Philo of Alexandria

XXXVII. On which account it is said in Genesis, " And a fountain went up from the earth, and watered all the face of the earth." For since nature has allotted the most excellent portion of the whole body, namely the face, to the outward senses, therefore the fountain which goes up from the superior part, being diffused over various parts, and sending up its streams like so many water-courses as high as the face, by their means conducts the faculties to each of the organs of the outward senses. In this way in truth, it is that the word of God irrigates the virtues ; for that is the beginning and the fountain of all good actions. And the lawgiver shows this, when he says, " And a river went out of Eden to water the Paradise ; and from thence it is divided into four heads. "f For there are four generic virtues : prudence, courage, temperance, and justice. And of these, every single one is a princess aud a ruler ; and he who has acquired them is, from the moment of the acquisition, a ruler and a king, even if he has no abundance of any kind of treasure ; for the meaning of the expression, ''it is divided into four heads," is £ nor distance ; but virtue exhibits the pre-eminence and the power. And these spring from the word of God as from one root, which he compares to a river, on account of the unceasing and everlasting flow of salutary words and doctrines, by which it increases and nourishes the souls that love God. XXXVIII. And of what kind they are, he proceeds to Genesis ii. 6. t Genesis ii. 1 0. X Here again is an hiatu3, which Mangey does not attempt to supply. show in a few words, deriving bis explanation from the natural things of art ; for he introduces Agar as filling a leathern bag with water, and giving her child drink. Now Agar is the handmaid of Sarah, the new dispensation of perfect virtue ; and she is correctly represented so. Since, therefore, having come to the depth of knowledge, which Moses here calls a well, she draws up (filling the soul as if it were a vessel) the doctrines and speculations which she is in pursuit of, wishing to feed her child on the things on which she herself is fed. And Moses, by her child, means, a soul which has lately learnt to desire instruction, arid which has, in a manner, just been born to learn. In reference to which, the boy, when he has grown up to man's estate, becomes a sophist, whom Moses calls an archer ;f for whatever argument he applies his mind to, at that, as at a target, he shoots all his reasons, as an archer shoots his arrows.