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Featured Book: The Comprehensive New Testament More Books: Online References: Apostolic and Early Church Fathers
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THE
SPECIAL LAWS, IV I.
(1) I have in my previous treatises spoken of the laws relating to adultery and
murder, and to all the subordinate offences which come under those head, with,
as I persuade myself, all the accuracy which the case admits of, and now,
proceeding in the regular order, I must consider what is the third commandment
in the second table, but the eighth in all, if the two tables are taken
together, namely, the commandment, "Thou shall not Steal."{1}{Exodus
20:13.} (2) Whoever carries off or leads away the property of another when he
has no right to do so, if he does it openly and by main force, shall be set down
as a common enemy, and shall be prosecuted as having with lawless wickedness
contrived a shameless act of audacity. But if he has done it secretly,
endeavoring to escape notice like a thief, exhibiting some modesty, and making
the darkness the veil of his iniquity, let him then be punished privately as
only liable to condemnation in respect of the one individual whom he endeavored
to injure; and let him restore double the value of the thing stolen, making
amends by his own most righteous suffering for the unrighteous advantage he has
endeavored to gain. (3) But if he is a poor man, and consequently unable to pay
the penalty, let him be sold (for it is fitting that that man should be deprived
of his freedom who for the sake of his most iniquitous gain has endured to
become a slave to guilt), that he who has been ill-treated may not be allowed to
depart without consolation, as if he appeared to have his claims disregarded by
reason of the poverty of the man who has robbed him. (4) And let no one accuse
this ordinance of inhumanity; for the man who is sold is not left as a slave for
ever and ever, but within the space of seven years he is released by a common
proclamation as I have shown in my treatise on the number seven. (5) And let him
be content to pay the double penalty, or even to be sold, since he has committed
no slight offence; sinning in the first place in that, not being content with
what he had, he has desired more, encouraging a feeling of covetousness, a
treacherous and incurable wickedness. Secondly, because he has cast his eyes on
the property of others and longed for it, and has laid plots to deprive his
neighbor of his own, depriving the owner of what belongs to him. Thirdly,
because through his desire to escape detection, he very often keeps to himself
all the advantage that can be derived from the thing he appropriates, and
diverts the accusation so as to cause it to fall upon the innocent, thus making
the investigation of the truth blind. (6) And such a man appears in some degree
to be himself his own accuser, being convicted by his own conscience of the
theft of those things which he has secretly stolen, being filled either with
shame or fear, one of which feelings is a proof of his considering his action a
disgraceful one, for it is only disgraceful actions which cause shame, and the
other is a sign of his thinking it deserving of punishment, for punishment
causes fear. CONCERNING
HOUSEBREAKERS II.
(7) If any one being insanely carried away by a desire for the property of
others attempts to steal it, and not being able easily to carry it off breaks
into a house at night, using the darkness as a veil to conceal his wicked
action, if he be caught in the fact before the sun has risen, he may be slain by
the master of the house in the breaches, having accomplished the lesser object
which he had proposed to himself, namely, theft, but having been hindered by
some one from accomplishing the greater crime which might have followed it,
namely, murder; since he was prepared with iron house-breaking tools which he
bore, and other arms, to defend himself from any attack. But if the sun has
risen, then let him no longer be slain by the hand of the master of the house,
but let him be led away and brought before the magistrates and judges, to suffer
whatever punishment they condemn him to. (8) For while men are remaining in
their houses at night, and when they have betaken themselves to rest, whether
they be rulers or private individuals, in either case there is no refuge or
assistance for the offender; on which account the inmate of the house has the
power of punishment in his own hands, being appointed magistrate and judge by
the very time itself. (9) But in the day time the courts of justice and the
council chambers are open, and the city is full of persons who will help to
arrest the criminal; some of whom have been formally appointed guardians of the
laws; and others, without any such appointment, by their natural disposition
which hates iniquity, take up the cause of those who are injured; and before
these men the thief must be brought; for thus the man who seeks revenge will
escape the charge of arrogance or rashness, and appear to be acting in the
spirit of the democracy. (10) But if, when the sun has risen and is shining upon
the earth, any one slays a robber with his own hand before bringing him to
trial, he shall be held guilty, as having been guided by passion rather than by
reason, and as having made the laws second to his own impulses. I should say to
such a man, "My, friend, do not, because you have been injured by night by
a thief, on this account in the daylight yourself commit a worse theft, not
indeed affecting money, but affecting the principles of justice, in accordance
with which the constitution of the state is established." ABOUT
THE THEFT OF A SHEEP OR AN OX III.
(11) Now other thefts are to be atoned for by a payment of double the value of
the thing stolen; but if any one steals an ox or a sheep, the law thinks such a
man worthy of a greater punishment, giving a particular honor and precedence to
those animals which are the most excellent among all tame flocks and herds, not
only by reason of the beauty of their bodies, but also because of the service
they are of to the life of man. And on this account the lawgiver has not affixed
a fine of equal amount to the theft of each animal, but having calculated the
use of both and the purposes for which both are available, he has appraised
their value in this way. (12) For he commands that the thief shall restore four
sheep and five oxen in the place of the one which he has stolen; since a sheep
gives four kinds of tribute, milk, and cheese, and its fleece, and a lamb, every
year: but an ox furnishes five; three of which are the same as those of the
sheep--the milk, the cheese, and the offspring; but two are peculiar to itself,
the plowing of the earth, and the threshing of the corn; the first of which
actions is the first step towards the sowing of the crops, and the other is the
end, being for the purification of the crop after it is gathered in, in order to
the more easy use of it for food. CONCERNING
KIDNAPPERS IV.
(13) A kidnapper also is a thief; but he is, moreover, a thief who steals the
very most excellent thing that exists upon the earth. Now, in the case of
inanimate things, and of those animals which are of no very great use indeed in
life, he has commanded twice the value of them to be paid to their owners by
those who steal them, as has been said before. And again, in the case of those
tame and very useful flocks and herds of sheep and oxen, he has ordered the
payment to be fourfold or fivefold; (14) but man, as it seems, has been assigned
the most pre-eminent position among the animals, being, as it were, a near
relation of God himself, and akin to him in respect of his participation in
reason; which makes him immortal, although he is liable to death. On which
account every one who feels any admiration of virtue is full of exceeding anger,
and is utterly implacable against kidnappers, who for the sake of most
iniquitous gain dare to inflict slavery on those who are free by birth, and who
partake of the same nature as themselves. (15) For if masters perform a
praiseworthy action when they emancipate servants born in their house or
purchased with money, even though they have often not done them any great
service, from the slavery in which they are held, because of their own humanity
by which they are influenced, how heavy ought to be the accusation which is
brought against those who deprive of that most excellent of all possessions,
freedom, those who are at present in possession of it; when it is an object for
which man, who has been well born and properly brought up, would think it
glorious to die? (16) And before now, some men, increasing their own innate
wickedness, and directing the natural treachery of their characters to a
violation of all rights, have studied to bring slavery not only upon strangers
and foreigners, but even upon those of the same nation as themselves; and
sometimes, even upon men of the same borough and of the same tribe, disregarding
the community of laws and customs, in which they have been bred up with them
from their earliest infancy, which nature stamps upon their souls as the firmest
bond of good will in the case of all those who are not very intractable and
greatly addicted to cruelty; (17) who, for the sake of lawless gain sell slaves
to slave-dealers, and enslave them to any chance persons, transporting them to a
foreign land, so that they shall never any more salute their native land, not
even in a dream, nor taste of any hope of happiness. For these kidnappers would
be committing a lighter iniquity if they themselves retained the services of
those whom they have enslaved, but as the case stands at present they commit a
double wrong, in selling them again, and thus making them two masters instead of
one, and raising up two slaveries as enemies to their condition. (18) For they,
being aware of the former prosperous condition of those whom they have carried
off, might perhaps repent, feeling a tardy and late compassion for those who are
thus fallen, having a proper awe of the uncertainty of fortune eluding all
conjectures. But those who buy persons in this condition, out of ignorance of
their families, will neglect them as if they were sprung from successive
generations of slaves, having no inducement in their souls to display that
gentleness and humanity towards them which it would be natural for them to
preserve in the case of slaves who had become so after having been originally
and naturally free-born. (19) And let whatever punishment the court of justice
shall sentence them to be inflicted upon those who kidnap and enslave those of
another nation; but upon those who kidnap those of their own country and of
their own blood, and who sell them for slaves, shall be passed the unalterable
sentence of death. For, in fact, one's own countrymen are not far from blood
relations, and they must very nearly come under the same definition with them. CONCERNING
DAMAGE V.
(20) "In the field also," as some one of the old writers has said,
"lawsuits arise;" since covetousness and a desire for the possessions
of others does not exist only in the city, but is found also outside the walls,
inasmuch as it has its abode not only in various places, but also in the minds
of insatiable and contentious men. (21) On which account those cities which
enjoy the best codes of laws elect double superintendents, and rulers, and
providers of a common regularity and safety; one class to manage within the
walls, whom they call curators of the city; the others without the walls, to
whom also they give an appropriate name, for they call them agrarian
magistrates. But what need could there be of agrarian magistrates if there were
not some persons in the fields living only for the injury of their neighbors?
(22) If, therefore, any shepherd or goatherd, or oxherd, or in short any manager
of any kind of cattle, drives his herds to feed and pasture upon another man's
land, sparing neither crops nor trees, he shall pay a fine equal to the value of
those crops and trees. (23) And he may be very well content to escape with this
punishment, having met with a very merciful and exceedingly indulgent law,
which, though he has adopted the conduct of implacable foreign enemies, who are
accustomed to lay waste the lands and to destroy the cultivated trees of the
inhabitants, has, nevertheless, not chastised him as a common enemy, inflicting
upon him death, or exile, or of, lastly, a confiscation of all his property; but
has merely sentenced him to make good the damage done to the owner. (24) For as
the lawgiver was always seeking pretexts by which to lighten whatever
misfortunes have been suffered by reason of the excessive gentleness and
humanity which he derived from nature and from habit, he found an excuse for the
shepherd on the ground that the nature of cattle was inconsiderate and
disobedient, and especially so when in pursuit of food. (25) Let the shepherd,
then, be guilty, as having originally driven his herd into an unsuitable place,
but still let him not bear the blame of every thing that has ensued from his
doing so. For it is natural to suppose that, as soon as he perceived the
mischief that had taken place he endeavored to drive them out again, but that
his beasts resisted him, luxuriating in the green pasture, and the tender crops,
and shoots which they were devouring. CONCERNING
NOT SETTING FIRE TO BRAMBLES INCONSIDERATELY VI.
(26) And not only do those men do damage who devour the property of others with
their flocks and herds, but so also do those who inconsiderately and carelessly
kindle a fire; for if the power of fire catches hold of any appropriate fuel, it
spreads in every direction, and extends and devours all around. And when it has
once got ahead it defies all the means of extinguishing it which any one seeks
to apply, taking the very things employed for that purpose as food for its
increase, until having consumed every thing it is at last exhausted by itself.
(27) It is right, therefore, never to leave any fire either in a house or in any
stables in the fields unguarded, since we well know that a single spark has
often smouldered long, and at last has been fanned into a flame, and so has
consumed great cities, especially when the flame has been borne onwards by a
favorable wind. (28) Accordingly, in savage wars the first, the middle, and the
last power which is excited is that of fire, to which the enemies trust more
than they do to their squadrons of infantry, or cavalry, or to their fleets, or
to their unlimited supplies of arms and naval stores. For if any one with good
aim shoots a fiery arrow among a numerous squadron of ships he may burn it with
all the crews, or he may thus destroy vast camps with all their baggage, and
furniture, and equipments, on which the army rested its hopes of victory. (29)
If, then, any one scatters fire among a heap of brambles or thorns, and the fire
kindles and burns a threshing floor full of wheat, or barley, or vetches, or
sheaves of corn which have been gathered together, or any fertile plain full of
pasture, then the man who scattered the fire shall pay the amount of the damage
done, in order that by his suffering he may learn to take good care and to guard
against the Beginnings{2}{this resembles Ovid, which may be
translated--"Check the first rise: all remedy's too late / When long delay
has made the mischief great."} of things, and may not awaken and stir up an
invincible power which might otherwise have remained quiet. CONCERNING
DEPOSITS VII.
