XII. But the man who is at the same time initiated in dreams and also an interpreter of dreams, is bold to say that his sheaf rose and stood upright; for in real truth, as spirited horses lift their necks high, so all who are companions of vain opinion place themselves above all things, above all cities, and laws, and national customs, and above all the circum- stances which affect each individual of them. Then proceed- ing onwards from being demagogues to being leaders of the people, and overthrowing the things which belong to their neighbours, and setting up and establishing on a solid footing what belongs to themselves, that is to say, all such dispositions as are free and by nature impatient of slavery, they attempt to reduce these also under their power; on which account the dreamer adds, " And your sheaves turning towards my sheaf made obeisance unto it."* For the lover of modesty marvels at and fears the stiffnecked, and the cautious person fears the self-willed man, and he who reverences holiness fears that which is impious both for him- self and for others. And is not this reasonable? For inas- much as the good man is a spectator, not only of human life but also of all the things which exist in the world, he knows how many things are accustomed to be caused by necessity, and chance, and opportunity, and violence, and authority; and what numbers of propositions, and what great instances of prosperity proceeding onwards with rapidity towards heaven, the same causes have shaken and overthrown: so that he will * Genesis xxxvii. 7.
ON DREAMS BEING SENT FROM GOD. 859 of necessity take up caution as a shield, as a protection to prevent his suffering any sudden and unexpected evil; for as 1 imagine what a wall is to a city, that caution is to an indivi- dual.
Do not these men then talk foolishly, are they not mad, who desire to display their inexperience and freedom of speech to kings and tyrants, at times daring to speak and to do things in opposition to their will? Do they not perceive that they have not only put their necks under the yoke like brute beasts, but that they have also surrendered and betrayed their whole bodies and souls likewise, and their wives and their children, and their parents, and all the rest of the numerous kindred and community of their other relations?
And it is lawful for the charioteer, and also for the passenger, 'with all freedom to spur, and to urge forward, and to check, and jto hold back, according as he desires to arrange things, so as to (make them greater or smaller. Therefore, being pricked with 'goads, and flogged, and mutilated, and suffering all the crud- ities which can be inflicted in an inhuman and pitiless manner ibefore death, all together, they are led away to execution and jput to death.
XIII. These are the rewards of unseemly freedom of speech, lot of that which is accounted such by right-thinking judges, jut of that license which is full of folly, and insanity of mind, ind of incurable distemper. What do you mean? Does any- >ne, when he sees a storm at its height, and a violent gale •pposing him, and a hurricane raging tempestuously, and the ea full of vast waves, when he ought to anchor his ship, does .nyone, I say, at such a moment weigh anchor and put to sea?
jVhat pilot, or what captain of a ship, was ever so drunk and 'ntoxicated, as, while all the dangers which I have just enunieated were threatening him, to be willing to set sail, lest, if his essel became water-logged by the sea breaking over it from bove, it might be swallowed up with all its crew? For, if he iad been inclined to meet with a voyage free from danger, it ^as in his power to wait for calm weather and a smooth and ivourable breeze. What would one say, suppose anyone were o see a bear or a lion coming on with violence, and, while he light pacify and tame him, were to provoke him and make im savage, in order to give up himself as an unpitied meal ncl feast to those ravenous monsters? Unless indeed anyone 3G0 PHILO JUD/EUS.
will assert that it is of no use to anyone to oppose the asps and serpents of Egypt, and all the other things which...destructive poison...inflict inevitable death on those who are once bitten by them; for that men must be content to use incantations, and so to tame those beasts, and by such means to avoid suffering any evil from them.
Moreover, are there not certain men who are more savage and more treacherous than boars, or serpents, or asps? whose treacherous and malignant disposition it is impossible to escape otherwise than by gentleness and caresses? Therefore the wise Abraham will offer adoration to the sons of Cheth, and their name being interpreted, means " admiring," because the occasion persuades him to do so. For he has not come to this action of adoration because he honours persons who, by nature, and by hereditary qualities, and by their own habits, are enemies to reason, and who miserably waste that coinage of the soul, namely instruction, corrupting, and adulterating, and clipping it, but because he fears their present power and their scarcely conquerable strength, and is on his guard not to provoke them, he takes refuge in that great and powerful possession and weapon of virtue, that most excellent place of abode for wise souls, the double cave, which he could not occupy while warring and fighting, but only by acting as a champion and servant of reason.
