Do you then, you excellent and most admirable parents, read this law and hide your faces, you who are continually plotting the deaths of your children, you who entertain cruel designs against your offspring, so as to expose them the moment that they are born, you irreconcileable enemies of the whole race of mankind; for who is there to whom you ever entertain good will, when you are the murderers of your own children? ' You who, as far as lies in your power, make cities desolate, beginning with the destruction of your nearest rela- tions; you who overturn all the laws of nature, and pull down all that she builds up; you who are savage and untameable in the barbarity of your souls, raising up destruction against birth, and death against life? Do not you see, that it has been a care to that all-wise and all-good lawgiver, that not even in the case of brute beasts shall the offspring be separated from the mother until it has been nourished by her milk? And this is ordained principally for your sake, you noble persons, that if you have it not by nature, you may at least learn proper affection for your kindred by instruction, and having regard to the examples of lambs and kids, who are not hindered from revelling in the most abundant possible supply of necessary food, which nature itself prepares for them in the most convenient places, by which easy enjoyment of food is granted to those that stand in need of it the lawgiver pro- viding, with great zeal and care, that no one shall intercept the bountiful and saving gifts of God.
ON HUMANITY. 443 XVIII. And being desirous to implant the seeds of gentle- ness and humanity in the minds of men, by every kind of expedient imaginable, he adds also another injunction akin to the preceding one, forbidding any one to sacrifice the mother and the offspring on the same day, for even if they are both to be sacrificed, still it must be at different times, for it is the greatest extravagance of barbarity to slay in one day the animal which has been bora and her who is the cause qf its birth. And for what object is this done? one is slain on pre- tence of sacrifice, the other for the gratification of the belly.
If then it is on pretence of offering them in sacrifice, then the very name is given with falsehood; for animals taken for such purpose are victims, not sacrifices.* And what altar of God would ever receive such unholy sacrifices? And as for the fire, would it not of its own accord divide itself in two parts and stand asunder, avoiding all the contamination which might arise from any contact with -such a profane thing? I imagine that it would not have remained, no, not for even the briefest time, but would have been immediately extinguished, out of a watchful care that the air, and the most holy nature of the Spirit, should not be polluted by the ascending flames.
And if they are not taken to be offered in sacrifice, but with a view to feast on them, then who can there be who would not loathe and reject all these new and unprecedented kinds of preposterous gluttony? for such men are, indeed, pursuing pleasures which are out of all reason. And w7hat pleasure can it be to men wdio are eating meat, to devour, on the same oc- casion, the flesh of the mothers and of their offspring? And if any one were to desire to mangle the limbs of the two animals together, and to run them in a spit and to roast them, and so to devour them, I do believe that the very limbs them- selves would not remain quiet, but would be filled with indig- nation and would utter speech, through their fury at the extraordinary character of the unprecedented injury done to them, and would revile, with innumerable reproaches for their gluttony, those men who had thus prepared this unmen- tionable banquet.
But the law banishes to a distance from the sacred pre- cincts all animals which are pregnant, not permitting them to be sacrificed until they have brought forth, looking on the * The Greek is <r<payiat not Qvoia.
444 PHILO JUD.EUS.
444 PHILO JUD.EUS.
animals which are still in the womb as equal to what has just been born; not because those which have never yet come to light are really looked upon as of equal importance with living creatures, but this ordinance is given to banish* to a distance the rashness of those persons who are in the habit of confound ing everything; for if animals, which grow and increase like plants, and which are considered to be as it were parts of the movers which have conceived them, being still united to, them, and being destined hereafter, after an appointed period of months, to be separated from the close connection to which they are at present attached, are, because of the hope that at some future time they may become living creatures, preserved at present by the safety thus guaranteed to their mothers, in order that the aforesaid pollution may not come to pass; how can it be that the animals, when brought forth, shall not be preserved in a still greater degree, which in their own proper persons have received the gift of life and body? for it is the most impious of all customs, to slay both offspring and mother at one time and on one day.