(30) A deposit is the most sacred of all those things which relate to the
associations of men with regard to property, inasmuch as it depends upon the
good faith alone of the man who has received it. For loans are proved by
contracts and writings, and things which, independent of loans, are openly used,
have all the persons who see them for witnesses. (31) But this is not the case
with deposits, but the owner by himself gives them privily to the man who
receives them by himself, looking carefully round the place, and not even taking
a slave with him for the purpose of carrying the thing to be deposited, even
though he be ever so affectionate to his master; for each of the two parties
appears to be anxious to avoid discovery; the one depositing the thing in order
to receive it again, and the other being desirous not to be known to have
received it. But we ought by all means to look upon the invisible God as an
unseen third party to every concealed action, whom it is natural to make as a
witness for both parties; the receiver calling him to witness that he will
restore the deposit when it is demanded back from him, and the other making him
to see that he receives it back at the proper time. (32) Let, then, the man who
commits this great wickedness and denies his deposit not be ignorant that he has
deceived him who committed it to him of his hope, and that he is concealing a
wicked disposition under specious language, and that he is hypocritically
pretending a bastard sort of faith while in reality faithless, showing that all
his pledges are worthless and all his oaths disregarded, so that he neglects all
human and all divine obligations; and that he is denying two deposits at once;
firstly, the deposit of him who entrusted his property to his care; and
secondly, that of that most unerring and infallible witness who sees all the
actions of all men, and hears all the words of all men, whether they are willing
that he should do so or not. (33) But if the man who has received a deposit as a
sacred thing thinks that he ought to keep it without fraud, duly honoring truth
and good faith, but yet others who are always plotting against their neighbors'
property, such as cutpurses or housebreakers, break in treacherously and steal
the deposit so entrusted, then he shall pay as a penalty double the value of
what has been stolen by the thieves. (34) And if they are not taken, then the
man who received the deposit shall go of his own accord before the divine
tribunal, and stretching out his hands to heaven shall swear by his own life
that he himself had no hand in the theft from any desire to appropriate what had
been deposited with him, and that he did not voluntarily give it up to any one
else; and that, moreover, he is not making a false statement of a robbery which
has never taken Place.{3}{Exodus 22:7.} For it would be absurd to punish a man
who has done no wrong, or for a man who had taken refuge in the assistance of a
friend when he was being injured by others, now to become the cause of injury to
that friend. (35) And deposits consist not only of inanimate things but also of
animals: the danger of which last is twofold; first, that while they share in
common with inanimate things in being liable to be stolen, and also one which is
distinct and peculiar to themselves, that they are liable to die. We have
hitherto been speaking only of the first kind of deposit, but we must now also
explain the law about the second. (36) If now any cattle which have been
entrusted as a deposit die, then he who has received the deposit shall send for
him who committed it to him, and show him the matter, protecting himself from
any evil suspicion; but if the depositor be absent, then it is not proper to
send for any one else, whose notice perhaps the depositor might have been
desirous to escape; but when the depositor returns home, his friend shall swear
to him that he has not been concealing any unjust appropriation of the animals
by a false statement of their death. (37) And if any one receives anything not
as a deposit, but because he has borrowed it to use, whether it is a vessel or
an animal; then if he be robbed of it, whichever it may be, or if the animal
die, while the man who lent it is living with the borrower, the borrower shall
not be liable, as the owner himself can be brought as a witness that there is no
false pretence in the business; but if the lender be not with him at the time,
he shall pay the value. (38) Why so? because it is possible that the man who
used the animal when the owner was not present may have either worn him out by
continual labor so as to kill him, or may have worn out the vessel, from not
taking any care of the property of another of which he ought to have been
careful, and to have put it away, and not to have given thieves an easy
opportunity of stealing it. (39) But as our lawgiver was acute beyond all other
men at discerning the consequences of actions, he proceeds to enact a series of
prohibitions, one after another, preserving a due connection between them, and
taking care that his later commandments shall be consistent with his earlier
cones. And with this harmonious connection of what was to be said by him, he
tells us that he was divinely inspired by the person of God speaking to him in
this manner:-- "Ye
shall not steal. "Ye
shall not speak falsely, and bring false accusations against your neighbor. "And
ye shall not swear by my name to compass an unjust end, and ye shall not profane
my Name."{4}{Leviticus 19:11.} (40)
These injunctions are given with great beauty and very instructively; for the
thief being convicted by his own conscience denies and speaks falsely, fearing
the punishment which would ensue upon his confession. And he who denies an
action seeks to attach the imputation to some one else, bringing a false
accusation appear probable; and every false accuser is at once a perjured man,
thinking but little of piety, since he has not just proofs; on which account he
has recourse to what is called the inartificial mode of proof, that by oaths,
thinking that by the invocation of God he shall produce belief among those who
hear him. But let such an one know that he is ungodly and impious, inasmuch as
he is defiling that which by nature is undefiled, the good and holy name of God.
THOU
shall NOT BEAR FALSE Witness(5){Exodus 20:16.} VIII.
(41) This is the ninth of the ten commandments, being the fourth in number of
those in the second table; but one which is calculated to bestow ten thousand
benefits on human life if it be kept, as, on the other hand, it may injure men
in innumerable ways if it is neglected; (42) for the false accuser is to be
blamed, but he who bears witness to what is false is more guilty still; for the
one acts only from a desire to protect himself, but the other is wicked from his
wish to co-operate with another in iniquity. And in the comparison of wicked men
he who does wrong for his own sake is less unrighteous than he who does so for
another. (43) And every judge looks with suspicion on an accuser, as likely to
pay but little attention to truth for the sake of coming off in safety himself,
on which account the accuser stands in need of a preface to beg the attention of
the hearer while he is speaking; but if the judge has no prejudice against a
witness on any personal grounds he receives his evidence with a willing mind and
open ears, while he is covering over those most excellent things, truth and good
faith, which specious language. And the false witnesses use seductive words as a
sportsman uses bait for the purpose of attaining the objects which he desires
and aims at. (44) For which reasons, in many parts of his enactment of the law,
he commands that we should not approve of any wicked man or Action.{6}{Exodus
23:1.} For any approbation of what is not virtuous is likely to lead to giving
false evidence; since every one to whom iniquity is a disagreeable and hateful
thing is a friend of truth. (45) Now there is no great wonder in a man's having
connected himself with one wicked person, who has incited him to an action
resembling his own character; but it is a sign of a noble soul, and of a
disposition practiced in manly
resolutions not to follow a multitude to do evil, like a man borne down over a
precipice by the collective force of a torrent. (46) For some people, among the
multitude, think some things lawful and just, even though they be most
flagitious, not judging correctly; for it is well to follow nature, but this
impulse of the multitude is wholly at variance with the following of nature.
(47) If, then, some persons, being assembled together in companies and numerous
multitudes, attempt to make any innovations, one must not consent to them, since
they are adulterating the ancient and approved coinage of the state; for one
wise counsel is superior to many attempts, but ignorance, in conjunction with
numbers, is a great evil; (48) but some persons
practice such an excess of wickedness that they not only accuse mortal
men, but adhere and cling to their unrighteousness, so as even to raise their
lies as high as heaven, and to bear their testimony against the blessed and
happy nature of God. And by these men I mean soothsayers, and diviners, and
augurs, and all other persons who practice
what they call divination studying, an art without any art, if one must tell the
plain truth, a mere bare imitation of the real inspiration and prophetic gift;
(49) for a prophet does not utter anything whatever of his own, but is only an
interpreter, another Being suggesting to him all that he utters, while he is
speaking under inspiration, being in ignorance that his own reasoning powers are
departed, and have quitted the citadel of his soul; while the divine spirit has
entered in and taken up its abode there, and is operating upon all the
organization of his voice, and making it sound to the distinct manifestation of
all the prophecies which he is delivering. (50) But all those persons who pursue
the spurious and pretended kind of prophecy are inverting the order of truth by
conjectures and guesses, perverting sincerity, and easily influencing those who
are of unstable dispositions, as a violent wind, when blowing in a contrary
direction, tosses about and overturns vessels without ballast, preventing them
from anchoring in the safe havens of truth. For such persons think proper to say
whatever they conjecture, not as if they were things which they themselves had
found out, but as if they were divine oracles revealed to themselves alone, for
the more complete inducement of great and numerous crowds to believe a deceit.
(51) Such persons our lawgiver very appropriately calls false prophets, who
adulterate the true prophecy, and overshadow what is genuine by their spurious
devices; but in a very short time all their manoeuvres are detected, since
nature does not choose to be always hidden, but, when a suitable opportunity
offers, displays her own power with irresistible strength. (52) For as in the
case of eclipses of the sun the rays which have, for a brief moment, been
obscured, a short time afterwards shine forth again, exhibiting an unclouded and
far-seen brilliancy without anything whatever coming over the sun at all, but
one unalloyed blaze beaming forth from him in a serene sky; so also, even though
some persons may deliver predictions, practising a lying art of prophecy, and
disguising themselves under the specious name of prophetic inspiration, falsely
taking the name of God in vain, they will be easily convicted. For, again, the
truth will come forth and will beam forth, shedding around a most conspicuous
light, so that the falsehood which has previously overshadowed it will
disappear. (53) Moreover there also was an Excellent{7}{Numbers 35:30.}
commandment that Moses gave when he ordained that the judge should "not
receive the testimony of one Witness."{8}{Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15.} First
of all, because it is possible that one person may without designing it have a
false impression of a thing, or may be careless about it and therefore be
deceived. For there are innumerable false opinions, which frequently arise from
an innumerable variety of grounds; (54) and secondly, because it is most unjust
to trust to one witness against many persons, or indeed against only one
individual; in the first place, because many are more entitled to belief than
one, since the one is not superior in number to many, and equality of number is
inconsistent with any preponderance; for why should the judge trust a single
witness, bearing testimony against another, rather than the defendant pleading
in his own behalf? But, as it should seem, it is best to suspend one's opinion,
where there is no deficiency and no excess to guide the judgment. ON
THE OFFICE AND CHARACTER OF A JUDGE IX.
(55) The law thinks that all those who adhere to the sacred constitution,
established by Moses, ought to be free from all unreasonable passions, and from
all wickedness; and most especially ought all men to be so, who are either
appointed by lot or elected to judge between others; for it is an absurdity for
these men to be themselves liable to the imputation of error, who undertake to
dispense justice to others, whom it becomes to give a faithful copy of the works
of nature, presenting an accurate representation of a model picture; (56) for as
the power of fire which disperses warmth to all other things which it reaches,
was, long before doing so, warm as far as it was itself concerned, and as, on
the contrary, the power of snow cools other things, by the fact of its being
itself cooled previously, so also ought the judge to be full of pure unalloyed
justice, if he is to irrigate all who come before him with justice, in order
that from him, as from a sweet fountain, a wholesome spring may be afforded to
all who thirst for a dispensation of good law. (57) And this will be the case of
any one who undertakes the office of a judge looks upon it as if he were at the
same time judging and being judged himself, and when he takes up the pebble with
which he is to give his vote, were at the same time to take up wisdom so as not
to be deceived, and justice so as to dispense to each party what they deserve,
and courage so as never to yield to supplications or to feelings of compassion,
so as to diminish the punishment due to convicted offenders; (58) for the man
who studies these virtues may reasonably be looked upon as a common benefactor,
like a good pilot tranquillising the storms of affairs in such a manner as to
secure the preservation and safety of those who have committed their interests
to him. X.
(59) In the first place the law enjoins the judge not to listen to vain
Reports.{9}{Exodus 23:1.} Why is this? The law says, "My good man, let thy
ears be purified." And they will be purified if they are continually washed
out with a stream of virtuous language, never admitting the long, and false, and
vain, and hackneyed protestations, so deserving to be ridiculed, of fabulists or
vain babblers, or hyperbolical exaggerations, who make a great deal of things of
no importance; (60) and this is what is meant by the injunction not to listen to
vain reports, and also by another precept in some degree consistent with the
former. For, says the lawgiver, he who attends to those who give evidence on
hearsay is attending to vanity and not to sound reason because the eyes do
indeed dwell with the very things which are done, taking hold of them as one may
say, and comprehending and seizing upon them in all their parts, the light
co-operating with them, by means of which all things are illuminated and clearly
proved; but the ears, as one of the philosophers of old has very truly said, are
less trustworthy than the eyes, inasmuch as they are not themselves present at
the transactions, but are attracted by words as the interpreter of facts, which
are not always disposed to tell the truth; (61) for which reasons some of the
lawgivers among the Greeks, having transcribed some of the laws from the two
tables of Moses, appear to have established very wise regulations, forbidding
any one to mention in his testimony anything that he has heard, on the ground
that it is right to look upon what a man has seen as trustworthy, but on what he
has heard as not in all respects certain. XI.