What? Do not we also, when we are spending our time in the market-place, frequently wonder at the masters, and also at the beasts of burden? But we wonder at these two classes, with different and not the same feelings. For we look upon the masters with honour, and upon the beasts of burden with fear, lest some injury should be done to us by them. And when an opportunity offers, it is a good thing to attack our enemies and put down their power; but when we have no such opportunity, it is better to be quiet; but if we wish to find perfect safety as far as they are concerned, it is advantageous to caress them.
XIV. On which account it is even now proper to praise those persons who do not yield to the president of vain opinion but who withstand him and say, " Shall you be a king and rule over us?'r# For they do not as yet see him actually in possession of kingly power, they do not see him as yet kindled * Genesis xxxvii. 8.
ON DREAMS BEING SENT FROM GOD. 361 like aflame, and shining and blazing in the unlimited fuel, but only smouldering like a spark, dreaming of glory, and not visibly having attained to it; for they also suggest favourable ; hopes to themselves as if they will not be able to be overcome by him; for which reason they say, " Shall you reign over us?" Which is equivalent to saying, Do you expect to be a king ;over us while we are living, existing, strong, and breathing?
J Perhaps, indeed, you may make yourself master of such as are (weak people, but with respect to us who are strong you will be looked upon by us as a subject.
And, indeed, this is the natural state of the case. For when right reason is powerful in the soul, vain opinion is put down; but when right reason is weak, vain opinion is strong. As .long, therefore, as the soul has its own power still safe, and as ,long as it is not mutilated in any part of it, it may well have confidence to attack and aim its arrows at the pride which resists it, and it may indulge in freedom of speech, saying, ," You shall not be a "king, you shall not be a lord either over US, or during our lifetime over others; but we, with our body- guards and shield-bearers, the offspring of wisdom, will over- throw your attacks and baffle your threats with one single sally pf ours. In reference to which circumstances it is said, " They began to hate him because of his dreams and because of his ' words."
But are not all the images which pride sets up and worships Tiere words and dreams, while, on the contrary, those things iilone deserve to be called actions and real energies which are referable to correct life and right reason? And the one class ire worthy of hatred as being false, and the other class deserve riendship as being full of desirable and lovely truth. Let no me, therefore, venture to bring accusations against the virtues pf such men, as if they exhibited a specimen of an inhuman uid unbrotherly disposition; but let any one who is disposed o do so, learn that it is not a man who is now being judged )f, but the disposition which exists in the soul of each indivi- lual, which is mad on the subject of glory and arrogant pride; et him embrace these men who have adopted irreconcileable dimity and hatred towards this disposition, and let him never ove what is hated by them. Knowing thoroughly that such udges are never deceived so as to wander from a sound opi- lion, but that, having learnt from the beginning to understand 3G2 PHILO JUDiEUS.
who is the true king, namely, the Lord, they indignantly refuse to worship him who deprives God of his honour, and seeks to appropriate it to himself, and who invites his fellow servants to do him service.
XV. On which account they say with confidence, " Shall you be a king and reign over us?" Are you ignorant that we are not independent, but that we are under the government of an immortal king, the only God? And why should you be a lord and lord it over us? for are we not under domination, and have we not now, and shall we not have for ever, and ever the same one Lord? in being whose servants we rejoice more than any one else can do in his liberty; for to be the servant of God is the most excellent of all things which are honoured in crea- tion.
#jb db «ih jfc jfc TF "«" TP TT TT I, therefore, should pray that I myself also might be able to abide firmly in the things which have been decided by these men; for they are accurate investigators, and superintendents, and overseers of things, not of bodies, and just, and sober all their lives, so as never to be deceived by any of those things which are accustomed to deceive mankind. But up to this time I am in a state of intoxication, and I am labouring under much uncertainty, and I have need of a staff and of a guide like a blind man; for if I had a staff to support me, then, perhaps, I might neither stumble nor fall.
But if any persons who are conscious that they are but inconsiderate and precipitate, pay no attention to and do not care to follow those who have investigated ail necessary matters with diligence and circumspection, nor, though they themselves are ignorant of the road, submit to the guidance of those who are acquainted with it, let them know that they have entered a course which it is very difficult to travel through, and that they are entangled in it, and will not be able to advance fur- ther; but I am am so bound by treaties to these men, the moment I have a little recovered from my intoxication, that J think the same person both a friend and an enemy.
