the weight of the world. But the eternal law of the ever- lasting God is the strong and lasting support of the universe. This law being extended from the centre of the world to its furthest extremities, and again back from its extremities to the centre, moves on in the unwearied irresistible course of nature, uniting and binding together all the parts of the universe. For the Father who established it made it to be the indissoluble bond 6f the universe.
Therefore we are naturally led to conclude that the whole earth will not be dissolved by water, which its bosoms con- tain; nor again will fire be extinguished by the air, nor again will the air be burnt up and consumed by fire, since the divine law has placed itself as a boundary to keep all these elements distinct from one another. As yet the all- productive plant was not rooted, and had not the power which was to be derived from being rooted. But of the subordinate, particular, and less important plants, some were moveable in such a way as easily to change their places, and some, without being liable to any change of places, were ]34 PHILO JUDuEQS.
made as if they were to stand for ever in the same position. Those therefore which are exposed to a motion which involves a change of place, which we call animals, were added to the most entire and perfect parts of the universe. The earth receiving the terrestrial animals, the water the aquatic animals; the air those creatures which fly; and the stars being assigned to the heaven.
III. But the Creator created two different kinds both in the earth, and in the water, and in the air. In the air he placed those animals which fly, and other powers also which cannot by any means, or on any occasion, be comprehended by the outward senses. Thus the company of incorporeal souls is arranged in regular order according to their nature. For it is said that some of them are separated off and assigned to mortal bodies, and that, at certain definite and predetermined periods, they again depart from them. But that others of a more divine nature are utterly regardless of any situation on earth, but are raised to a great height, and placed in the aether itself, being of the purest possible character, which those among the Greeks who have studied philosophy call heroes and daemones, and which Moses, giving them a most felicitous appellation, calls angels, acting as they do the part of ambassadors and messengers, an- nouncing to the subjects all kinds of blessings from their rulers, and acting as servants to the king to whom they are subject; and they, descending into the body as into a river, at one time are carried away by the violence of a most irre- sistible current and swallowed up, and at other times, being wholly unable to resist the powers of destruction, at first, indeed, raise their heads above the flood, and afterwards sink down again to the place from whence they have started.
These, then, are the souls of those who devote themselves to the vigorous study of philosophy respecting divine sub- jects, from the beginning to the end of their existence studying things which may concern them after the life has left the body, that thus they may enjoy an incorporeal and endless life in the presence of the uncreated and im- mortal God. But those souls of other men which I have spoken of as being overwhelmed, being such as have disre- garded wisdom, giving themselves up to uncertain circum- ON THE WORLD. 185 stances, such as depend wholly on chance, of which none have any reference to the soul or to the intellect, hut all to the body, which is but a corpse to which we are joined, or to other things even more inanimate and insensible than that; I mean such things as glory, and riches, and power, and honour, and all such other things as through the de- ceitfulness of false opinions are looked upon as real and living objects by people who do not see what is really beautiful.
Therefore, if you look upon souls, and daBmones, and angels, as things differing indeed in name, but as meaning in reality one and the same thing, you will thus get rid of the heaviest of all evils, superstition. For as people in general speak of good daBmones and bad daBmones, in the same manner also do they speak of good and bad souls; and so they speak of some angels as being by their title worthy ambassadors from men to God, and from God to men, being sacred and in- violable guardians on account of their blameless and most excellent service which they have allotted to them. And, again, if you look upon others as unholy and unworthy of any such appellation, you will not err. And the Psalmist himself is a witness in favour of what I have here asserted, where he speaks as follows: "He sent among them the anger of his wrath, by the operation of evil angels."* Again, all animals that swim and zoophytes are allotted to the water, and all terrestrial animals and plants to the land. And the plants he placed with their heads downwards, fixing their heads in the deepest parts of the earth; but the heads of the irrational animals he dragged up from the earth and placed upon a lofty neck, placing the fore-feet beneath them as a kind of pedestal. But man has had a separate forma- tion of a higher character; for in the case of other animals, God has placed their eyes in the side of their heads and bent them down to the ground, on which account they arc all inclined downwards to the earth. But the eyes of man, on the other hand, he has raised up, that he might behold the heavens, being not a terrestrial but a celestial plant, as the old saying is.f * Psalm lxxvii. 49.
t This is in accordance with the idea of Ovid, who says — Pronaque duin spectant animalia caotera terram, 236 PHILO JUDiEUS.