(62) The second commandment given to a judge is not to receive gifts;
{10}{Exodus 23:8.} for gifts, says the law, blind the eyes that see, and pervert
justice, and do not permit the mind to travel along the level road which leads
to righteousness; (63) and to receive bribes to aid in unjust actions is the
action of very wicked men indeed; and even to do so for the purpose of
furthering good objects is the conduct of persons who are half wicked; for there
are some judges speciously disguised, half wicked, something between just and
unjust, armed indeed in the cause of those who are injured, as their champions
against those who injure them, but still not desirous to cause them to prevail,
without deriving any advantage to themselves from their victory, though they
ought to prevail; but making their decision corrupt and mercenary. (64) Then,
when any one blames them, they affirm that they have not perverted justice; for
that those have been defeated who ought to have been defeated, and that those
have gained their cause who ought to have got the better; alleging a most
unworthy and false defence; for a righteous judge ought to exhibit two things, a
judgment in strict accordance with the law, and incorruptibility; but he who is
a judge for bribes, even though he decides justly, does without perceiving it
defile a thing which is beautiful by nature. (65) Moreover, he also offends in
two other points; in the first place, because he is accustoming himself to be
covetous of money; which is the beginning of the very greatest iniquities; and
secondly, because he is injuring the man whom he ought to benefit; by making him
pay a price for justice; (66) on which account Moses has very instructively
commanded, that the judge shall pursue what is righteous in a righteous manner;
{11}{Deuteronomy 16:19.} intimating under this figurative expression, that it is
possible to do so in an unrighteous manner, because of those men who sell just
and legal decisions for money, and only in the courts of justice, but everywhere
in every part of land and sea, and I had almost said in all the transactions of
life. (67) For instance, it has happened before now, that a man who has received
a deposit of small value, has given it back again when demanded, more by way of
laying a snare for him who receives it back, than with any idea of serving him,
in order that by showing good faith in things of small value as a bait he may
cover over the look of his faithlessness in greater things, and such conduct is
nothing else than pursuing justice in an unrighteous manner; for the restitution
of what did not belong to him was just, but it was done in an unrighteous
manner, inasmuch as it was only done as a bait to attract more. (68) And the
cause of all such offences is principally the inclination to and the familiar
habit of falsehood, which, from their very birth and swaddling clothes, their
nurses and mothers, and all the whole multitude in the house, whether free-born
persons or slaves, habituate them to and familiarise them with both by words and
actions, adapting it to and uniting it with their souls, as a necessary part of
them by nature, though, if it had in truth been implanted in them by nature, it
would have been necessary to eradicate it by instilling good habits into them
instead. (69) And what in life is there equally beautiful with truth, which the
all-wise legislator erected in the most sacred place, in that part of the dress
of the chief priest, where the dominant part of the soul lies, wishing to adorn
it with the most beautiful and glorious of all ornaments? And next to truth he
has placed power as akin to it, which he has in this case called manifestation,
being the two images of the two kinds of speech which exist in us, the secret
speech and the lettered speech, for the lettered speech requires manifestation,
by which the secret thoughts in all our hearts are made known to our neighbor,
but the secret speech has need of truth for the perfection of life and actions,
by means of which the road to happiness is found out. XII.
(70) The third commandment given to a judge is to investigate the transactions
themselves, in preference to showing any regard to the parties to the suit; and
to attempt, in every imaginable manner, to separate himself from all respect of
persons; constraining himself to an ignorance and forgetfulness of all those
things of which he has any knowledge or recollection; such as relations,
friends, countrymen or foreigners, enemies or hereditary connections, so that
neither affection nor hatred may overshadow his knowledge of justice; for he
must stumble like a blind man, who is advancing without a staff, and who has no
one to guide him in whom he can rely firmly. (71) For which reason it is fitting
that a righteous judge should have it even concealed from him who the parties to
the suit are, and that he should look at the undisguised, simple nature of the
transactions themselves; so as not to be liable to judge in accordance with
random opinion, but according to real truth, and to be guided by such an opinion
as this, that judgment is of God; {12}{Deuteronomy 1:17.} and that the judge is
the minister and steward of his judgment; and a steward is not allowed to give
away the things of his master, as he has received as a pledge the most excellent
of all the things which exist in human life, from the most excellent of all
beings. XIII.
(72) And in addition to what has already been said, there is another most
admirable precept given which enjoins the judge "not to show pity upon the
poor man in his Judgment."{13}{Exodus 23:3.} While in other precepts the
lawgiver has filled nearly the whole of the law with precepts of mercy and
humanity, and has uttered great threats against arrogant and insolent men, and
has proposed great rewards for those who endeavor to make amends for the
misfortunes of their neighbors, and who look upon their superfluities not as
their own exclusive possessions, but as the common property of every one in
want; (73) for it was a felicitous and true saying of one of the wise men of
old, that men never act in a manner more resembling the gods than when they are
bestowing benefits; and what can be a greater good than for mortal men to
imitate the everlasting God? (74) Let not then the rich man collect in his house
vast quantities of silver and gold, and store them up, but let him bring them
forward freely in order by his cheerful bounty to soften the hard condition of
the poor; nor let any man be puffed up with vain glory, and raise himself and
boast himself in pride and arrogance, but let a man rather honor equality, and
allow freedom of speech to those of low estate. And let the man who enjoys vigor
of body be the prop of those who are weaker, and let him not like the men at the
gymnastic contests strive by every means to overthrow those who are inferior in
strength, but let him be willing and eager to assist with his own power those
who, as far as they themselves are concerned, are ready to faint. (75) For all
those who have drunk deep of the fountains of wisdom, having banished envy
entirely out of their minds, are of their own accord, and without any prompting,
ready to undertake the assistance of their neighbors, pouring the streams of
their words into their souls through their ears, so as to impart to them a
participation in similar knowledge with themselves. And when they see young men
of good dispositions springing up like flourishing and vigorous shoots of a
vine, they rejoice, thinking that they have found proper inheritors for this
wealth of their souls, which is the only real riches, and having taken them they
cultivate their souls with doctrines and good meditations, until they arrive at
full strength and maturity, so as to bring forth the fruit of excellence. (76)
Many such ornaments as these are woven into and inserted among the laws, in
order to enrich the poor on whom it is always proper to have compassion except
at the time of giving judgment, for compassion is due to misfortunes; but he who
behaves wickedly with deliberate purpose is not unfortunate but unrighteous,
(77) and punishment is due to the unrighteous just as honors should be confirmed
to the just, so that no wicked man who is in difficulties, and who conceals the
truth, ought to escape punishment through the pity excited by his poverty, since
he has done what deserves not pity (how should it?) but great anger. And let the
man who undertakes the duty of a judge, like a skilful money-changer, divide and
distinguish between the natures of things, in order that confusion may not be
caused by the mixing together of what is good with what is spurious. (78) And
there are many other things which may be said with respect to false witnesses
and judges; but for the sake of avoiding prolixity we must proceed now to the
last of the ten commandments, which is delivered also in a concise and summary
form as each of the others is: and this commandment is, "Thou shall not
covet." ON
COVETING XIV.
(79) Every passion is open to and deserving of blame, inasmuch as every
immoderate and violent impulse, and every irrational and unnatural emotion of
the soul is also faulty and blamable, for what is either of these things but an
ancient passion spread over a wider extent? If any one, therefore, does not set
limits to these feelings, nor put a bridle on them as on restive horses, he will
be afflicted by an evil difficult to remedy, and then, without being aware of
it, he will, because of their unrestrainable character, be carried away by them,
as a charioteer sometimes is by a chariot, and hurried into ravines and pits
from which it is difficult to rise up, and very hard to escape with safety. (80)
But of all the passions there is not one so grievous as a covetous desire of
what one has not got, of things which are in appearance good, but not in
reality; a desire which produces grievous anxieties which are hard to satisfy;
for such a passion puts the reason to flight, and banishes it to a great
distance, involving the soul in great difficulties, while the object which is
desired flies away contemptuously, retreating not with its back but with its
face to one; (81) for when a person perceives this passion of covetousness after
having started up rapidly, then resting for a short time, either with a view to
spread out its alluring toils, or because it has learnt to entertain a hope of
succeeding in its object, he then retires to a longer distance uttering
reproaches against it; but the passion itself, being left behind and coming too
late to succeed, struggles, bearing a Tantalus-like punishment in its miserable
future; for it is said that Tantalus, when he desired to obtain any liquor to
drink, was not able to do so, as the water retreated from his lips, {14}{the
story of Tantalus is told in Homer, Od. 11.581 (as it is translated by
Pope)--"There Tantalus along the Stygian bounds, / Pours out deep groans
(with groans all hell resounds); / Ev'n in the circling floods refreshment
craves, / And pines with thirst among a sea of waves; / When to the water he his
lip applies, / Back from his lip the treacherous water flies. / Above, beneath,
around his hapless head, / Trees of all kinds delicious fruitage spread; / There
figs, sky-dyed, a purple hue disclose, / Green looks the olive, the pomegranate
glows; / There dangling pears exalting scents unfold, / And yellow apples ripen
into gold. / The first he strives to seize; but blasts arise, / Toss it on high,
and whirl it to the skies."} and if he wished to gather any fruit, it all
disappeared, the productiveness of the trees becoming suddenly barren; (82) for
as those implacable and inexorable mistresses of the body, thirst and hunger, do
very often strain it more, or at all events not less, than those unhappy persons
are strained who are racked by the torture even to death, unless when they have
become violent some one appeases them with meat and drink; in like manner,
covetous desire, having first rendered the soul empty through its forgetfulness
of what is present and its recollection of what is removed to a great distance,
fills it with impetuosity and madness, and introduces into it masters worse than
even its former tyrants, but having the same names with them, namely, hunger and
thirst, not, however, now of those things which conduce to the enjoyment of the
belly, but of money, and glory, and authority, and beauty, and of innumerable
other things which appear to be objects of desire and contention in human life.
(83) And as the disease which the physicians call the herpes, {15}{so called
from herpoµ, "to creep."} does not stop in one part of the body, but
moves about and overruns the skin, and, as its name shows, creeps about (dierpei),
and becomes diffused in every direction, and spreading widely seizes hold of and
infects with its contact the whole combination of the different parts of the
body from the head to the feet, so in the same manner does covetous desire
spread over the whole soul, and leave not even the smallest portion of it free
from its inroads, imitating the power of fire when supplied with abundant fuel,
for that spreads and burns away till it has devoured and destroyed everything
with which it meets. XV.
(84) So great and so excessive an evil is covetous desire; or rather, if I am to
speak the plain truth concerning it, it is the source of all evils. For from
what other source do all the thefts, and acts of rapine, and repudiation of
debt, and all false accusations, and acts of insolence, and, moreover, all
ravishments, and adulteries, and murders, and, in short, all mischiefs, whether
private or public, or sacred or profane, take their rise? (85) For most truly
may covetous desire be said to be the original passion which is at the bottom of
all these mischiefs, of which love is one and the most significant offspring,
which has not once but many times filled the whole world with indescribable
evils; which even the whole circumference of the world has not been large enough
to contain, but out of their vast number they, as if carried on by the
impetuosity of a torrent, have fallen into the sea, and all seas in every region
have been filled with hostile fleets. It is owing to this passion that all the
terrible evils which are caused by naval wars have happened; and, coming upon
all continents and all islands together, have thrown them into confusion,
spreading everywhere and returning in their own steps like the warriors in the
diaulos, {16}{the diaulos was the race in which the runners ran to the goal and
back to the starting post.} or like the ebb and flow of the tides of the sea,
returning to the point from which they originally set out. (86) And by looking
at it in this manner we shall more clearly perceive the power of this passion.