But at present I will drive from me and hate that dreamei no less than they do; for no one in hi3 senses could blame mc for this, that the majority of opinions and votes does always pMe vail; but when he changes to a better course of life, and n longer dreams, and no longer worries himself by entanglin ON DREAMS BEING SENT FROM GOD. 3G3 himself in the vain imaginations of the slaves of vain opinion, and when he no longer dreams about night, and darkness, and the changes of uncertain matters which cannot be guessed at; he, then, having awakened from deep sleep, continues awake and receives certainty instead of indistinctness, and truth instead of false conceptions, and day instead of night, and light instead of darkness, and rejects an Egyptian wife, that is to say, the pleasure of the body, when she invites him to come in to her, and to enjoy her conversation, out of an indescriba- ble love of continence and admiration for piety, and asserts his right to a share in those kindred and inherited blessings from which he appeared to be alienated, again desiring to recover that portion of virtue which properly belongs to him.
For proceeding by small and gradual improvements, as if he were now established on the summit and perfection of his own life, he cries out, what indeed he knows to a certainty from what has happened to him, that he " belongs to God,"* and that he belongs no more to any object of external sense which can affect any creature; and then his brethren will I come to a permanent reconciliation with him, changing their , hatred into friendship, and their malignity into good will.
But I who am the follower of these men, for I have learnt j to obey them as a servant obeys his master, will never cease I to praise him for his change of mind. Since Moses, also, that , priest of sacred things, preserves his change of mind as what is worthy of love and of being preserved in men's recollection, from being forgotten, by the symbol of the bones* which he did not think proper to have buried in Egypt for ever, looking upon it as a hard thiug, if the soul put forth any beautiful flower to suffer that to wither away, and to be overwhelmed and destroyed by the torrents which the Egyptian river of the j passions, namely the body, which is incessantly flowing through all the outward senses, sends forth.
XVI. The vision, therefore, which appeared proceeding from the earth, with reference to the sheaves and the interpre- tation thereof, has now been sufficiently discussed. It is time now to consider the other vision; and to examine how I that is interpreted by the art of the explanation of dreams. " He saw then," says the scripture, " a second dream, and he related it to his father, and to his brethren, and he said, I saw * Genesis 1. 19. f Exodus xiii. 19.
3C4 PHILO JUDvEUS.
that the sun, and the moon, and the eleven stars worshipped me. And his father rebuked him, and said, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I, and thy mother, and thy brethren, come forward and advance, and fall down to the earth and worship thee? And his brethren were jealous of him; but his father regarded his words."* The studiers of sublime wisdom now say that the zodiac, the greatest of all the circles in heaven, is studded with twelve animals (£wi3/a), from which it has derived its name. And that the sun and the moon are always revolving around it, and go through each of the animals, not indeed with equal rapidity, but in unequal numbers and periods; the one doing so in thirty days, and the other in as near as may be a twelfth part of that time, that is in two days and a half; therefore, he who saw this heaven-sent vision, thought that he was being worshipped by eleven stars, ranking himself among them as the twelfth, so as to complete the whole circle of the zodiac.
And I recollect having before now heard some man who had applied himself to learning in no careless or indolent spirit, say that men were not the only beings which went mad wTith vain opinions, but that the stars did so too. And they also, said he, contend with one another for precedence, and those which are the greater claim to be attended by the lesser stars as their guards; these matters, however, we may leave for the studiers of sublime subjects to investigate, and to settle how much truth and how much random assertion there is in them.
But we say, that the lover of indiscriminate study, and un- reasonable contention, and vain opinion, being always puffed up by folly, wishes to assert a precedence, not only over men, but also above the nature of all existing things; and he thinks that all things were created for his sake, and that it is neces- sary that everything, whether earth or heaven, or water or air, should bring him tribute; and he has gone to such an extra- vagant pitch of folly, that he is not able to reason upon such matters as even a young child might understand, and to see that no artist ever makes the whole for the sake of the part, but rather makes the part for the sake of the whole. Now the part of the whole is the man, so that he is properly asserted to Genesis xxxvii. 9.
ON DREAMS BEING SENT FROM GOD. 365 have been made for the sake of perfecting the world in which he is rightly classed.