But the other class, who affirm that our intellect is a portion of ethereal nature, connect man in a relationship with the air. Accordingly, the great Moses has not spoken of the rational soul as it resembled in its species any created thing, but he has called it the image of the divine and invi- sible God, looking upon it to be a glorious and carefully wrought image, the seal of God, the character of which is the everlasting Word; for, says he, " God breathed into his face the breath of life."* So that it follows inevitably that he who received it must be made in the image and likeness of him who sent it. On which account he also says that man was created in the image of God, and not in the likeness of any created thing.
IV. But, taking up our discourse again at the beginning for the sake of clearness, let ns say that of bodies some have put on habit, and others nature, and others soul, and others a rational soul. Therefore those stocks and stones which are torn from any intimate connection, have made for themselves that strongest of all forms, namely habit, and that is a breath returning constantly to itself; for it begins at the centre and extends to the furthest ex- tremities, and when it has touched the outermost circum- ference it turns back again until it arrives at the same place from which it originally started. This is the continued course of habit over which it runs and returns. And he has allotted a nature of their own to plants, having combined it of many powers, especially the nutritious and the generative power. And the Creator has made the soul different from nature in three particulars — the outward sense, and fancy, and impulse. Now plants have no participation in any of these things, but every living animal has a share in all of them. Therefore the outward sense, as its very name in my opinion shows, is a certain imposition which represents to Os homini sublime dedit, cselumque tueri Jussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus. Which may be translated — "And while all other creatures from their birth, With downcast eyes gaze on their kindred earth, Man walks erect, and proudly scans the heaven From which he sprung, to which his hopes are given." • Genesis ii. 7.
ON THE WORLD. 187 the intellect the things which have appeared to it. And it represents to the fancy a sort of outline in the soul, being, as it were, a kind of representation of light; for those things which each of the outward senses has introduced, like a ring as it were or a seal, it impresses on them its own character, or else it preserves the impression which has been made until the rival of memory, forgetfulness, having softened the impression, at least makes it very dim, or else entirely effaces it; and what has appeared to have been impressed upon it disposes the soul at one time as if it belonged to it, and at another time as if it belonged to some other: and this feeling is called impulse, which those who have at- tempted to give accurate definitions have called the primary motion of the soul.
V. In such important particulars are animals superior to plants. Let us now therefore see in what man is superior to the other animals. He now has received as an especial and pre-eminent honour, the gift of intellect, by which he is accustomed to comprehend the natures of all things, whether they be bodies or things; for as the predominant part in the body is the sight, and as the nature of light is the most important part of the universe, so in the same manner the most important and influential of all the parts in us is the mind; for this is the light of the soul, being irradiated and enlightened by its own beams, by which that dense and pro- found darkness, ignorance of facts which was shed around it, is dissipated.
And this portion of the soul is not composed of the same elements as those of which the other parts are made, but it has a pure and more excellent essence, from which the divine natures were made; on which account the intellect alone, of all the parts within us, appears very reasonably and naturally to be imperishable, for that is the only portion which the Father who generated it has thought worthy of freedom, and loosing the bands of necessity, he has allowed it to roam at large without restraint, having endowed it with a share of his own most glorious and becoming attribute, free-will, the highest present which it was able to receive. For the other animals in whose souls there does not exist that intellect which is thus especially appropriated to free- dom, have been given up to men to submit to their yoke 188 PHILO JUDjEUS.
and to receive their bridle in their mouths, so as to serve them as servants obey their masters.