Everything which covetous desire lays hold of is by it changed for the worse,
like poisonous serpents or deadly poisons. Now what is it that I mean when I say
this? (87) If this passion is directed towards money, it makes thieves, and
cut-purses, and clothesstealers, and house-breakers, and taints men with the
guilt of the repudiation of debts, of the denial of deposits, of bribery and
sacrilege, and all such iniquities as those. (88) If it is directed towards
glory, it makes men insolent, overbearing, fickle, and unstable in their
dispositions, depending wholly on what is said to them and on what they hear, at
the same time humbled and elated by reason of the variety and inconstancy of the
multitudes who praise and blame them with inconsiderate impetuosity,
inconsiderate in their enmity and in their friendship, so as easily to change
from one to the other, and fills them with all sorts of humours akin to and
resembling these. (89) Again, if the desire takes the direction of wishing for
authority and power, it renders men's natures seditious, unequal, and
tyrannical, it makes them cruel and inhuman enemies of their native countries,
implacable masters unable to restrain themselves, irreconcileable forces to all
who are equal to themselves in might, flatterers of those who are more powerful
than themselves, in order to be able to attack them treacherously. If what is
desired is beauty of person, it makes men seducers, ravishers, adulterers,
paederasts, practicers of licentiousness and incontinence, it teaches them to
regard the greatest evils as the most fortunate of blessings. This passion,
also, when it extends to the tongue, often causes innumerable evils; (90) for
some persons desire either to be silent about what ought to be mentioned, or to
mention what ought to be buried in silence, and avenging justice pursues them if
they reveal things improperly, or, on the contrary, if they are unseasonably
silent. (91) When it affects the parts about the belly it makes men gluttonous,
insatiable, intemperate, debauched, admirers of a profligate life, delighting in
drunkenness, and epicurism, slaves to strong wine, and fish, and meat, pursuers
of feasts and tables, wallowing like greedy dogs; owing to all which things
their lives are rendered miserable and accursed, and they are reduced to an
existence more grievous than any death. (92) For this reason those who have
tasted deeply of philosophy, not merely with their lips, but feasting thoroughly
on its profound doctrines, investigating the nature of the soul, and
comprehending its threefold character, and how it is divided into reason, and
anger, and appetite, have attributed the chief post to reason as the principal
authority, assigning to it the head as its most appropriate abode, where also
the company of the outward senses, who are always present as the body-guards of
the mind as their king, are stationed; (93) and assigning the breast as the
abode of anger, partly in order that the man, being, like a soldier, armed with
this as with a breastplate, so that, even if it be not utterly free from all
injury, it may, at least, be difficult to subdue, and partly in order that,
dwelling near the mind, it may be benefited by its neighbor, who charms it by
its wisdom, and who renders the passions gentle and manageable; and to appetite
they assign the place around the navel, and to that part which is called the
diaphragm. (94) For it was proper that that, as having the smallest
participation in reason, should be removed as far as possible from the palace of
the mind and located almost at the very extremities; and that which is the most
insatiable and the most intemperate of all, the passions, should be confined to
the pastures of cattle, where they can find food and opportunities for the
propagation of their species. XVI.
(95) And the most holy Moses appears to me to have had a regard to all these
circumstances, and on that account to have commanded that men should discard
this passion, detesting it as the most disgraceful thing and the cause of most
disgraceful actions; and, therefore, to have prohibited it above all other
feelings as an engine for the destruction of the soul; but if that engine is
destroyed and the soul brought back to its obedience, to the guidance of reason,
the man will become entirely filled with peace and obedience to law and all
sorts of perfect good things, so as to produce complete happiness. (96) But as
he was fond of brevity and accustomed to cut short things which were inclined to
be countless in point of number, by a mode of teaching which was confined to
general instances, he begins to admonish and to correct one appetite, that which
is concerned about the belly; conceiving that the other appetites will not be
equally restive, but will be brought to order by learning that the most
important and authoritative of the whole has become obedient to the laws of
moderation. (97) What, then, is the lesson which he gives us about this origin
of all vices? There are two things of a most comprehensive nature, meat and
drink. He, then, has not left either of them unrestrained, but has bridled them
with especial commands most calculated to lead them to temperance and to
humanity, and to the greatest of all virtues, piety; (98) for he commanded men
to offer first fruits of corn, and wine, and oil, and cattle, and other things;
{17}{Numbers 18:12.} and to distribute the first fruits among the sacrificers
and the priests; among the sacrificers because of the gratitude due to God for
the abundance and fertility of all things, and to the priests because of their
sacred ministrations about the temple, and therefore they were worthy to receive
wages for their services in respect of the sacred Ceremonies.{18}{Numbers
18:31.} (99) And he utterly forbids any one to taste of anything, or to take any
portion of anything, before separating off the first fruits, wishing also by
this injunction to inculcate the practice of most useful temperance; for he who
has learnt not to throw himself greedily on all the abundance which the seasons
of the year have brought, but to wait till the first fruits are consecrated, is
likely to be able to restrain the restive obstinacy of the passions, making them
gentle and manageable. CONCERNING
ANIMALS XVII.
(100) Moreover, Moses has not granted an unlimited possession and use of all
other animals to those who partake in his sacred constitution, but he has
forbidden with all his might all animals, whether of the land, or of the water,
or that fly through the air, which are most fleshy and fat, and calculated to
excite treacherous pleasure, well knowing that such, attracting as with a bait
that most slavish of all the outward senses, namely, taste, produce
insatiability, an incurable evil to both souls and bodies, for insatiability
produces indigestion, which is the origin and source of all diseases and
weaknesses. (101) Now of land animals, the swine is confessed to be the nicest
of all meats by those who eat it, and of all aquatic animals the most delicate
are the fish which have no scales; and Moses is above all other men skilful in
training and inuring persons of a good natural disposition to the practice of
virtue by frugality and abstinence, endeavoring to remove costly luxury from
their characters, (102) at the same time not approving of unnecessary rigour,
like the lawgiver of Lacedaemon, nor undue effeminacy, like the man who taught
the Ionians and the Sybarites lessons of luxury and license, but keeping a
middle path between the two courses, so that he has relaxed what was over
strict, and tightened what was too loose, mingling the excesses which are found
at each extremity with moderation, which lies between the two, so as to produce
an irreproachable harmony and consistency of life, on which account he has laid
down not carelessly, but with minute particularity, what we are to use and what
to avoid. (103) One might very likely suppose it to be just that those beasts
which feed upon human flesh should receive at the hands of men similar treatment
to that which they inflict on men, but Moses has ordained that we should abstain
from the enjoyment of all such things, and with a due consideration of what is
becoming to the gentle soul, he proposes a most gentle and most pleasant
banquet; for though it is proper that those who inflict evils should suffer
similar calamities themselves, yet it may not be becoming to those whom they ill
treated to retaliate, lest without being aware of it they become brutalized by
anger, which is a savage passion; (104) and he takes such care to guard against
this, that being desirous to banish as far as possible all desire for those
animals abovementioned, he forbids with all his energy the eating of any
carnivorous animal at all, selecting the herbivorous animals out of those kinds
which are domesticated, since they are tame by nature, feeding on that gentle
food which is supplied by the earth, and having no disposition to plot evil
against anything. WHAT
QUADRUPEDS ARE CLEAN XVIII.
(105) The animals which are clean and lawful to be used as food are ten in
number; the heifer, the lamb, the goat, the stag, the antelope, the buffalo, the
roebuck, the pygarga, the wildox, and the chamois, {19}{Deuteronomy 14:4.} for
he always adheres to that arithmetical subtilty which, as he originally devised
it with the minutest accuracy possible, he extends to all existing things, so
that he establishes no ordinances, whether important or unimportant, without
taking and as it were adapting this number to it as closely connected with the
regulations which he is ordaining. Now of all the numbers beginning from the
unit, the most perfect is the number ten, and as Moses says, it is the most
sacred of all and a holy number, and by it he now limits the races of animals
that are clean, wishing to assign the use of them to all those who partake of
the constitution which he is establishing. (106) And he gives two tests and
criteria of the ten animals thus Enumerated{20}{Leviticus 11:3.} by two signs,
first, that they must part the hoof, secondly, that they must chew the cud; for
those which do neither, or only one of these things, are unclean. And these
signs are both of them symbols of instruction and of the most scientific
learning, by which the better is separated from the worse, so that all confusion
between them is prevented; (107) for as the animal which chews the cud, while it
is masticating its food draws it down its throat, and then by slow degrees
kneads and softens it, and then after this process again sends it down into the
belly, in the same manner the man who is being instructed, having received the
doctrines and speculations of wisdom in at his ears from his instructor, derives
a considerable amount of learning from him, but still is not able to hold it
firmly and to embrace it all at once, until he has resolved over in his mind
everything which he has heard by the continued exercise of his memory (and this
exercise of memory is the cement which connects ideas), and then he impresses
the image of it all firmly on his soul. (108) But as it seems the firm
conception of such ideas is of no advantage to him unless he is able to
discriminate between and to distinguish which of contrary things it is right to
choose and which to avoid, of which the parting of the hoof is the symbol; since
the course of life is twofold, the one road leading to wickedness and the other
to virtue, and since we ought to renounce the one and never to forsake the
other. WHAT
BEASTS ARE NOT CLEAN XIX.
(109) For this reason all animals with solid hoofs, and all with many toes are
spoken of by implication as unclean; the one because, being so, they imply that
the nature of good and evil is one and the same; which is just as if one were to
say that the nature of a concave and a convex surface, or of a road up hill and
down hill, was the same. And the other, because it shows that there are many
roads, though, indeed, they have no right to be called roads at all, which lead
the life of man to deceit; for it is not easy among a variety of paths to choose
that which is the most desirable and the most excellent. WHAT
AQUATIC ANIMALS ARE CLEAN XX.
(110) Having laid down these definitions with respect to land animals, he
proceeds to describe what aquatic creatures are clean and lawful to be used for
food; distinguishing them also by two characteristics as having fins or
Scales.{21}{Leviticus 11:9.} For those which have neither one nor the other, and
those which have only one of the two, he rejects and Prohibits.{22}{Deuteronomy
14:10.} And he must state the cause, which is not destitute of sense and
propriety; (111) for all those creatures which are destitute of both, or even of
one of the two, are sucked down by the current, not being able to resist the
force of the stream; but those which have both these characteristics can stem
the water, and oppose it in front, and strive against it as against an
adversary, and struggle with invincible good will and courage, so that if they
are pushed they push in their turn; and if they are pursued they turn upon their
foe and pursue it in their turn, making themselves broad roads in a pathless
district, so as to have an easy passage to and fro. (112) Now both these things
are symbols; the former of a soul devoted to pleasure, and the latter of one
which loves perseverance and temperance. For the road which leads to pleasure is
a down-hill one and very easy, being rather an absorbing gulf than a path. But
the path which leads to temperance is up hill and laborious, but above all other
roads advantageous. And the one leads men downwards, and prevents those who
travel by it from retracing their steps until they have arrived at the very
lowest bottom, but the other leads to heaven; making those who do not weary
before they reach it immortal, if they are only able to endure its rugged and
difficult ascent. ABOUT
Reptiles(23){Leviticus 11:20.} XXI.
(113) And adhering to the same general idea the lawgiver asserts that those
reptiles which have no feet, and which crawl onwards, dragging themselves along
the ground on their bellies, or those which have four legs, or many feet, are
all unclean as far as regards their being eaten. And here, again, when he
mentions reptiles he intimates under a figurative form of expression those who
are devoted to their bellies, gorging themselves like cormorants, and who are
continually offering up tribute to their miserable belly, tribute, that is, of
strong wine, and confections, and fish, and, in short, all the superfluous
delicacies which the skill and labor of bakers and confectioners are able to
devise, inventing all sorts of rare viands, to stimulate and set on fire the
insatiable and unappeasable appetites of man. And when he speaks of animals with
four legs and many feet, he intends to designate the miserable slaves not of one
single passion, appetite, but of all the passions; the genera of which were four
in number; but in their subordinate species they are innumerable. Therefore, the
despotism of one is very grievous, but that of many is most terrible, and as it
seems intolerable. (114) Again, in the case of those reptiles who have legs
above their feet, so that they are able to take leaps from the ground, those
Moses speaks of as clean; as, for instance, the different kinds of locusts, and
that animal called the serpentfighter, here again intimating by figurative
expressions the manners and habits of the rational soul. For the weight of the
body being naturally heavy, drags down with it those who are but of small
wisdom, strangling it and pressing it down by the weight of the flesh. (115) But
blessed are they to whose lot it has fallen, inasmuch as they have been well and
solidly instructed in the rules of sound education, to resist successfully the
power of mere strength, so as to be able, by reason of what they have learnt, to
spring up from the earth and all low things, to the air and the periodical
revolutions of the heaven, the very sight of which is to be admired and
earnestly striven for by those who come to it of their own accord with no
indolence or indifference. CONCERNING
FLYING Creatures(24){Leviticus 11:10.} XXII.
(116) Having, therefore, in his ordinances already gone through all the
different kinds of land animals and of those who live in the water, and having
distinguished them in his code of laws as accurately as it was possible, Moses
begins to investigate the remaining class of animals in the air; the innumerable
kinds of flying creatures, rejecting all those which prey upon one another or
upon man, all carnivorous birds, in short, all animals which are venomous, and
all which have any power of plotting against others. (117) But doves, and
pigeons, and turtle-doves, and all the flocks of cranes, and geese, and birds of
that kind, he numbers in the class of domestic, and tame, and eatable creatures,
allowing every one who chooses to partake of them with impunity. (118) Thus, in
each of the parts of the universe, earth, water, and air, he refuses some kinds
of each description of animal, whether terrestrial, or aquatic, or a'rial, to
our use; and thus, taking as it were fuel from the fire, he causes the
extinction of appetite. CONCERNING
CARCASSES AND BODIES WHICH HAVE BEEN TORN BY WILD BEASTS
XXIII.