XVII. But some persons are full of such exceeding folly, that they are indignant if the whole world does not follow their intentions: for this reason Xerxes, the lung of»Persia, being desirous to strike terror into his enemies, made a dis- play of very mighty undertakings, altering the whole face of 'nature; for he changed the nature of the elements of the earth and of the sea, giving land to the sea and sea to the land, by joining the Hellespont with a bridge, and breaking lup Mount Athos into deep gulfs, which, being filled with sea, .became so many new and artificially-cut seas, being entirely changed from the ancient course of nature. And having worked wonders with respect to the earth, according to his wishes, he .mounted up upon daring conceptions, like a miserable man as he was, contracting the guilt of impiety, and seeking to soar up to heaven, as if he would move what cannot be moved, and would subjugate the host of heaven, and, as the proverb has it, •lie began with a sacred thing.
For he aimed his arrows at the most excellent of the heavenly bodies, the sun, the ruler of the day, as if he had joot himself been wounded by the invisible dart of insanity, not only because of his desiring things which were impossible, jbut such as were also most impious, either of which is a great jlisgrace to him who attempts them.
It is related, also, that the very populous nation of the ijrermans, and theirs is a country where the sea is subject to \he ebb and flow of the tide, ran down to the reflux which )ccurs in their country with great impetuosity, and drawing -heir naked swords charged and encountered the billowy sea is if it were a phalanx of enemies: and these men deserve to )e hated because they dare impiously to take up the arms of memies against the free and invincible parts of nature; but -hey deserve also to be ridiculed for attempting what is im- possible, as if they thought it practicable to wound the water is though it were a living animal, or to stab it and kill it. \nd again, one should grieve at the sight of such men, and ear, and flee out of fear at their attacks, and submit to all the ifTections of the soul which are conversant with pleasures Hid pains.
XVIII. Moreover, it is only a very short time ago that GOG ruiLO jud-eus.
I knew a man of very high rank, one who was prefect and governor of Egypt, who, after he had taken it into his head to change our national institutions and customs, and in an extra- ordinary manner to abrogate that most holy law guarded by such fearful penalties, which relates to the seventh day, and was compelling us to obey him, and to do other things contrary to our established custom, thinking that that would be the beginning of our departure from the other laws, and of our violation of all our national customs, if he were once able to destroy our hereditary and customary observance of the seventh day. And as he saw that those to whom he offered violence did not yield to his injunctions, and that the rest of our people was not disposed to submit in tranquillity, but was indignant and furious at the business, and was mourning and dispirited as if at the enslaving, and overthrow, and utter destruction of their country; he thought fit to endeavour by a speech to persuade them to transgress, saying: " If an invasion of enemies were to come upon you on a sudden, or the violence of a deluge, from the river having broken down all its barriers by an inundation, or any terrible fire, or a thunderbolt, or famine, or pestilence, or an earthquake, or any other evil, whether caused by men or inflicted by God, would you still remain quiet and unmoved at home? And would you still go on in your habitual fashion, keeping your right hand back, and holding the other under your garments close to your sides, in order that you might not, even without meaning it, do anything to contribute to your own preserva- tion? And would you still sit down in your synagogues, collecting your ordinary assemblies, and reading your sacred volumes in security, and explaining whatever is not quite clear, and devoting all your time and leisure with long discus- sions to the philosophy of your ancestors? Nay: rather shaking off all these ideas, you would gird yourselves up for the preservation of yourselves, and of your parents, and of your children, and, if one must tell the plain truth, of your possessions and treasures, to save them from being utterly destroyed. And, indeed, I myself, am," said he, " all the evils which I have just enumerated: I am a whirlwind, I am war, and deluge, and thunderbolt, and the calamity of famire. and the misery of pestilence, and an earthquake which shake? and overthrows what stood firm before, not being merely the ON DREAMS BEING SENT FROM GOD. 307 iame of a necessity of fate, but actual, visible power, standing :lose to you."
What then can we say that a man who says, or who merely hinks such things as these, is? Is he not an evil of an >xtraordinary nature? He surely must be some foreign •alamity, brought from over the sea, or from some other vorld, since he, a man in every respect miserable, has dared o compare himself to the all-blessed God. We must like- vise add, that he is daring here to utter blasphemies against he sun, and the moon, and the rest of the stars, whenever .nything which had been looked for according to the seasons ■f the year, either does not happen at all, or is brought about vith difficulty; if, for instance, the summer causes too much leat, or the winter too excessive a cold, or if the spring or utumn were unseasonable, so that the one were to become arren and unfruitful, and the other to be prolific only in iseases.