But man having a spontaneous will, subject to no prompt- ings but those of his own nature, and exerting his energies in° accordance with his own deliberate purpose, is very properly subject to blame for whatever unjust actions he commits from deliberate intention, and to praise for all the good deeds which he intentionally performs; for as he has received from God a power of voluntary motion, and as he is in this respect like unto God himself, being delivered from all subservience to that most severe and grievous mistress, necessity, he very properly is open to accusa- tion when he does not pay worship to that being who has thus delivered him. Therefore he will most justly in such a case suffer the punishment which has been inexorably pronounced against ungrateful people who do not deserve freedom. On which account also, the body being raised up towards the purest portion of the universe, the heaven, raises its eyes upwards, that so by an observation of what is visible, it may arrive at an adequate comprehension of what is invisible.
Since, therefore, it would be impossible to behold the attraction of the intellect towards the living God, excepting as far as those who are attracted towards him can them- selves perceive it, for each man in an individual and especial degree knows what happens to himself, he has made a visible image of the invisible eye, namely, the eyes of the body which are thus able to look towards the sky. For when the eyes, which are made of perishable materials, have gone to such heights as even to soar upwards to the heaven which is removed to such an immense distance from the regions of the earth, and to touch its borders, to how great a distance must we not suppose that the eyes of the soul can reach? which, being excited by a vehement desire to see the one Being clearly and distinctly, stretch forward not only to the furthest extremity of the sky, but,*leaving beneath them the boundaries of the universal world, hasten onwards to the uncreated.
VI. Having now, therefore, gone through the wholo question of the more important plants in the world, let us see in what manner also the all-wise God has fashioned the ON THE WORLD. 189 trees which exist in man, that lesser world. Therefore im- mediately having taken our body as a region of fertile soil, he has made in it the outward senses as so many channels; and then he has carefully trained each of those* outward senses as a plant susceptible of cultivation and of the greatest use, implanting the sense of hearing in the ears, and that of seeing in the eyes, and that of smell in the nostrils, and all the other senses in the places akin to and appropriate to them. And I have a witness in favour of this my argu- ment in that god-like man who speaks thus in the Psalms: " He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? and he that fashioned the eye, must not he see? * Moreover, those other faculties which reside apart from the main body, being situated in the legs and hands and the other parts of the body, whether within or without, all these faculties, I say, are noble and excellent offshoots. And the more excellent and more perfect parts he very appropriately stationed near the dominant portion of the whole, as being in the centre, and able pre-eminently to bring forth fruit, as being the lord of the whole. And these faculties are perception and comprehension, and felicity of conjecture, and study, and recollection, and habit, and dis- position, and every variety of art, and certainty of know- ledge, and an ever-mindful apprehension of the speculations of every kind of virtue. Now, no one can properly or sufficiently cultivate any one of these within, but the one uncreated Maker of them, and who has not merely created them, but who also makes all these plants to correspond to everything which takes place; he alone can manage them and perfect them as they should be perfected.
VII. And the way in which Paradise was planted is in strict conformity with what has been here said; for we read that " God planted a Paradise in Eden, towards the east, and there he placed the man whom he had inade."f Now, to think that this means that God planted vines and olives, and trees of apples and pomegranates, and things of that kind, is great and incurable folly. But in order that no one might imagine that the Creator had need of anything that he had created, Moses has made a most important declara- tion when he says, " The Lord, the King of ages, for ever * Psalm xciii. 9. f Genesis ii. 8.
190 PHILO JUDiEUS.
190 PHILO JUDiEUS.
and ever."* Accordingly, God is both the Father, and the Creator, and the Governor, in reality and truth, of all the things that are in heaven and in the whole world. And, indeed, ike future is concealed and separated from the present moment at one time by a brief, and at another time by a long interval. But God is also the Creator of time, for he is the Father of that which is the father of time; and the father of time is the world, which proves that its own birth is the motion of time. But nothing is future to God, because he is in possession of and the author of the boundaries of time; for it is not time, but rather the arche- type and model of time. But in eternity nothing is passed, nothing is future, but everything is at the present moment.