(119) Moreover, Moses Commands{25}{Leviticus 5:2.} that no man shall take of any
dead carcass, or of any body which has been torn by wild beasts; partly because
it is not fitting that man should share a feast with untameable beasts, so as to
become almost a fellow reveller in their carnivorous festivals; and partly
because perhaps it is injurious and likely to cause disease if the juice of the
dead body becomes mingled with the blood, and perhaps, also, because it is
proper to preserve that which has been pre-occupied and seized beforehand by
death untouched, having a respect to the necessities of nature by which it has
been seized. (120) Now many of the lawgivers both among the Greeks and
barbarians, praise those who are skilful in hunting, and who seldom fail in
their pursuit or miss their aim, and who pride themselves on their successful
hunts, especially when they divide the limbs of the animals which they have
caught with the huntsmen and the hounds, as being not only brave hunters but men
of very sociable dispositions. But any one who was a sound interpreter of the
sacred constitution and code of laws would very naturally blame them, since the
lawgiver of that code has expressly forbidden any enjoyment of carcasses or of
bodies torn by beasts for the reasons before mentioned. (121) But if any one of
those persons who devote themselves wholly to meditations on and to the practice
of virtue were suddenly to become fond of gymnastic exercises and of hunting,
looking upon hunting as a sort of prelude to and representation of the wars and
dangers that have to be encountered against the enemy, then, whenever such a man
is successful in his sport, he ought to give the beasts which he has slain to
his dogs as a feast for them, and as a reward or wages for their successful
boldness and their irreproachable alliance. But he ought not himself to touch
them, inasmuch as he has been previously taught in the case of irrational
animals, what sentiments he ought to entertain, respecting his enemies. For he
ought to carry on war against them, not for the sake of unrighteous gain like
those who make a dishonest traffic of all their actions, but either in revenge
for some calamities which he has previously suffered at their hands, or with a
view toward some which he expects to suffer. (122) But some men, with open
mouths, carry even the excessive luxury and boundless intemperance of
Sardanapalus to such an indefinite and unlimited extent, being wholly absorbed
in the invention of senseless pleasures, that they prepare sacrifices which
ought never be offered, strangling their victims, and stifling the essence of
life, {26}{Leviticus 17:11.} which they ought to let depart free and
unrestrained, burying the blood, as it were, in the body. For it ought to have
been sufficient for them to enjoy the flesh by itself, without touching any of
those parts which have an connection with the soul or life. (123) On which
account Moses, in another passage, establishes a law concerning blood, that one
may not eat the blood nor the Fat.{27}{Leviticus 3:17.} The blood, for the
reason which I have already mentioned, that it is the essence of the life; not
of the mental and rational life, but of that which exists in accordance with the
outward senses, to which it is owing that both we and irrational animals also
have a common existence. CONCERNING
THE SOUL OR LIFE OF MAN XXIV.
For the essence of the soul of man is the breath of God, especially if we follow
the account of Moses, who, in his history of the creation of the world, says
that God breathed into the first man, the founder of our race, the breath of
life; breathing it into the principal part of his body, namely the face, where
the outward senses are established, the body-guards of the mind, as if it were
the great king. And that which was thus breathed into his face was manifestly
the breath of the air, or whatever else there may be which is even more
excellent than the breath of the air, as being a ray emitted from the blessed
and thricehappy nature of God. (124) But Moses commanded men to abstain from
eating fat, because it is gross. And again, he gave us this injunction, in order
to inculcate temperance and a zeal for an austere life: for some things we
easily abandon, and without any hesitation; though we do not willingly encounter
any anxieties or labors for the sake of the acquisition of virtue. (125) For
which reason these two parts are to be taken out of every victim and burnt with
fire, as a kind of first fruits, namely, the fat and the blood; the one being
poured upon the altar as a libation; and the other as a fuel to the flame, being
applied instead of oil, by reason of its fatness, to the consecrated and holy
flame. (126) The lawgiver blames some persons of his time as gluttons, and as
believing that the mere indulgence of luxury is the happiest of all possible
conditions, not being content to live in this manner only in cities in which
there were abundant supplies and stores of all kinds of necessary things, but
carrying their effeminacy even into pathless and untrodden deserts, and choosing
in them also to have markets for fish and meat, and all things which can
contribute to an easy life: (127) then, when a scarcity arose, they assembled
together and raised an outcry, and looked miserable, and with shameless audacity
impeached their ruler, and did not desist from creating disturbances till they
obtained what they desired; and they obtained it to their destruction, for two
reasons: first of all, that it might be shown that all things are possible to
God, who can find a way in the most difficult and apparently hopeless
circumstances; and secondly, that punishment might fall on those who were
intemperate in their gluttonous appetites, and obstinate resisters of holiness.
(128) For a vast cloud being Raised{28}{Exodus 16:13.} out of the sea showered
down quails about the time of sunrise, and the camp and all the district around
it for a day's journey for a well-girt active man was overshadowed all about
with the Birds.{29}{Numbers 11:31.} And the height of the flight of the birds
was distant from the ground a height of about two cubits, in order that they
might be easily caught. (129) It would have been natural therefore for them,
being amazed at the marvelous nature of the prodigy which they beheld, to be
satisfied with the sight, and being filled with piety to nourish their souls on
that, and to abstain from eating flesh; but these men, on the contrary, stirred
up their desires even more than before, and pursued these birds as the greatest
good imaginable, and catching hold of them with both their hands filled their
bosoms; then, having stored them up in their tents, they sallied forth to catch
others, for immoderate covetousness has no limit. And when they had collected
every description of food they devoured it insatiably, being about, vain-minded
generation that they were, to perish by their own fulness; (130) and indeed at
no distant time they did perish by the purging of their bile, {30}{Numbers
11:20.} so that the place itself derived its name from the calamity which fell
upon them, for it was called the graves of their lust, {31}{see Numbers 11:34:
"And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they
buried the people that lusted."} than which there is not in the soul, as
the scripture teaches, us, any greater evil. (131) For which reason Moses says
with great beauty in his recommendations, "Let not every man do that which
seemeth good to his own Eyes,"{32}{Deuteronomy 11:8.} which is equivalent
to saying, let not any one gratify his own desire, but let each person seek to
please God, and the world, and nature, and wise men, repudiating self-love, if
he would become a good and virtuous man. XXV.
(132) This may be sufficient to say, being in fact all that I am able to
advance, about the laws which bear on appetite and desire by way of filling up
the whole body of the ten commandments, and of the subordinate injunctions
contained in them; for if we are to look upon the brief heads which were
oracularly delivered by the voice of God, as the generic laws, and all the
particular ordinances which Moses subsequently interpreted and added as the
special laws; then there is need of great care and skill in order to preserve
the arrangement unconfused in order to an accurate comprehension of it, and I
therefore have taken great care, and have assigned and apportioned to each of
these generic laws of the whole code all that properly belonged to it. (133) But
enough of this. We must however not remain ignorant that as separately there are
some particular injunctions related to each one of the ten generic commandments,
which have nothing in common with any one of the others; so also there are some
things to be observed which are common to the whole, being adapted not to one or
two, as people say, but to the whole ten commandments. (134) And I mean by this
those virtues which are of common utility, for each one of these ten laws
separately, and all of them together, train men and encourage them to prudence,
and justice, and piety, towards God and all the rest of the company of virtues,
connecting sound words with good intentions, and virtuous actions with wise
language, that so the organ of the soul may be wholly and entirely held together
in a good and harmonious manner so as to produce a well-regulated and faultless
innocence and consistency of life. (135) We have spoken before of that queen of
all the virtues, piety and holiness, and also of prudence and moderation; we
must now proceed to speak of justice which is conversant about subjects which
are akin and nearly related to Them.{33} XXVI.
(136) One portion of justice, and that not an unimportant one, relates to courts
of justice and to the judge, which indeed I have mentioned before, when I was
going through the subject of testimony, and dwelling on it at some length, in
order that nothing which belonged to the subject should be omitted; and as I am
not fond of repetitions, unless indeed some necessity arising from the imperious
character of the occasion compels me to it, I will pass that part of the subject
over now, and will turn my attention to the other portions, having just said
thus much as a preface. (137) The law says, it is proper to lay up justice in
one's heart, and to fasten it as a sign upon one's head, and as frontlets before
one's eyes, figuratively intimating by the former expression that one ought to
commit the precepts of justice, not to one's ears, which are not trustworthy,
for there is no credit due to the ears, but to that most important and dominant
part, stamping and impressing them on the most excellent of all offerings, a
well approved seal; (138) and by the second expression, that it is necessary not
only to form proper conceptions of what is right, but also to do what one has
decided upon as proper without delay. For the hand is the symbol of actions, to
which Moses here commands the people to attach and fasten justice, saying, that
it shall be a sign, of what indeed he has not expressly stated, because it is
not a sign as I conceive of one particular thing, but of many, and, I may almost
say, of everything with which the life of man is concerned. (139) And by the
third expression, he implies that justice is discerned everywhere as being close
to the eyes. Moreover he says that, these things must have a certain motion; not
one that shall be light and unsteady, but such as by its agitation may rouse the
sight to the spectacle manifest before it; for motion is calculated to attract
the sight, inasmuch as it excites and rouses it; of, I might rather say,
inasmuch as it renders the eyes awake and sleepless. (140) But the man to whom
it happens to represent to the eyes of his mind things which are not quiet but
which are in motion, and exerting energies in accordance with nature, is
entitled to be set down as a perfect man, and no longer to be reckoned among
learners and pupils, but among teachers and instructors; and he ought to allow
all the young men who are desirous to do so, to drink of his wisdom as of an
abundant stream flowing from a living fountain of lessons and
Doctrines.{34}{Deuteronomy 6:7.} And if there is any one who, out of modesty, is
wanting of courage, and therefore delays, and is slow to approach him for the
purpose of learning, let him go to him of his own accord, and pour into his ears
a collection of admonitions, until the channels of his soul are filled with
them. (141) And let him instruct in the principles of justice all his relatives
and friends, and all young men, at home and on the road, and when they are going
to bed, and when they rise up; that in all their positions, and in all their
motions, and in all places whether private or public, not only waking, but also
while asleep, they may be delighted with the image and conception of justice.
For there is no delight more exquisite than that which proceeds from the whole
soul being entirely filled with justice, while devoted to the study of its
everlasting doctrines and meditations, so that it has no vacant place at which
injustice can effect an entrance. (142) Moreover, he ordains that those who have
written out these things should afterwards affix them to every house belonging
to a friend, and to the gates which are in their walls; that all people, whether
coming in or going out, whether citizens or strangers, reading the writing thus
fixed on pillars before the gates, may have an unceasing recollection of all
that ought to be said or that ought to be done; and that every one may take care
neither to do nor to suffer injury; and that all persons, whether going into
their houses or going out of them, men and women, children and servants, may do
all that is proper and becoming to one another and to themselves. THAT
IT IS NOT LAWFUL TO ADD ANYTHING TO OR TO TAKE ANYTHING FROM
THE LAW XXVII.
(143) The lawgiver also gives this most admirable injunction, that one must not
add anything to, or take anything away from the law, but that it is a duty to
keep all the ordinances as originally established in an equal and similar state
to that in which they were at first delivered without alteration; for, as it
seems, there might otherwise be an addition of what is injust; for there is
nothing which has been omitted by the wise lawgiver which can enable a man to
partake of entire and perfect justice. (144) Moreover, by this command Moses
intimates the perfection of all other virtue; for each separate virtue is free
from all deficiency, and is complete, deriving its perfection from itself; so
that if there were any addition thereto, or anything taken away therefrom, it
would be utterly and entirely changed and altered, so as to assume a contrary
character. (145) What I meant to say is this, all who are profoundly ignorant
and uninstructed, all who have the very slightest smattering of education, know
that courage is a virtue which is conversant about terrible objects; is a
science teaching one what he ought to endure and dare. (146) But if any one,
under the influence of that ignorance which proceeds from insolence, should be
so superfluous as to fancy himself capable of correcting that which requires no
correction, and should consequently venture to add anything or take away
anything, he, by so doing, is altering the whole appearance of the thing,
changing that which had a good character into unseemliness; for by any addition
to courage he will produce audacity, but if he takes anything away from it he
will produce cowardice, not leaving even the name of courage, that most useful
of all virtues to life. (147) In the same manner, if any one makes an addition,
be it ever so small, or ever so great, to that queen of the virtues, piety, or
if he takes anything away from it, he will change and metamorphose its whole
appearance, and make it something quite different; for any addition will
engender superstition, and any diminution will produce impiety, real piety
itself wholly disappearing under the operation, which every one should pray for,
that it may be continually conspicuous and brilliant, since it is the cause of
the greatest of all blessings, inasmuch as it produces a knowledge of the
service of God, which one ought to look upon as more important and more precious
than any dominion or authority. (148) And we may give instances of every other
virtue resembling what we have said about these just mentioned; but since I am
in the habit of avoiding prolixity, I will be satisfied with what has been
stated, which may be a sufficient guide to what might be said respecting these
virtues which we omit to mention. ABOUT
NOT MOVING LANDMARKS XXVIII.