And it appears to me that some lawgivers, having started from this point, have also promulgated the law about con- demned women, which commands that pregnant women, if they have committed any offence worthy of death, shall never- theless not be executed until they have brought forth, in order that the creature in their womb may not be slain with them when they are put to death. But these men have established these enactments with reference to human beings, but this lawgiver of ours, going beyond them all, extends his humanity even to brute beasts, in order that we being accus- tomed to practise all the things ordained in his laws, may display an excessive degree of humanity, abstaining from pur- suing any one, or even from annoying them in retaliation for any annoyance which we have received at their hands, and that we may not store up in secret our own good things, so as to keep them to ourselves, but may bring them into the middle, and offer them freely to all men everywhere, as if they were our kinsmen and our natural brothers.
Moreover, let wicked sycophants calumniate the whole nation as one given to inhumanity, and our laws as enjoining unsociable and inhuman observances, while the laws do thus openly show compassion on even the herds of cattle, and Haije ON HUMANITY. 445 the whole nation from its earliest youth is, as far as the dis- obedient nature of their souls will admit of, brought over by the honest admonitions of the law to a peaceable disposition. And our lawgiver endeavours to surpass even himself, being a man of every kind of resource which can tend to virtue, and having a certain natural aptitude for virtuous recommenda- tions; for he commands that one shall not take an animal from the mother, whether it be a lamb, or a kid, or any other creature belonging to the flocks or herds, before it is weaned. And having also given a command that no one shall sacrifice the mother and the offspring on the same day, he goes further, and is quite prodigal on the particularity of his injunctions, adding this also, "Thou shalt not seethe a lamb in his mother's milk."* For he looked upon it as a very terrible thing for the nourish- ment of the living to be the seasoning and sauce of the dead animal, and when provident nature had, as it were, showered forth milk to support the living creature, which it had ordained to be conveyed through the breasts of the mother, as if through a regular channel, that the unbridled licentiousness of men should go to such a height that they should slay both the author of the existence of the other, and make use of it in order to consume the body of the other.
And if any one should desire to dress flesh with milk, let him do so without incurring the double reproach of inhumanity, and impiety. There are innumerable herds of cattle in every direction, and some are every day milked by the cowherds, or goatherds, or shepherds, since, indeed, the milk is the greatest source of profit to all breeders of stock, being partly used in a liquid state and partly allowed to coagulate and solidify, so as to make cheese. So that, as there is the greatest abundance of lambs, and kids, and all other kinds of animals, the man who seethes the flesh of any one of them in the milk of its own mother is exhibiting a terrible perversity of disposition, and exhibits himself as wholly destitute of that feeling which, of all others, is the most indispensable to, and most nearly akin to, a rational soul, namely, compassion.
XIX. I also greatly admire that law which, like a singer in a well-trained chorus, is perfectly in accord with those which have gone before it, and which forbids a man to " muzzle the * Exodus xxiii. 19.
446 PHILO JUDiEUS.
ox which treadeth out the corn."* For it is he who, before the sowing was performed, cut the furrows through the deep- soiled plain, and prepared the field for the operations of heaven and for the labours of the husbandman; for the latter, so that he might sow it at a seasonable time, and for the other, that the deep bosom of the earth might receive its bounty displayed in gentle showers, and in consequence might treasure up rich nutriment for the seed and dispense it to it gradually until it should swell into the full ear and bring its annual fruit to perfection.
And, after the corn is brought to perfection, then again the ox is necessary for another service, namely, for the purification of the sheaves, and the separation of the chaff from the genuine useful grain.
And since I have explained this distinct and humane com- mand respecting the oxen which tread out the corn, I will now proceed to speak of that one which relates to the animals which plough, which is also of the same family; for the law- giver also forbids the husbandman to yoke the ox and the ass together in the same plough for ploughing,f considering in this not only the difference of nature between the two animals, because the one is clean, while the ass is one of the unclean beasts, and it is not becoming to bring together animals which are'so utterly alienated, but also because they are unequal in point of strength, he takes caro of that which is the weaker, in order that it may not be oppressed and worn out by the greater power of the other. And, indeed, the ass, which is the weaker animal, is driven outside of the sacred precincts; but the more vigorous beast, namely, the ox, is offered up as a victim in the most perfect sacrifices. But, nevertheless, the lawgiver neither neglected the safety of the unclean animals, nor did he permit those which were clean to use their strength in dis- regard of justice, crying out and declaring loudly in express words, if one may say so, to those persons who have ears in their soul, not to injure any one of a different nation, unless they have some grounds for bringing accusations against them beyond the fact of their being of another nation, which is no ground of blame; for those things which are not wickedness, jmd which do not proceed from wickedness, are free from all reproach.
