The Works of Philo Judaeus

LVI. But that the food of the soul is not earthly but hea- Genesis iii. 14. t Genesis ii. 7. 150 venly tlie Holy Scriptures will testify in many passages, " Behold I will rain upon you bread from heaven, and the people shall come forth, and shall collect from day to day, when I "will try them, whether they will walk according to mv law or not." You see that the soul is nourished not on earthly and corruptible food, but on the reasons which God rains down out of his sublime and pure nature, which he calls heaven. "Let the people indeed go forth and the whole system of the soul likewise, and let it collect science and begin knowledge, not in large quantities but from day to day." For, in the first place, in that wTay it will not exhaust all at once the abundant riches of the grace of God : but it will overflow like a torrent with their superfluity. Secondly, it will happen that when they have taken such good things as are sufficient for them and duly measured, they will think God the dispenser of the rest. But he who endeavours to collect everything at once is only acquiring for himself despair with great sorrow,t for he becomes full of despair if he expects that God will only rain good things upon him at the present moment, and that he will not do so hereafter. And he becomes inclined to infidelity if he does not believe that the graces of God will be both at present and in all time abundantly poured upon those who are worthy of them. And he is foolish, moreover, if he thinks that he shall be a competent guardian of what he has collected contrary to God's will. For a very slight inclination is sufficient to make the mind, which in its boastfulness attributes safety and stability tox itself, an impotent and unsure keeper of those things of which it fancied itself a safe guardian.

LX. There is a certain peculiarity which is attached to this word. For when it calls the soul to itself, it excites a congealing power in everything which is earthly, or corporeal, or under the influence of the external senses. On which account it is said to be " like the hoar-frost on the earth." f For when the man who beholds God, meditates a flight from the passions, " the waves are frozen," that is to say, the impetuous rush, and the increase, and the haughty pride of the waves are arrested, in order that he who might behold the living God might then pass over the passion. J Therefore the Exodus xvi. 13. f Exodus vi. 16. % Exodus xvL 15. souls inquire of one another, those, that is, that have clearly felt the influence of the word, but which are not able to say what it is. For very often, when sensible of a sweet taste, we are nevertheless ignorant of the flavour which has caused it, and when we smell sweet scents, we still do not know what they are. And in the same manner also the soul very often, when it is delighted, is yet unable to explain what it is that has delighted it ; but it is taught by the hierophant and prophet Moses, who tells it, "This is the bread, the food which God has given for the soul," explaining that God has brought it, his own word and his own reason; for this bread which he has given us to eat is this word of his.