(149) There is also this commandment ordained which is of great common utility,
that, "Thou shall not move thy neighbors' landmarks which the former men
have set Up."{35}{Deuteronomy 19:14.} And this injunction is given, as it
seems, not only with respect to inheritances, and to the boundaries of the land,
in order to prohibit covetousness respecting them, but also as a guard to
ancient customs; for customs are unwritten laws, being the doctrines of men of
old, not engraved on pillars or written on paper which may be eaten by moths,
but impressed in the souls of those living under the same constitution. (150)
For the children ought to inherit from the father of their being the national
customs in which they have been brought up, and in which they have lived from
their cradle, and not to despise them merely because they are handed down
without being written. For the man who obeys the written laws is not justly
entitled to any praise, inasmuch as he is influenced by compulsion and the fear
of punishment. But he who abides by the unwritten laws is worthy of praise, as
exhibiting a spontaneous and unconstrained Virtue.{36} XXIX.
(151) Some persons have contended that all magistracies ought to have the
officers appointed to them by lot; which however is a mode of proceeding not
advantageous for the multitude, for the casting of lots shows good fortune, but
not virtue; at all events many unworthy persons have often obtained office by
such means, men whom, if a good man had the supreme authority, he would not
permit to be reckoned even among his subjects: (152) for even those who are
called lesser rulers by some persons, those whom men entitled masters, do not
admit every one whom they can possibly find to be their servants, whether born
in the house or bought with money; but they will only take those who are
obedient, and at times they sell all those of incurably bad dispositions in a
lot, as not being worthy to be the slaves of good men. (153) Therefore it is not
right to make men masters and rulers of entire cities and nations, who obtain
those places by lot, which is a sort of blunder on the part of fortune, which is
an unstable and fickle thing. Beyond all question, casting of lots can have no
connection with ability to attend upon the sick; for physicians do not obtain
their employments by lot, but because their experience is approved of; (154)
again, with reference to the successful voyage and safety of men at sea, it is
not any man who may obtain the office of pilot by lot, who is sent at once to
the stern to steer the vessel, and who then by his ignorance may cause a
needless wreck in calm and tranquil weather, but that person has that charge
given to him who, from his earliest youth, appears to have learnt and carefully
studied the business of a pilot; this is a man who has made many voyages, and
who has traversed every sea, or at all events most seas, and who has carefully
ascertained the character of all the marts, and harbors, and anchorages, and
places of refuge in the different islands and continents, and who is still
better, or at all events not worse acquainted with the tracks over the sea, than
he is with the roads on land, through his accurate observation of the heavenly
bodies; (155) for having remarked the various motions of the stars, and having
followed and being guided by their regular revolutions, he has learnt to be able
to make out for himself an unerring and easy path through the pathless waste of
waters, so that (what seems the most incredible of all things), beings whose
nature it is to live on the land are able to traverse the sea which can only be
crossed by sailing. (156) And if any one should be about to undertake the
government or regulation of large and populous cities, full of inhabitants, and
should attempt to settle the constitution of such, and should undertake the
superintendence of private, and public, and sacred affairs, a task which any one
may rightly call the art of arts, and the science of sciences, he would not
trust to the uncertain chances of time, passing over the accurate and
trustworthy test of truth; and the test of truth is proof combined with reason. XXX.
(157) The all-wise Moses seeing this by the power of his own soul, makes no
mention of any authority being assigned by lot, but he has chosen to direct that
all offices shall be elected to; therefore he says, "Thou shall not appoint
a stranger to be a ruler over thee, but one of thine own
Brethren,"{37}{Deuteronomy 17:15.} implying that the appointment is to be a
voluntary choice, and an irreproachable selection of a ruler, whom the whole
multitude with one accord shall choose; and God himself will add his vote on
favor of, and set his seal to ratify such an election, that being who is the
confirmer of all advantageous things, looking upon the man so chosen as the
flower of his race, just as the sight is the best thing in the body. XXXI.
(158) And Moses gives also two reasons, on account of which it is not proper for
strangers to be elected to situations of authority; in the first place, that
they may not amass a quantity of silver, and gold, and flocks, and raise great
and iniquitously earned riches for themselves, out of the poverty of those who
are subjected to them; and secondly, that they may not make the nation quit
their ancient abodes to gratify their own covetous desires, and so compel them
to emigrate, and to wander about to and fro in interminable wanderings,
suggesting to them hopes of the acquisition of greater blessings, which shall
never be fulfilled, by which they come to lose those advantages of which they
were in the secure enjoyment. (159) For our lawgiver was aware beforehand, as
was natural that one who was a countryman and a relation, and who had also an
especial share in the sublimest relationship of all, (and that sublimest of
relationships is one constitution and the same law, and one God whose chosen
nation is a peculiar people); so that he would never offend in any manner
similar to those which I have been mentioning, but, on the other hand, instead
of causing the inhabitants to quit their abodes, he would be likely even to
afford a safe return to such of his countrymen as were dispersed in a foreign
land; and instead of taking away the property of others, he would even give his
own property to those who were in need of it, making his own wealth common. XXXII.
(160) And from the first day on which any one enters upon his office, he orders
that he shall write out a copy of the book of the Law{38}{Deuteronomy 17:18.}
with his own hand, which shall supply him with a summary and concise image of
all the laws, because he wishes that all the ordinances which are laid down in
it shall be firmly fixed in his soul; for while a man is reading the notions of
what he is reading fleet away, being carried off by the rapidity of his
utterance; but if he is writing they are stamped upon his heart at leisure, and
they take up their abode in the heart of each individual as his mind dwells upon
each particular, and settles itself to the contemplation of it, and does not
depart to any other object, till it has taken a firm hold of that which was
previously submitted to it. (161) When therefore he is writing, let him take
care, every day, to read and study what he has written, both in order that he
may thus attain to a continual and unchangeable recollection of these commands
which are virtuous and expedient for all men to observe, and also that a firm
love of and desire for them may be implanted in him, by reason of his soul being
continually taught and accustomed to apply itself to the study and observance of
the sacred laws. For familiarity, which has been engendered by long
acquaintance, engenders a sincere and pure friendship, not only towards men, but
even also towards such branches of learning as are worthy to be loved; (162) and
this will take place if the ruler studies not the writings and memorials of some
one else but those which he himself has written out; for his own works are, in a
certain degree, more easily to be understood by each individual, and they are
also more easily to be comprehended; (163) and besides that a man, while he is
reading them, will have such considerations in his mind as these: "I wrote
all this; I who am a ruler of such great power, without employing any one else
as my scribe, though I had innumerable servants. Did I do all this, in order to
fill up a volume, like those who copy out books for hire, or like men who
practice their eyes and their hands, training the one to acuteness of
sight, and the others to rapidity of writing? Why should I have done this? That
was not the case; I did it in order that after I had recorded these things in a
book, I might at once proceed to impress them on my heart, and that I might
stamp upon my intellect their divine and indelible characters: (164) other kings
bear sceptres in their hands, and sit upon thrones in royal state, but my
sceptre shall be the book of the copy of the law; that shall be my boast and my
incontestible glory, the signal of my irreproachable sovereignty, created after
the image and model of the archetypal royal power of God. (165) "And by
always relying upon and supporting myself in the scared laws, I shall acquire
the most excellent things. In the first place equality, than which it is not
possible to discern any greater blessing, for insolence and excessive
haughtiness are the signs of a narrow-minded soul, which does not foresee the
future. (166) "Equality, therefore, will win me good will from all who are
subject to my power, and safety inasmuch as they will bestow on me a just
requital for by kindness; but inequality will bring upon me terrible dangers,
and these I shall escape by hating inequality, the purveyor of darkness and
wars; and my life will be in no danger of being plotted against, because I honor
equality, which has no connection with seditions, but which is the parent of
light and stability. (167) Moreover, I shall gain another advantage, namely,
that I shall not sway this way and that way, like the dishes in a scale, in
consequence of perverting and distorting the commandments laid down for my
guidance. But I shall endeavor to keep them, going through the middle of the
plain road, keeping my own steps straight and upright, in order that I may
attain to a life free from error or misfortune." (168) And Moses was
accustomed to call the middle road the royal one, inasmuch as it lay between
excess and deficiency; and besides, more especially, because in the number three
the centre occupies the most important place, uniting the extremities on either
side by an indissoluble chain, it being attended by these extremities as its
bodyguards as though it were a king. (169) Moreover, Moses says that a
longenduring sovereignty is the reward of a lawful magistrate or ruler who
honors equality, and who without any corruption gives just decisions in a just
manner, always studying to observe the laws; not for the sake of granting him a
life extending over many years, combined with the administration of the
commonwealth, but in order to teach those who do not understand that a governor
who rules in accordance with the laws, even though he die, does nevertheless
live a long life by means of his actions which he leaves behind him as immortal,
the indestructible monuments of his piety and virtue. XXXIII.
(170) And it becomes a man who has been thought worthy of the supreme and
greatest authority to appoint successors who may govern with him and judge with
him, and, in concert with him, may ordain everything which is for the common
advantage; for one person would not be sufficient, even if he were ever so
willing, and if he were the most powerful man in the world, both in body and
soul, to support the weight and number of affairs which would come upon him, as
he would faint under the pressure and rapidity of all kinds of business coming
in upon him continually every day from all quarters, unless he had a number of
persons selected with reference to their excellence who might co-operate with
him by their prudence, and power, and justice, and godly piety, men who not only
avoid arrogance, but even detest it as an enemy and as the very greatest of
evils. (171) For these men would stand by, and assist, and co-operate with a
virtuous and holy man, one who hated evils equally with themselves, and would be
the most suitable persons to lighten and relieve his labors. And, besides, since
of the matters which would force themselves upon his attention, some are of
greater importance and others of less, the chief will very reasonably commit
those which are more unimportant to his lieutenants, while he himself would of
necessity become the most accurate judge of the weightier matters. (172) But the
affairs which we ought to look upon as the most weighty are not, as some persons
think, those in which persons of reputation are at variance with other persons
of reputation, or rich men with rich men, or princes with princes; for, on the
contrary, are rather where there are powerful men on one side, and private
individuals, men of no wealth, or dignity, or reputation, on the other, men
whose sole hope of escaping intolerable evils lies in the judge himself. (173)
And we can find clear instances of both kinds in the sacred laws, which it is
well for us to imitate; for there was once a time in which Moses, alone by
himself, decided all causes and all matters of legal controversy, laboring from
morning till night. But after a time his father-inlaw came to him, and seeing
with what a weight of business he was overwhelmed, as all those who had any
disputes were everlastingly coming upon him, he gave him most excellent advice,
counselling him to choose subordinate magistrates, that they might decide the
less important affairs, and that he might have only the more serious causes to
occupy him, and by this means provide himself with time for Rest.{39}{Exodus
18:14.} (174) And Moses, being convinced by the arguments of Jethro (for,
indeed, they were for his good), having chosen the men of the highest reputation
in the whole nation, he appointed them his lieutenants and judges, bidding them
refer the more important cases to him. (175) And the history of the sacred laws
contains this arrangement duly recorded, for the instruction of the rulers in
all succeeding generations, that, in the first place, they may not despise the
assistance of fellow counsellors, as if they were able to themselves to
superintend everything, since that all-wise and godly man, Moses, did not reject
them; and, secondly, that they may learn to choose subordinates of the second
class and of the third class, so as to provide for themselves not being driven
to neglect matters of greater importance, through being wholly occupied by
affairs of a more trifling nature; for it is impossible for human nature to
attend to everything at once. XXXIV.