Therefore, giving all imaginable license to an unbridled ,iouth and abusive tongue, such a man will reproach the stars ,3 not bringing their customary tribute, all but claiming for ie things of earth the reverence and adoration of the heavenly iodies, and for himself above them all, in proportion as he, B being a man, looks upon himself as superior to the other aiimals.
XIX. Such men then are classed by us as the very teachers vain opinion. Let us now in turn look at their followers f themselves. These men are always laying plots against ie practisers of virtue, and when they see them labouring to ake their own life pure with guileless truth, and to exhibit , as one may say, to the light of the moon, or of the sun, as )le to stand inspection, they endeavour by deceit, or even by >en violence, to hinder them, trying to drive them into the Inless country of impious men, which is occupied by deep ] glit, and endless darkness, and ten thousand tribes of jmges, and appearances, and dreams, and then, having thrust era down thither, they compel them to fall down and ,)rship them as masters.
. For we look upon the practiser of virtue as the sun, since e one gives light to our bodies, and the other to the things ,iich belong to the soul: and the education which such a in uses we look upon as the moon, for the use of each is 308 PHILO JUD/EUS.
most pure and most useful in the night; and the brethren an those virtuous reasonings which are the offspring of instruc t ion, and of a soul devoted to the practice of virtue, all o which make straight the right path of life, and which they therefore, by all kinds of wary and cunning wrestlings, seek t< overcome, and to trip up, and overthrow, and break the necl of, because they have determined neither to think nor to bsv anything sound themselves.
For this reason his father rebukes this intractable youtl (I do not mean Jacob, but right reason, which is older evei than he), saying, " What is this dream which thou has dreamt?" but thou hast not seen any dream at all; hast thoi fancied that things which are free by nature are to be of ne cessity slaves to human things, and that things which ar> rulers are to become subjects? and, what is more paradoxica still, subject, not to anything else but to the very things whicl they govern? and to be the slaves of no other things excep those very things which are their own slaves? unless indeet a change of all established things to their direct contraries i to take place, by the power of God, who is able to effect al things, and to move what is immovable, and to fix what is ii a constant state of agitation.
Since on what principle can you be angry with or reproaci a man who sees a vision in his sleep? For he will say, I di« not see it intentionally, why do you bring accusations agains me, for errors which I have not committed from any deliberat purpose? I have related to you what fell upon me and mad an impression on my mind suddenly, and without my desirin it. But the present question is not about dreams, but abou things which resemble dreams; which, to those whose mind are not highly purified appear great, and beautiful, and d< sirable things; while they are, in reality, trifling, and obscun and deserving of ridicule, in the eyes of honest judges of th truth.
XX. Shall I then, says he, I, that is to say, right reasoi come to you? And shall the soul, which is both the moth* and nurse of the company devoted to learning virtuous ii struction, also come to thee? And are the offspring of us t( to come likewise? And are we all to stand in a row, lavir aside all our former dignity, and holding up our hands ar praying to thee? And are we then to prostrate ourselves ( ON DREAMS BEING SENT FROM GOD. 3G9 the ground, and endeavour to propitiate and adore thee? But may the sun never shine upon such transactions, since deep darkness is suited to evil deeds, and brilliant light to good deeds.
And what could be a greater evil than for pride, that deceiver and beguiler, to be praised and admired, instead of sincere and honest simplicity? And it is with great propriety that the statement is added, " And his father took notice or liis words." For it is the occupation of a soul which is not voung, nor barren, nor wholly unfruitful, but rather of one which is really older and able to beget offspring, to cohabit with prudent caution, and to despise and overlook nothing whatever, but to have a reverential fear of the power of God, 'rom which we cannot escape, and which wre cannot overcome; md to look all round to see what its very end shall be.
For this reason they say, that the sister of Moses also (and he is called Hope by us, when speaking in a figurative manler) was contemplated at a distance by the sacred scriptures, nasmuch as she kept her eyes fixed on the end of life, hoping hat some good fortune might befall her, sent by the Giver of all ;ood from above, from heaven; for it has often happened that