him, until he has rendered his strength so great as to be irresistible, changing his ears by the divine infln- 320 PHILO JUD.EUS.
enees into eyes, and calling this newly-modelled dispositio Israel, that is, the man who sees.* Then also he crowns him with the garland of victory. Bi this garland has a singular and foreign, and, perhaps, not alti gether a well-omened name, for it is called by the president < the games torpor, for it is said, that the breadth became toi pidf of all the rewards and of the proclamations of the herald; and of all those most wonderful prizes for pre-eminent excel lence which are had in honour; for the soul which ha received a share of irresistible power, and which has bee made perfect in the contests of virtue, and which has arrive at the very furthest limit of what is honourable, will never b unduly elated or puffed up by arrogance, nor stand upon tip toes, and boast as if it were well to make vast strides wit bare feet; but the breadth which was extended wide b opinion, will become torpid and contracted, and then will vo luntarily succumb and yield to tameness, so as being classe in an inferior order to that of the incorporeal natures, it ma carry off the victory while appearing to be defeated; for it i accounted a most honourable thing to yield the palm to thos who are superior to one's self, voluntarily rather than througl compulsion; for it is incredible how greatly the second priz in this contest is superior in real dignity and importance t the first prize in the others.
XXII. Such then may be said, by way of preface, to tb discussion of that description of visions which are sent fron God. But it is time now to turn to the subject itself, and U investigate, with accuracy, every portion of it.
The scripture therefore says, " And he dreamed a dream And behold a ladder was planted firmly on the ground, tht head of which reached to heaven, and the angels of God wer< ascending and descending along it."J By the ladder in thii thing, which is called the world, is figuratively understood th< air, the foundation of which is the earth, and the head is th< heaven; for the large interior space, which being extended ii every direction, reaches from the orb of the moon, which is * The marginal note in our bible translates Israel, "a prince o: God."
+ Genesis xxxii. 25; where, however, the expression of the bible b u the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint."
1 Genesis xxviii. 12.
ON DREAMS BEING SENT FROM GOD 321 described as the most remote of the order in heaven, but the nearest to us "by those who contemplate sublime objects, down to the earth, which is the lowest of such bodies, is the air. This air is the abode of incorporeal souls, since it seemed good to the Creator of the universe to fill all the parts of the world with living creatures. On this account he prepared the ter- restrial animals for the earth, the aquatic animals for the sea and for the rivers, and the stars for the heaven; for every one of these bodies is not merely a living animal, but is also pro- perly described as the very purest and most universal mind extending through the universe; so that there are living crea- ures in that other section of the universe, the air.
And if these things are not comprehensible by the outward senses, what of that? For the soul also is invisible. And yet it is probable that the air should nourish living animals even more than the land or the water. Why so? Because it is the air which has given vitality to those animals which live on the earth and in the water. For the Creator of the universe formed the air so that it should be the habit of those bodies which are immoveable, and the nature of those which are moved in an invisible manner, and the soul of such as are able to rt an impetus and visible sen3e of their own. Is it not then absurd that that element, by means of which the other elements have been filled with vitality, should itself be destitute of living things? Therefore let no one deprive the most excellent nature of living creatures of the most excellent of those elements which surround the earth; that is to say, of the air. For not only is it not alone deserted by all things besides, but rather, like a populous city, it is full of imperishable and immortal citizens, souls equal in number to the stars.
Now of these souls some descend upon the earth with a view to being bound up in mortal bodies, those namely which are most nearly connected with the earth, and which are lovers of the body. But some soar upwards, being again distinguished according to the definitions and times which have been appointed by nature. Of these, those which are influenced by a desire for mortal life, and which have been familiarised to it, again return to it. But others, condemning the body of great folly and trifling, have pronounced it a prison and a grave, and, flying from it as from a house of corrsction or a tomb.
VOL. il Y 322 pjiilo jumus.
have raised themselves aloft on light wings towards the aether, and have devoted their whole lives to suhlime speculations.
There are others, again, the purest and most excellent of all, which have received greater and more divine intellects, never by any chance desiring any earthly thing whatever, but being as it were lieutenants of the Ruler of the universe, as though they were the eyes and ears of the great king, beholding and listening to everything. Now philosophers in general are wont to call these demons, but the sacred scripture calls them angels, using a name more in accordance with nature. For indeed they do report (diayy's\'kt,vfft) the injunctions of the father to his children, and the necessities of the children to the father.
And it is in reference to this employment of theirs that the holy scripture has represented them as ascending and descending, not because God, who knows everything before any other being, has any need of interpreters; but because it is the lot of us miserable mortals to use speech as a mediator and intercessor; because of our standing in awe of and fearing the Ruler of the universe, and the all-powerful might of his authority; having received a notion of which he once entreated one of those mediators, saying: " Do thou speak for us, and let not God speak to us, lest we die."* For not only are we unable to endure his chastisements, but we cannot bear even his excessive and unmodified benefits, which he himself proffers us of his own accord, without employing the ministra- tions of any other beings.