(176) We have here mentioned one example of what we before alluded to. We must
now add an instance of the second kind. I said that the causes of men of humble
condition were important; for the widow, and the orphan, and the stranger are
powerless and humble. And it is right that the supreme King should be the judge
in their case, the Ruler who has the supreme authority over the whole nation;
since, according to Moses, even God, the Ruler of the universe, did not exclude
them from the provisions of his laws; (177) for when Moses, that holy
interpreter of the will of God, is raising a hymn in praise of the virtues of
the living God in these terms, "God is great and mighty, one who is no
respecter of persons, and who does not take gifts to guide him in his
Judgment."{40}{Deuteronomy 10:17.} he adds, in whose case it is that he
gives judgment, not in the case of satraps, and tyrants, and men who have the
power by land and sea, but he gives judgment respecting the stranger, and the
orphan, and the widow. (178) In the case of the first, because he has made his
own kinsmen, whom alone it was natural for him to have as allies and champions,
his irreconcileable enemies, by quitting their camp and taking up his abode with
the truth, and with the honor of the one Being who is entitled to honor,
abandoning all the fabulous inventions and polytheistic notions which his
fathers, and grandfathers, and ancestors, and all his kindred, who cleave to the
beautiful settlement which he has forsaken, were wont to honor. In the case of
the second, because he is deprived of his father and mother, his natural
defenders and protectors, and by consequence of the only power which was bound
to show itself as his ally. And lastly, in the case of the woman who is a widow
because she has been deprived of her husband, who succeeded her parents as her
guardian and protector; for a husband is to his wife in point of relationship
what her parents are to a virgin. (179) And one may almost say that the whole
nation of the Jews may be looked upon in the light of orphans, if they are
compared with all other nations in other lands; for other nations, as often as
they are afflicted by any calamities which are not of divine infliction, are in
no want of assistance by reason of their frequent intercourse with other
nations, from their habitual dealings in common. But this nation of the Jews has
no such allies by reason of the peculiarity of its laws and customs. And their
laws are of necessity strict and rigorous, as they are intended to train them to
the greatest height of virtue; and what is strict and rigorous is austere. And
such laws and customs the generality of men avoid, because of their inclination
for and their adoption of pleasure. (180) But, nevertheless, Moses says that the
great Ruler of the universe, whose inheritance they are, does always feel
compassion and pity for the orphan and desolate of this his people, because they
have been dedicated to him, the Creator and Father of all, as a sort of
first-fruits of the whole human race. (181) And the cause of this dedication to
God was the excessive and admirable righteousness and virtue of the founders of
the nation, which remain like undying plants, bearing a fruit which shall ever
flourish to the salvation of their descendants, and to the benefit of all
persons and all things, provided only that the sins which they commit are such
as are remediable and not wholly unpardonable. (182) Let not any one then think
that nobility of birth is a perfect good, and therefore neglect virtuous
actions, considering that that man deserves greater anger who, after he has been
born of virtuous parents, brings disgrace on his parents by reason of the
wickedness of his disposition and conduct; for if he has domestic examples of
goodness which he may imitate, and yet never copies them, so as to correct his
own life, and to render it healthy and virtuous, he deserves reproach. XXXV.
(183) The law also forbids, by a most just and reasonable prohibition, the man
who has undertaken the care and government of the common interests of the state,
to behave with treachery among the people; {41}{Leviticus 19:16.} for a
treacherous disposition is the mark of an illiberal and very slavish soul, which
seeks to overshadow its real nature by hypocrisy; (184) for, in reality, a ruler
ought to stand up in defense of his subjects as a father would in defense of his
children, that he may be honored by them as if they were his own real children;
on which account good rulers are the common parents of their cities and nations,
if one may say the plain truth, displaying equal, and sometimes even superior,
good will to them; (185) but those men who acquire great power and authority to
the injury and damage of their subjects, ought to be entitled, not rulers, but
enemies, inasmuch as they are acting the part of implacable foes. Not but what
those who injure one treacherously are even more wicked than those who oppose
one openly, since it is possible to repel the one without difficulty, as they
display their hostility without disguise; but the evil-mindedness of the others
is difficult to detect and hard to unveil, being like the conduct of men on the
stage, who are clothed in a dress which does not belong to them, in order to
conceal their real appearance. (186) But there is a kind of pre-eminence and
superior authority, which I had almost said pervades every part of life, varying
only in respect of magnitude and quantity; for what the king of a city is, that
also is the first man in a village, and the master of a house, and a physician
among the sick, and a general in his camp, and an admiral with respect to his
crew and to his passengers, and a captain of a ship in regard to merchant
vessels and transports, and a pilot among common sailors, every one of whom has
power to make things either better or worse. But they ought to wish to conduct
themselves in everything for the best, and the best is to use all their energies
to assist people and not to injure them; (187) for this is to act in imitation
of God, since he also has the power to do either good or evil, but his
inclination causes him only to do good. And the creation and arrangement of the
world shows this, for he has summoned what had previously no being into
existence, creating order out of disorder, and distinctive qualities out of
things which had no such qualities, and similarities out of things dissimilar,
and identity out of things which were different, and intercommunion and harmony
out of things which had previously no communication nor agreement, and equality
out of inequality, and light out of darkness; for he is always anxious to exert
his beneficent powers in order to change whatever is disorderly from its present
evil condition, and to transform it so as to bring it into a better state. XXXVI.
(188) Therefore it is right for good rulers of a nation to imitate him in these
points, if they have any anxiety to attain to a similitude to God; but since
innumerable circumstances are continually escaping from and eluding the human
mind, inasmuch as it is entangled among and embarrassed by so great a multitude
of the external senses, as is very well calculated to seduce and deceive it by
false opinions, since in fact it is, as I may say, buried in the mortal body,
which may very properly be called its tomb, let no one who is a judge be ashamed
to confess that he is ignorant of that of which he is ignorant, (189) for in the
first place the man who is deceived becomes worse than he was before, because he
has expelled truth from the confines of his soul; in the second place, he will
do exceeding mischief to those on whose causes he is deciding by delivering a
blind decision in consequence of his not seeing what is just. (190) When,
therefore, he does not clearly comprehend a case by reason of the perplexed and
unintelligible character of the circumstances which throw uncertainty and
darkness around it, he ought to decline giving a decision, and to send the
matter before judges who will understand it more accurately. And who can these
judges be but the priests, and the ruler and governor of the priests? (191) For
the genuine, sincere worshippers of God are by care and diligence rendered acute
in their intellects, inasmuch as they are not indifferent even to slight errors,
because of the exceeding excellence of the Monarch whom they serve in every
point. On which account it is commanded that the priests shall go
Soberly{42}{Leviticus 10:9.} to offer sacrifice, in order that no medicine such
as causes men to err, or to speak and act foolishly may enter into the mind and
obscure its vision, (192) and perhaps because the real genuine priest is at once
also a prophet, having attained to the honor of being allowed to see the only
true and living God, not more by reason of his birth than by reason of his
virtue. And to a prophet there is nothing unknown, since he has within himself
the sun of intelligence, and rays which are never overshadowed, in order to a
most accurate comprehension of those things which are invisible to the outward
senses, but intelligible to the intellect. XXXVII.
(193) Again, merchants and pedlars, and people in the market, and all those who
deal in things necessary for life, {43}{Leviticus 19:36.} and who in consequence
are conversant with measures, and weights, and balances, since they sell things
both dry and wet, are put in subjection to the superintendants of the market,
and these superintendants are bound to govern them if they act with moderation,
doing what is right, not out of fear, but voluntarily, for spontaneous good
conduct is in every case more honorable than that which proceeds from
compulsion. (194) On which account the law orders these merchants and dealers,
and all other persons who have adopted this way of life, to take care to provide
themselves with just balances, and measures, and weights, not practising any
wicked manoeuvres to the injury of those who purchase of them, but to do and say
everything with a free and guileless soul, considering this, that unjust gains
are injurious, but that that wealth which is acquired in accordance with justice
a man cannot be deprived of; (195) and since wages are offered to artisans as a
reward for their work, and since it is people in want who are artisans, and not
men who have an abundance of wealth, the law commands that the payment of their
wages shall not be delayed, but that their employers shall pay them the wages
agreed upon the same day that they are earned; {44}{Deuteronomy 24:15.} for it
is absurd for the rich to avail themselves of the services of the poor, and yet
for those who live in plenty and affluence not at once to give the poor the
proper remuneration for those services. (196) Are not these things very
conspicuous instances to teach us to guard against greater offences? For he who
will not allow a payment which is sure to be eventually repaid to be delayed
beyond the proper time, fixing the evening of the day for the time on which the
artisan, at his return home, is to carry his wages home with him, does not he
much more by such a commandment prohibit rapine and theft, and the repudiation
of debts, and all things of that sort, fashioning and moulding the soul
according to the approved characteristics of virtue and piety? XXXVIII.
(197) Also this commandment is given with exceeding propriety, {45}{Leviticus
19:14.} which forbids anyone from blaspheming and speaking ill, especially of a
deaf man, and of one who is unable to perceive by the aid of his outward senses
the injuries which are done to him, nor to retaliate in an equal manner under
similar circumstances; for that is the most iniquitous conflict of all, in which
the one side is considered only in acting, and the other only in suffering;
(198) and those who speak ill of the dumb, or of people whose sense of hearing
is defective, are committing the same offences as those who put stumbling blocks
in the way of the blind, or who offer other obstacles to their progress; for in
this case also it is impossible for the blind to step over the obstacles, as
they are not aware of their existence, so they stumble over them, and both are
hindered in their progress and hurt their feet. (199) Accordingly, with great
propriety and fitness, does the law threaten those who devise and execute
wickedness of this kind with punishment at the hand of God; since he alone holds
his protecting hand over and defends those who are unable to protect themselves,
and all but says in plain words to those who injure the innocent, (200) "O
foolish minded men, do you expect to escape detection while turning the
misfortunes of those men into ridicule, and committing offences against those
very parts in respect of which they are unfortunate, attacking their ears by
false accusations, and their eyes by putting stumbling blocks in their path? But
you will never escape the notice of God, who sees everything and governs
everything, while you insult in this manner the calamities of miserable men, so
as to avoid meeting with similar distresses yourselves, inasmuch as your bodies
are also liable to all kinds of diseases, and your outward senses are
susceptible of injury and mutilation, being such as, by a very slight and
ordinary cause, they are often not only impaired, but crippled by incurable
mutilations. (201) Why then should those who forget themselves, and who in their
arrogance fancy that they themselves are superior to the ordinary natural
weakness of mankind, and that they are out of the reach of the invisible and
unexpected attacks of fortune, which often aims sudden blows at all people, and
which has often wrecked men, who up to that moment had enjoyed a prosperous
voyage through life, when they had almost arrived in the very harbor of ultimate
happiness, why, I say, should such men triumph in and insult the misfortunes of
others, having no respect for justice, the ruler of human life, who sits by the
side of the great Ruler of the universe, who surveys all things with sleepless
and most piercing eyes, and sees what is in recesses as clearly as if it was in
the pure sunlight? (202) It seems to me that these men would not spare even the
dead, in the extravagance of their cruelty, but, according to the proverb so
commonly quoted, would even slay the slain over again, since they in a manner
think fit to insult and ill treat those members of them which are already dead;
for eyes which do not see are dead, and ears which are devoid of the power of
hearing are devoid of life; so that if the man himself to whom these members
belong, were to be extinct, they would then show their merciless and implacable
nature, doing no humane or compassionate action, such as is shown to the dead,
even by their enemies in irreconcileable wars. And this may be enough to say on
this subject. XXXIX.
(203) After this the lawgiver proceeds to connect with these commandments a
somewhat similar harmony or series of injunctions; commanding breeders not to
breed from animals of different species; not to sow a vineyard so as to make it
bear two crops at once; and not to wear garments woven of two different
substances, which are a mixed and base work. Now the first of these injunctions
we have already mentioned in our treatise on adulterers, in order to make it
more evident, that our people ought not to be anxious for marriages with
foreigners, corrupting the dispositions of the women, and destroying also the
good hopes which might be conceived of the propagation of legitimate children.