* Deuteronomy xxv. 4. + Deuteronomy xxiL 10.
ON HUMANITY. 417 XX. And, being full of mercy in every part, he again dis- plays it in an abundant and exceeding degree, crossing over from the beings endowed with reason to the brute beasts, and from the brute beasts to plants, concerning which we must now proceed immediately to speak, since we have spoken sufficiently already about men, and about all animals which are endowed with life.
He has forbidden in express words * to cut down for timber any trees which bear eatable fruit, and to ravage a plain bear- ing corn before its proper season for the purpose of destroying it, and, in short, to destroy any kind of crop in any manner, in order that the race of mankind may enjoy an abundance of nourishment without any limitation, and may have a sufficiency not only of necessary food, but also of such as conduce to making life luxurious. For the crop of wheat and corn is necessary, as being set apart for the actual daily food of man; but the innumerable varieties of the fruits which grow on trees are given to make his life luxurious; and very often, in times of scarcity, even these become a secondary food.
XXI. And, going beyond all other lawgivers in humanity, he does not allow his people even to ravage the country of their enemies, but he commands them to abstain from cutting down the trees, thinking it unjust that the anger which is excited against men should wreak itself on things which are innocent of all evil. And, besides this, by this commandment he points out that it is right not to look only at the present, but also by the acuteness of the reasoning powers to survey the future afar off as from a watch-tower, since nothing remains long in the same condition, but everything is subject to alternations and variations; so that it is natural that those who have for a while been enemies, when they have sent heralds and made overtures towards reconciliation, should again become friends in the bonds of peace. And it would be a wicked thing to deprive one's friends of necessary food, who have probably stored up nothing which can be of use to them because of the uncertainty of the future.
For this was an admirable saying t which was in vogue * Deuteronomy xx. 19.
+ This idea is deservedly reprobated by Cicero, De Armc. xvi. " "We shall be able to arrive at another definition of true friendship when we have first mentioned what Scipio was accustomed to blame 443 PHILO JUD.EDS.
among the ancients, that one must enter into friendships without at the same time being blind to the possibility that it may be turned into enmity, and that one must repel an enemy as if he may hereafter become a friend, in order that each man might, through this consideration, lay up something in his own soul which might conduce to his safety, and might not, being laid completely bare and defenceless, in word and in deed repent of his too great facility of temper, blaming himself when there is no need of any such thing.
And cities also should act upon this principle, providing in peace the things which will be necessary in time of war, and in time of war the things which will be desirable in peace, and abstaining from placing such implicit, boundless confidence in their allies, as if they could never possibly change so as to become their enemies; nor, on the other hand, exhibiting such distance towards their enemies as if they would never be able to bring them over to reconciliation and peace. More- over, if nothing is to be done in favour of one's enemies because of any hope of reconciliation, still, at all events, no plant is an enemy, but all plants are at peace with and useful to one. And those which produce eatable fruit are exceed- ingly necessary, as their fruit is either actual food or equivalent to food. And why should men be excited to enmity against things which are not hostile, cutting them down, or burning them, or tearing them up by the roots; things which nature herself has brought to perfection by streams of water, and by the admirable temperature of the summer, so that they contribute annual revenues to mankind as subjects to their kings?
Moses, therefore, as a good superintendant, exerted all care to implant, not only in animals, but also in plants, invincible strength and vigour, and especially in such as produce eatable fruit, since they are worthy of more care, and are not of equal with great indignation. He used to say that no sentence more hostile to friendship, or more at variance with every correct notion of it, could possibly be found, than that one of the man who said that it became a man always to form a friendship with the idea that he might some day or other hate his friend. And he said that he could never be induced to believe that this, as some people fancied, had been said by Bias, who was accounted one of the seven wise men, but he looked upon it as the saying of some profligate or ambitious man, or of some one who referred everything to the preservation of his own powers."