VIII. Having now, then, discussed these matters at suf- ficient length, we must proceed to investigate its imperish- ableness. Now, there are three opinions in vogue among the philosophers on this subject: some affirming it is everlast- ing, and uncreated, and free from all liability to destruction; others, on the contrary, that it is created and perishable. There is also a sect which has adopted some portions of the doctrine of each of the beforementioned parties, taking from the latter sect the doctrine that it is created, and from the former the idea that it is imperishable; and thus they have left a mixed opinion, looking upon it as at the same time created and yet imperishable.
Therefore Democritus, and Epicurus, and the chief body of the philosophers of the Stoic school, leave the generation and also the destructibility of the world; but they do not all do so in the same manner. For some give a sketch of many worlds, the creation of which they attribute to the concourse and conflicting combination of atoms, and their destruc- tion they attribute to the repercussion and shattering of what has been thus formed. But the Stoics affirm that there is one world, and that God is the cause of its creation, but that God is not the cause of its destruction; but that the power which is contained in existing things, in the long periods of never-ending time, attracts everything to itself, from which again a regeneration of the world is caused by the prudence of the Creator.
But Aristotle pronounced the world to be both uncreated • Exodus xv. 18.
ON THE WORLD. 191 and imperishable, and he affirmed that those who maintained a contrary doctrine were guilty of terrible impiety, as they con- sidered that so great a work of God was in no respect superior to things made by the hand of men. And they say too that it has been proved to be both uncreated and imperishable by Plato in his Timaeus.
But some persons interpret Plato's words sophistically, and think that he affirms that the world was created, not inas- much as it has had a beginning of creation, but inasmuch as if it had been created it could not possibly have existed in any other manner than that in which it actually does exist as has been described, or else because it is in its creation and change that the parts are seen. But the forementioned opinion is better aud truer, not only because throughout the whole treatise he affirms that the Creator of the gods is also the father and creator and maker of everything, and that the world is a most beautiful work of his and his offspring, being an imita- tion visible to the outward senses of an archetypal model appreciable only by the intellect, comprehending in itself as many objects of the outward senses as the model does objects of the intellect, since it is a most perfect impression of a most perfect model, and is addressed to the outward sense as the other is to the intellect.
But also because Aristotle bears witness to this fact in the case of Plato, who, from his great reverence for philosophy, would never have spoken falsely.
But some persons think that the father of the Platonic theory was the poet Hesiod, as they conceive that the world is spoken of by him as created and indestructible; as created, when he says, — "First did Chaos rule; Then the broad-chested earth was brought to light, Foundation firm and lasting for whatever Exists among mankind;"* and as' indestructible, because he has given no hint of its dis- solution or destruction.
Now Chaos was conceived by Aristotle to be a place, because it is absolutely necessary that a place to receive them must be in existence before bodies. But some of the Stoics think that • Hesiod, Theogon. 116.
192 THILO JVDJEUS.
it is water, imagining that its name has been derived from effusion.* But however that may be, it is exceedingly plain that the world is spoken of by Hesiod as having been created: and a very long time before him Moses, the lawgiver of the Jews, had "said in his sacred volumes that the world; was both created and indestructible, and the number of the books is five. The first of which he entitled Genesis, in which he begins in the following manner: " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was invisible and without form."
IX. But we must place those arguments first which make out the world to be uncreated and indestructible, because of our respect for that which is visible, employing an appropriate commencement. To all things which are liable to destruction there are two causes of that destruction, one being internal and the other external; therefore you may find iron, and brass, and all other substances of that kind destroyed by themselves when rust, like a creeping disease, overruns and devours them; and by external causes when, if a house or a city is burnt, they also are consumed in the conflagration, being melted by the violent impetuosity of the fire.
A similar end also befalls animals, partly when they are sick of diseases arising internally, and partly when they are destroyed by external causes, being sacrificed, or stoned, or burnt, or when they endure an unclean death by hanging.