For the lawgiver, who has forbidden all copulation between irrational animals of
different species, appears to have utterly driven away all adulterers to a great
distance. (204) And we must now speak again of this rule in this our treatise on
justice. For we must take care not to pass over the opportunity of adapting it
to as many particulars as possible. It is just then to bring together those
things which are capable of union; now animals of the same species are by nature
capable of union, as, on the other hand, all animals of different species are
incapable of any admixture or union, and the man who brings unlawful connections
to pass between such animals is an injust man, transgressing the ordinances of
nature; (205) but that which is the really sacred law takes such exceeding care
to provide for the maintenance of justice, that it will not permit even the
plowing of the land to be carried on by animals of unequal strength, and forbids
a husbandman to plough with an ass and a heifer yoked to the same plough, lest
the weaker animals, being compelled to exert itself to keep up with the superior
power of the stronger animal, should become exhausted, and sink under the
effort; (206) and the bull is looked upon as the stronger animal, and is
enrolled in the class of clean beasts and animals, while the ass is a weaker
animal and of the class of unclean beasts; but nevertheless he has not grudged
those animals which appear to be weaker, the assistance which they can derive
from justice, in order, as I imagine, to teach the judges most forcibly, that
they are never in their decisions to give the worse fate to the humbly born, in
matters the investigation of which depends not on birth but on virtue and vice.
(207) And resembling these injunctions is the last commandment concerning things
yoked in pairs, namely, that it is unlawful to wear together substances of a
different character, such as wool and linen; for in the case of these
substances, not only does the difference prevent any union, but also the
superior strength of the one substance is calculated rather to tear the other
than to unite with it, when it is wanted to be used. XL.
(208) The commandment which came in the middle of the three injunctions about
pairs, was that one was not to sow a vineyard so as to make it bear two crops at
the same time; the object of this law being, in the first place, that those
things which are of different species might not be confused by being mixed
together; for crops grown from seed have no connection with trees, nor trees
with crops grown from seed; on which account nature has not appointed to them
both the same time for the production of their fruits, but has assigned to the
one the spring as the season of their harvest, while to the others it has
appointed the end of summer, as the season for the gathering of their fruits;
(209) accordingly, it happens that at the same period of the year the one are
become withered having been in bloom at an earlier time, while the others are
just budding having been dried up before; for the crops which are produced from
seed begin to flourish in the winter, when the trees are losing their leaves;
and in the spring, on the contrary, when all the crops which are produced from
seed are drying up, the wood of all trees, whether wild or improved by
cultivation, are shooting; and one may almost say, that the period in which the
crops which are produced from seed come to perfection is the same as that in
which those of the trees derive the beginning of their productiveness. (210)
Very naturally therefore, has God separated things so wholly different from one
another, both in their natures and in the period of their flowering, and in the
seasons of their producing their appropriate fruits, and has appointed different
situations for them, producing order out of disorder; for order is closely
connected with arrangement, and disorder with a want of arrangement. (211) And
in the second place, in order that the two different species may not go through
a reciprocal system of inflicting and suffering injury, because of one kind
drawing away the nourishment from the other kind, while if that nourishment is
divided into small portions, as happens in times of famine and of scarcity of
necessaries, all plants of every kind will in every place become weak, and will
be either afflicted with barrenness, becoming utterly unproductive, or at all
events will never bear tolerably fine fruit, inasmuch as they have been
previously weakened by want of nourishment. (212) And in the third place, in
order that the naturally fertile land may not be oppressed with burdens beyond
its strength, partly by the continued and uninterrupted thickness of the crops
which are sown, and of the trees which are planted in the same place, and partly
by the doubling of the crops, which are exacted from the ground; for it ought to
be quite sufficient for the owner to draw one yearly tribute from one spot, just
as it is sufficient for a king to receive his tribute from a city once a year;
and to endeavor to extract larger revenues is the act of exceeding covetousness,
by which all the laws of nature are attempted to be overturned. (213) For which
reason the law might well say to those who have determined to sow their
vineyards with seed out of pure covetousness; "Do not you be worse than
those kings who have subdued cities with arms and warlike expeditions, for even
they, from a prudent regard for the future and from a proper wish to spare their
subjects, are content to receive one payment of tribute each year, as they are
desirous not to reduce them utterly to the very extremity of want and distress
in a short time; (214) but if you in the spring exact from the same piece of
ground crops of barley and of wheat, and in the summer the crops from the
fruit-bearing trees, you will be exhausting it by a double contribution; for
then it will very naturally grow faint and fail, like an athlete, who is never
abroad any time to take breath and to collect his strength for the beginning of
another contest. (215) "But you seem rashly to forget those precepts of
general advantage which I enjoined you to observe. For, at all events, if you
had recollected the commandment concerning the seventh year, in which I
commanded you to allow the land to remain fallow and sacred, without being
exhausted by any agricultural operation of any kind, by reason of the labors
which it has been going through for the six preceding years, and which is has
undergone, producing its crops at the appointed seasons of the year in
accordance with the ordinances of nature; you would not now be introducing
innovations, and giving vent to all your covetous desires, be seeking for
unprecedented crops, sowing a land fit for the growth of trees, and especially
one planted with vines, in order by two crops every year, both being founded in
iniquity, to increase your substance out of undue avarice, amassing money by
lawless desires." (216) For the same man would never endure to let his land
lie fallow every seventy years without exacting any revenue from it, for the
sake of not having his land exhausted by over-production, but of allowing it to
recover itself by rest, and yet at the same time to oppress and overwhelm it by
double burdens; (217) therefore I have judged it necessary to pronounce all
acquisition or exaction of wealth in this way unholy and impious; I mean the
production of the fruit of trees, and of such crops as are derived from seed,
because such fertility does in a manner exhaust and destroy the vivifying
principle in the good soil, and, because too, by requiring so much, the owner of
the land is insulting and abusing the bounty and liberality of God, giving full
reins to his unrighteous desires, and not restraining them by any limits. (218)
Ought we not, then, to feel an attachment to such commandments as these, which
tend to restrain us from and to remove us to a great distance from the acts of
covetousness, which are common among men, blunting the edge of the passion
itself? For if the private individual, who, in the matter of his plants, has
learnt to renounce all unrighteous gain, if he should acquire power in weightier
matters and become a king, would adopt the same practice towards men and women,
not exacting twofold tributes from them, not exhausting his subjects with taxes
and contributions; for the habits in which he has been brought up would be
sufficient for him, and would be able to soften the harshness of his
disposition, and in a manner to educate him, and to re-mould him to a better
character. And that is a better character which justice impresses upon the soul.
XLI.
(219) These, then, are the laws which he appoints to be observed by each
individual. But there are other commandments of a more general nature of which
he enjoins the observance to the whole nation in common, recommending them to
attend to them, not only with regard to their own friends and allies, but also
to those who are unconnected with their alliance. (220) For if, says Moses,
{46}{Deuteronomy 20:1.} they shut themselves up within their walls and make
their necks stiff, then let you young men arm themselves well, and being
provided with all the preparations necessary for war, go forth and fortify their
camp all around, and watch in expectancy, not indulging their anger so as to
neglect reason, but taking care to apply themselves to what must be done firmly
and strenuously. (221) Let them, therefore, at once send out heralds to invite
the enemy to an agreement, and at the same time let them display the power and
considerable character of the force which is encamped; and if the enemy,
repenting of the evil designs which they had conceived, submit and turn to peace
in any manner, then let the people gladly receive them and make a truce with
them; for peace, even though it be very unfavorable, is more advantageous than
war. (222) But if they persevere in their folly, and push it further, acting
with audacity, then let our people, display vigorous confidence, relying also on
the invincible alliance of justice, and so let them advance, placing their
destructive engines against the walls, and when they have made a breach in some
part of them let them all enter in together; and shooting with their spears with
correct aim, and brandishing their swords, and slaying the enemies all around,
let them repel them unshrinkingly, inflicting upon them what they were intended
to suffer themselves, (223) until they have overthrown the whole army arrayed
against them, every man of them, and taken their silver, and their gold, and all
the booty. And let them bring fire against their city, and burn it so that it
may never, after an interval of rest, again raise its head and excite wars and
tumults, with the view also of terrifying and warning the neighboring states,
since it is by the calamities of others that men are taught to act with
moderation. But let them suffer the maidens and the women to go free, inasmuch
as they did not expect to suffer any of the evils which war brings upon men at
their hands, as they are exempt from all military service through their natural
weakness. (224) From all which it is plain that the nation of the Jews is allied
with and friendly to all those who are of the same sentiments, and all who are
peaceful in their intentions; and that it is not to be despised as one that
submits to those who begin to treat it with injustice out of cowardice; but when
it goes forth to defend itself, it distinguishes between those who are
habitually plotting against it and those who are not; (225) for to be eager to
slay all men, and even those who have committed but slight offences, or no
offences at all against one, I should call the conduct of an inhuman and
pitiless soul, as it would be also to treat women as if they were an addition to
the men who carry on war, when their way of life is naturally peaceful and
domestic. (226) But our lawgiver implants such a love of justice in all men who
live under the institution which he has established, that he does not permit
them to injure the fertile land of even an hostile city by ravaging it, or by
cutting down the trees, so as to destroy the crops. (227) "For why,"
says he, "do you bear a grudge against inanimate things, which are in their
nature quiet, and which produce wholesome fruits? Does the tree, my friend,
display the hostile spirit of a man that is an enemy, so that you are to tear it
up by the roots in retaliation for the evils which it has inflicted, or which it
has designed to inflict upon you? (228) On the contrary, it assists you,
bestowing on you, when you are victorious, an abundance of necessary food, and
of supplies which conduce to rendering life happy and luxurious; for it is not
men alone who contribute revenues to their lords, but plants offer even more
useful tribute at the fixed seasons of the year, a tribute without which men
cannot live." (229) But there is no prohibition against their cutting down
those trees which are barren and unproductive, and which are not cultivated for
food, for the purpose of making staves, or poles, or posts, or fences; and, when
occasion requires, ladders, and engines, and wooden towers; for the chief use of
these kinds of trees is for such and other similar purposes. XLII.
(230) We have now enumerated the matters which belong to justice; but as for
justice itself, what poet or orator could celebrate it, in worthy terms, since
it is beyond all panegyric and all praise? At all events, there is one most
important good thing belonging to it, {47}{the text has eumeneia, which Mangey
pronounces corrupt.} which, even if one were to pass over and be silent about
all its other parts, would be an all-sufficient panegyric on it; (231) for this
is the principle of equality, which is, as those who have accurately
investigated the secrets of nature have handed down to us, the mother of
justice; and equality is a light which is never shaded; the sun (if one must
speak the plain truth) appreciable by the intellect alone, since inequality, on
the contrary, in which that which is superior and that which is inferior are
both found, is the beginning and source of darkness; (232) it is equality which,
by its unchangeable laws and ordinances, has arranged, in their present
beautiful order, all the things in heaven and earth; for who is there who does
not know this fact, that the days are measured in due proportion to the nights,
and the nights in due proportion to the days, by the sun, according to the
equality of proportionate distances? (233) Nature, therefore, has marked out
those periods in every year, which are called the equinoxes, from the state of
things which exists at that time, namely, the spring and the autumnal equinox,
with such distinctness, that even the most illiterate persons are aware of the
equality which then exists between the extent of the days and of the nights.
(234) Again, are not the periods of the moon, as she advances and retraces her
course, from a crescent to a full circle, and again, from a complete orb to a
crescent, also measured by an equality of distances? For as great and as long as
the period and amount of her increase is, so also is her diminution, in both
respects, as to magnitude and duration, as to the number of days and the size of
her orb. (235) And as, in that purest of all essences, heaven, equality is
honored with especial honors, so also is she in the neighbor of heaven, the air.
For as the year is portioned out into four divisions, the air is formed by
nature to endure changes and alterations at what are called the seasons of the
year, and it displays an indescribable regularity in its irregularity; for as
the atmosphere is divided by an equal number of months into winter, and spring,
and summer, and autumn, it completes the whole year by allotting three months to
each season; as, in fact, the very name of the year (eniautos) intimates. For it
in itself (autos en autoµ) contains everything, being complete in itself,
though otherwise it would not be able to effect this, if it were not aided by
the regular revolutions of the seasons of the year. (236) Again, this same
equality extends from the heavenly bodies, and from those which are raised on
high, to the things upon earth, raising on high its own pure nature, which is
akin to the air, and sending downwards its beams like the sun, as a sort of
secondary light, (237) for all the things which are inharmonious or irregular
among us are caused by inequality, and all those which have in them that
regularity which becomes them are the work of equality, which, in the universal
essence of the universe, one may fairly call the world, and in cities one may
entitle it that best regulated and most excellent of all constitutions,
democracy, and in bodies health, and in souls virtue. (238) For, on the
contrary, inequality is the cause of diseases and wickednesses; and the
existence of the longest lived man of the human race would fail, if he were to
attempt to enumerate all the praiseworthy qualities of equality, and of its
offspring, justice. In consequence of which it seems to me to be best to be
satisfied with what has already been said, which may be sufficient to rouse up
the recollection of those persons who are fond of learning, and to leave the
remaining circumstances unwritten in their souls, as divine images in a most
sacred place. |
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