Very admirably therefore does Moses represent the air under the figurative symbol of a ladder, as planted solidly in the earth and reaching up to heaven. For it comes to pass that the evaporations which are given forth by the earth becoming rarefied, are dissolved into air, so that the earth is the founda- tion and root of the air, and that the heaven is its hear!. Accordingly it is said that the moon is not an unadulterated consolidation of pure aether, as each of the other stars is, but is rather a combination of the aether-like and air-like essence. For that black spot which appears jn it, which some call a face, is nothing else but the air mingled with it, which is by aature black, and which extends as far as heaven.
XXIII. The ladder therefore in the world which is here * Exodus xx 19.
ON DREAMS REING SENT FROM GOD. 323 spoken of in this symbolical manner, was something of this sort. But if we carefully investigate the soul which exists in men, the foundation of which is something corporeal, and as it were earth-like, we shall find that foundation to be the outward sense; and the head to be something heavenly, as it were the most pure mind. But all the words of God move incessantly Upwards and downwards through the whole of it, dragging it upwards along with them whenever they soar aloft, and sepa- rating it from whatever is mortal, and exhibiting to it a sight of those things which alone are worthy of being beheld; but yet not casting it down when they descend. For neither is God himself, nor the word of God, worthy of blame. But they ioin with them in their descent, by reason of their love for mankind and compassion for our race, for the sake of being their allies and rendering them assistance, in order that by breathing in a saving inspiration they may recall to life the soul which was still being tossed about in the body as in the river.
Now the God and governor of the universe does by him- self and alone walk about invisibly and noiselessly in the minds of those who are purified in the highest degree. For there is extant a prophecy which wras delivered to the wise man, in which it is said: " I will walk among you, and I will be your God."* But the angels — the words of God — move about in the minds of those persons who are still in a process of being washed, but who have not yet completely washed off the life which defiles them, and which is polluted by the contact of their heavy bodies, making them look pure and brilliant to the eyes of virtue.
But it is plain enough what vast numbers of evils are driven out, and what a multitude of wicked inhabitants is expelled in order that one good man may be introduced to dwell there. Do thou, therefore, 0 my soul, hasten to become the abode of God, . his holy temple, to become strong from having been most weak, ] powerful from having been powerless, wise from having been fool- ish, and very reasonable from having been doting and childless. And perhaps too the practiser of virtue represents his own life as like to a ladder; for the practice of anything is natu- , rally an anomalous thing, since at one time it soars up to a height, and at another it turns downwards in a contrary direc- tion; and at one time has a fair voyage like a ship, and at * Leviticus xxvi. 12.
324 PHILO JUD/EUS.
324 PHILO JUD/EUS.
another has but an unfavourable passage; for, as some one says, the life of those who practise virtue is full of vicissitudes; being at one time alive and waking, and at another dead or sleeping. And perhaps this is no incorrect statement; for the wise have obtained the heavenly and celestial country as their habitation; having learnt to be continually mounting upwards, but the wicked have received as their share the dark recesses of hell, having from the beginning to the end of their existence practised dying, and having been from their infancy to their old age familiarised with destruction.
But the practisers of virtue, for they are on the boundary between two extremities, are frequently going upwards and downwards as if on a ladder, being either drawn upwards bv a more powerful fate, or else being dragged down by that which is worse; until the umpire of this contention and conflict, namely God, adjudges the victory to the more excellent class and utterly destroys the other.
XXIV. There is also in this dream another sort of simili- tude or comparison apparent, which must not be passed over in silence; the affairs of mankind are naturally compared to a ladder, on account of their irregular motion and progress: for as some one or other has said; " One day has cast one man down from on high and destroyed him, and another it has raised up, nothing that belongs to our human race being formed by nature so as to remain long in the same condition, but all such things changing with all kinds of alteration. Do not men become rulers from having been private individuals, aud private individuals from having been rulers, poor from having been rich, and very rich from having been poor; glorious from been despised, and most illustrious from having been infamous?" * * * * A very beautiful way of life: for it is very possible that the being whose habitation is the whole world, may dwell with you also, and take care of your house, so that it may be com- pletely protected and free from injury for ever; and there is such a way as this in which human affairs move upwards and downwards, meeting with an unstable and variable fortune, the anomalous character of which, unerring time proves by evidence which is not indistinct but manifest and legible.
XXV. But the dream also represented the archangel, namely the Lord himself, firmly planted on the ladder; for wo ON DREAMS BEING SENT FROM GOD. 325 must imagine that the living God stands above all things, like the charioteer of a chariot, or the pilot of a ship; that is, above bodies, and above souls, and above all creatures, and above the earth, and above the air, and above the heaven, and above all the powers of the outward senses, and above the invisible natures, in short, above all things whether visible or invisible; for having made the whole to depend upon himself, he governs it and all the vastness of nature.