And if the world also is destroyed, then it must of necessity be so either by some external cause, or else by some one of the powers which exist within itself; and both these alter- natives are impossible, for there is nothing whatever outside of the world, since all things are brought together in order to make it complete and full, for it is in this way that it will be one, and whole, and free from old age; it will be one, because if anything were left outside of it, then another world might be created resembling that which exists now; and whole, because the whole of its essence is expended on itself; and exempt from old age and from all disease, since those bodies which are liable to be destroyed by disease or old age are violently overthrown by external causes, such as heat, and cold, and other contrary qualities, no power of which is able to escape so as to surround and attack the world, all those being * Xvmg, as if chaos were derived from x'w, " to pour."
ON THE WORLD. 193 ON THE WORLD. 193 entirely enclosed within, without any part whatever being separated from the rest.
But if indeed there is any external thing it must by all means be a vacuum, or else a nature absolutely impossible, which it would be impossible should either suffer or do any- thing. And again, it will also not be dissolved by any cause existing within itself; first of all because, if it were, then the part would be greater and more powerful than the whole, which is the greatest possible absurdity, for the world, enjoying an unsurpassable power, influences all its parts, and is not itself influenced or moved by any one of them; in the second place because, since there are two causes of corruption, the one being internal and the other external, those things which are competent to admit the one must also by all means be liable to the other; and a proof of this may be found in oxen, and horses, and men, and other animals of similar kinds, because it is their nature to be destroyed by the sword, or to be liable to die by disease.
X. Since, therefore, the arrangement of the world is such as I have endeavoured to describe it, so that there is no part what- ever left out, so as for any force to be applied, it has now been proved that the world will not be destroyed by any external thing, because in fact nothing whatever external has been left at all; nor will it be destroyed by anything in itself on account of the proof which has already been considered and stated, according to which that which was obnoxious to the power of one of those causes was also naturally susceptible of the influence of the other.
And there are testimonies also in the Tiraseus to the fact of the world being exempt from disease and not liable to destruction, such as these: " Accordingly, of the four ele- ments the constitution of the world receives each in all its integrity; for he who compounded it made it to consist of the whole of fire, and the whole of water, and the whole of air, and the whole of earth, not leaving any portion or any power of any one of them outside, from the following intentions: — in the first place, in order that the whole might be as far as possible a perfect animal made up of perfect parts. And besides all these things, he ordained that it should be one, in- asmuch as there is nothing left out of which another similar world could be composed. Moreover, he willed that it should VOL. IV. o 194 PHILO JTTDjEUS.
be exempt from old age, and free from all disease, considering that those things which in the body are hot or cold, or which have mighty powers, if standing all around and falling upon it unseasonably, would be likely to dissolve it, and, by intro- ducing diseases and old age, cause it to decay and perish. For this cause, and because of this reason, God made the whole universe to consist of entire and perfect elements, and exempt from old age and free from disease."
XL Let this be taken as a testimony delivered by Plato to the imperishable nature of the world. Its uncreated character follows from the truth of natural philosophy; for dissolution must of necessity attend everything which is born, and incor- ruptibility must inevitably belong to everything which is un- born; since the poet who wrote the following iambic verse, "All that is born must surely die," * appears to have spoken very correctly when he asserted this connection of destructibility with birth.
The argument may be stated in a different way as follows. All compound things which are destroyed are dissolved into the elements of which they were compounded; accordingly, dissolution is nothing else but a return of everything to its original constituent parts; just as, on the contrary, composition is that which compels the things combined to come together in a manner contrary to their nature; and indeed, this appears to be the most exact truth; for men are composed of the four elements which together make up the whole of the universe, the heaven, the earth, the air, and fire, borrowing a few parts of each in a manner at first sight hardly consistent with nature. But the things which are thus combined together are necessarily deprived of a motion in accordance with nature; for instance, warmth is deprived of its upward motion, and coldness of its downward tendency, the earthy and somewhat weighty substance being lightened and assuming the higher place, which the most earth-like of our own parts, the head, has obtained in us. But of all bonds, that is the worst which is forged by violence, and which, being violent, is also short- lived; for it is speedily broken by those who are bound in it,