ON HUMANITY. 449 ON HUMANITY. 449 size ana vigour with the wild trees of the forest, since they stand in need of the skill of the husbandman to endow them with greater vigour; for he commands the young plants to be nursed carefully for the space of three years, while the hus- bandman prunes away the superfluous off-shoots, in order that the trees may not be weighed down and exhausted by them, in which case the fruit borne by them would become small and weak through insufficiency of nourishment, and he must also dig round it and clear the ground, in order that no inju- rious plant may grow near it, so as to hinder its growth. And he does not allow the fruit to be gathered out of season at any one's pleasure, not only because, if that were done, it would be imperfect and produced from imperfect trees (for so also animals which are not perfect themselves cannot produce a per- fect offspring), but also because the young plants themselves would be injured, and would in a manner be bowed down and kept as creepers on the earth, by being prevented from shoot- ing up into straight and stout trunks.
Accordingly, many husbandmen at the commencement of the spring watch their young trees, in order at once to destroy whatever fruit they show before it gets to any growth or comes to any size, from fear lest, if it be suffered to remain on, it may bring weakness to the parent tree. For it might happen, if some one did not take care beforehand, when the tree ought to bring fruit to perfection, that it will either bear none at all, or not be able to ripen any, being completely weakened by having been allowed to satiate itself with bearing before its proper time, just as old vine-stems when weighed down, are ex- hausted both in root and trunk.
But after three years, when the roots have got some depth and have taken a firmer hold of the soil, and when the trunk, being supported as it were on a firm unbending foundation, grows up with vigour, it is then in the fourth year able to bear fruit in perfection and in proper quantity: and in the fourth year he permits the fruit to be gathered, not for the enjoyment and use of man, but that the whole crop may be dedicated to God as the first-fruits, partly as a thank-offering for mercies already received, and partly from hope of good crops for the future, and of a revenue to be derived from the tree hereafter.
You see, therefore, what great humanity and compassion our lawgiver displays, and how he diffuses his kindness over VOL. III. G G 450 PHILO JUD^EUS.
every species of man, even if they are foreigners, or even enemies; and secondly, how he extends it also to brute beasts, even though they be not clean, and in fact to every thing, to sown crops, and to trees. For the man who has learnt the principles of humanity with respect, to those natures which are devoid of sense, is never likely to err with respect to those which are endowed with life; and he who never attempts to act with severity towards creatures which have only life, is taught a long way off to take great care of those which are also blessed with reason.
XXII. Having, then, by such precepts as these, civilised and made gentle the minds of those who live under the con- stitution of his laws, he has separated them from haughtiness and arrogance, those most grievous and burdensome of evils, which men in general cling to as the greatest of goods, and especially when riches, or glory, or authority supply them with unlimited abundance; for arrogance is very often engendered in men of no reputation or character, just as any other of the passions, or diseases, or infirmities of the soul, but it does not receive any growth or increase in such men, but, like fire, it is extinguished for want of fuel. But in great men it is very conspicuous, since they, as I said before, have food for this evil in riches, and glory, and authority, with which the men are entirely filled, and like those who have drunk great quantities of strong wine become intoxicated, and in their drunkenness they attack slaves and free men all alike, and at times even whole cities; for satiety produces insolence, as the proverb of the ancients tells us.* On which account Moses, when declaring the will of God, enjoins men to abstain from every description of offence, and, above all, from arro- gance. And afterwards he reminds them of the things which are wont to kindle passion, such as abundance of immoderate eatiug, and extravagant wealth in houses, and lands, and cattle; for when they possess these things, they presently become unable to restrain themselves, being distended with pride and puffed up; and the only hope that remains of such men being cured, consists in preventing them from forgetting' God.
* The expression occurs in Theognis, who says, Ti/crtt rot Kopoq vfipw, orav KaKtji 6\j3oq sTrrjrai *Av(?(>w7ny Kai ory fit) voog ayrioq y.—xvi. 7.
ON HUMANITY. 451 For as when the sun arises, the darkness disappears and all places are filled with light, so in the same manner when God, that sun appreciable only by the intellect, arises and illumi- nates the soul, the whole darkness of vices and passions is dissipated, and the pure and lovely appearance of bright and radiant virtue is displayed to the world.
XXIII. And still more does he seek to check and eradicate haughtiness, choosing to collect together the causes on account of which he enjoins men to erect in their souls an undying recollection of God; " For God," says Moses, " gives strength to get power,"* speaking in this very instructively; for the man who has been accurately and thoroughly taught that he has received an endowment of great strength and vigour from God, will take into consideration the weakness which belonged to him before he received this great gift, and will consequently repel all haughty, and arrogant, and over- bearing thoughts, and will give thanks to him who has been the cause of this change for the better. And arrogance is in consistent with a grateful soul, as on the contrary ingratitude is nearly akin to haughtiness.
Are your affairs prosperous and flourishing? then, receiving and increasing that strength of body which perhaps you did not expect, get power; and what is meant by this expression must be accurately investigated by those who do not very clearly see what is implied in it.
Many persons endeavour to bring upon others, what is exactly contrary to the benefits which they have themselves received; for either, having themselves become rich, they prepare poverty for others, or having arrived at a high degree of honour and reputation, they become to others the causes of dishonour and infamy: but it is right rather that the wise and prudent man should, to the best of his power, endeavour to bring his neighbours also into the same condition; and that the temperate man should seek to make others temperate, the brave man to make others courageous, the righteous man to make others just, and in short every good man ought to try to make everyone else good; for these qualities are, as it seems, powers, which the virtuous man will cling to as his own; but infirmity and weakness, on the contrary, are inconsistent with a virtuous character.
452 PHILO JUD^US.
And in another place also the lawgiver gives this precept, which is most becoming and suitable to a rational nature, that men should imitate God to the best of their power, omitting nothing which can possibly contribute to such a simi- larity as the case admits of.
XXIV. Since then you have received strength from a being who is more powerful than you, give others a share of that strength, distributing among them the benefits which you have received yourself, in order that you may imitate God by bestowing gifts like his; for all the gifts of the supreme Ruler are of common advantage to all men; and he gives them to some individuals, not in order that they when they have received them may hide them out of sight, or employ them to the injury of others, but in order that they may bring them into the common stock, and invite all those whom they can find to use and enjoy them with them.
We say therefore, that the men possessed of great riches, and of high renown, and of great strength of body, and of great learning, ought to endeavour to make everyone with whom they meet, rich, and strong, and learned, and in short good, and that they ought not to prefer envy and jealousy to virtue, so as to oppose those who might otherwise attain to prosperity; and the law has very beautifully brought those who are inflated by arrogance, and are altogether possessed by incurable pride, not before the tribunal of men, but before the judgment seat of God, to which alone it has assigned the office of judging them; for it says, " Whosoever attempts to dot anything in a haughty arrogant manner, makes God angry."* Why so, because in the first place, haughty arrogance is a vice of the soul; but the soul is invisible to any one but God.
And anyone who punishes, if he does so blindly, is blameable, as ignorance is his accuser: but if he does so with his eyed: open, he is to be praised as doing everything with knowledge; and secondly, because every haughty arrogant man is full of; vain groundless pride, looks upon himself as neither man nor demigod, but rather as an actual deity, as Pindar says,f think- * Numbers xv. 30. + Pindar says nothing of the sort. The passage which Philo appears to allude to is the beginning of the second Olympic Ode: ' AvaZiQopfiLyytQ Vfivoi riva Otbv tiv i/puia ON REPENTANCE. 453 fng himself worthy to overstep all the houndaries of human nature.
And as the soul of such a man is blameable, so also is his body in all its positions and motions, for he walks on tip-toes, and lifts his head on high, strutting and giving himself airs, and he is elated and puffed up beyond his nature, and though he does see yet it is only with distorted optics, and though he hears he hears amiss; and he treats his servants as though they were cattle, and free men as though they were his slaves, and his kinsmen as strangers, and his friends as flatterers, and citizens as foreigners; and he looks upon himself as the most wealthy, the most distinguished, the most beautiful, the strongest, the wisest, the most prudent, the most righteous, the most rational, and the most learned of all men; and then lie looks upon all the rest of mankind as poor, of no reputation, dishonoured, foolish, unjust, ignorant, mere dregs of mankind, entitled to no consideration.