The Works of Philo Judaeus

XV. And some one may ask here, why, since it is a pious action to imitate the works of God, it is forbidden to me to plant a grove near the altar, and yet God plants a paradise ? For Moses says, "You shall not plant a grove for yourself; you shall not make for yourself any tree which is near the altar of the Lord your God.'' What then are we to say? That it is right for God to plant and to build up the virtues in the soul. But the selfish and atheistical mind, thinking itself equal with God while it appears to be doing something, is found in reality to be rather suffering. And though God sows and plants good things in the soul, the mind which says, " I plant," is acting impiously. You shall not plant therefore where God is planting : but if, 0 mind, you fix plants in the soul, take care to plant only such trees as bear fruit, and not a grove ; for in a grove there are trees of a character to bear cultivation, and also wild trees. But to plant vice, which is unproductive in the soul, along with cultivated and fertile virtue, is the act of a double-natured and confused leprosy. If, however, you bring into the same place things which ought not to be mingled' together, you must separate and disjoin them from the pure and incorrupt nature which is accustomed to make blameless offerings to God ; and this is his altar ; for it is inconsistent with this to say that there is any such thing as a work of the soul, when all thing's are referred to God, and to mingle barren things with those which are productive ; for this would be faulty : but they are blameless things which are offered to God. If therefore you transgress any one of these laws, 0 soul! you will be injuring yourself, not God. On this account God says, " You shall not plant for yourself :" for no one works for God, and especially what is evil does not. And again, Moses adds: "You shall not make for yourself." And in another place he says, " You shall not make gods of silver with me, and you shall not make gods of gold for yourselves." For he who conceives either that God has any distinctive quality, or that he is not one, or that he is not uncreated and imperishable, or that he is not unchangeable, injures himself and not God. " For you shall not make Deuteronomy xvi, 21. thern for yourselves," is what he says. For we must conceive that God is free from distinctive qualities, and imperishable, and unchangeable ; and he who does not conceive thus of him is filling his own soul with false and atheistical opinions. Do you not see that — even though God were to conduct us to virtue, and though when we had been thus conducted we were to plant no tree which was barren, but only such as produce fruit, he would still command us to purify its impurity, that is to say, the appearing to plant. For he here orders us to cut away vain opinions; and vain opinions are a thing impure by nature.

XLIII. On which account Mcses says in another passage, " Thou shalt lend a loan to him who asks you for one, as much as he requires, having regard to what he requires.' By the second phrase showing that it is not everything which is to be given, but only such things as are suitable to the requirements of those who are asking for them. For to give an anchor, or an oar, or a rudder to a husbandman, or ploughs or a spade to a captain of a ship, or a lyre to a physiciau, or instruments suited to manual labour to a musician, would be ridiculous, unless indeed one ought to offer a thirsty man costly viands, or a hungry man unmixed wine in abundance, so as to show at once one's own riches and one's want of humanity, by turning the souls of one's companions into ridicule. The quantity to be given in an act of beneficence is defined according to due proportion, which is a most useful thing. For, says Moses, do not give all that right reason is able to give, but as much as he who is asking the loan is worthy to receive. Do you not see that even God does uot utter his oracles, having a regard to their being in proportion to the magnitude of his own oracular power, but always having respect to the capacity of those who are to be benefited by them ? Since who could receive the whole power of the words of God, which are too mighty for any one to listen to ? On which account those persons appear to speak with great truth, who say to Moses, " Do thou speak to us, and let not God speak to us, lest we die." f For they know that they have not in themselves any organ which can be worthy of God who is giving laws to his church ; nor, indeed, could even the whole world, both land and sea, contain his riches if he were Deuteronomy xv. 8. f Exodus xx. 19. inclined to display them, unless we think that the descent of the rains and of the other things that happen in the world are appointed to take place according to the pre-arranged periods of the seasons, and not all at once, because of the scarcity and rarity of the things themselves, and not from any regard to the advantage of those who are benefited by them ; who would be injured rather than be benefited by a continual enjoyment of such gifts. On this account it is, that God always judiciously limits and brings out with wise moderation his first benefits, stopping them before those who partake of them become wanton through satiety ; and then he bestows others in their stead; and again a third class of advantages instead of the second set, and so on, continually substituting new blessings for those of older date, at one time giving such as are different from those which went before, and at another time such as are almost identical with them; for the creature is never wholly destitute of the blessings bestowed by God, since if he were he would be utterly destroyed ; but he is unable to endure an unlimited and measureless abundance of them. On which account, as he is desirous that we should derive advantage from the benefits which he bestows upon us, he weighs out what he gives so as to proportion it to the strength of those who receive it. XLIY. Rebekkah, therefore, must be praised, who, in obedience to the injunctions of her father, having taken dowu the vessel of wisdom on her arm from a higher place, proffered her pitcher to the disciple ; by the pitcher being understood that teaching which he is competent to receive. And beyond all other things, I especially admire her exceeding liberality ; for though she had only been asked for a small draught, she gave a large one, until she had filled the whole soul of the learner with wholesome speculations. For Moses says, " She gave him to driuk till he ceased from drinking," a most marvellous example to teach us humanity. For if any one should not happen to be in want of many things, but should come forward, and out of shame ask only for a very little, let us not give him only what he mentions, but also those things of which he makes no mention, but of which he is nevertheless in reality in need. But it is not sufficient for the complete enjoyment of his teacher's lessons, that the disciple should merely ON TEE POSTERITY OF CAIN. 3'2l comprehend what the master has taught him, unless he lias also got memory. On which account, making a display of her bounteous disposition, when he has satisfied himself with the water, she offers to give his camels water also, which we have already said are here put symbolically for memory. For the animal while eating its food ruminates, and when, having stooped down it has received a heavy burden, with exceedingly great vigour of muscle it rises up lightly ; and in the same manner also, the soul of the man who is devoted to learning, when the burden of its speculations is placed upon it, becomes more lowly, and when it has risen up it rejoices ; and from the mastication, and as it were the softening, of the first food that is placed down before it, arises its memory of those speculations. But she, beholding the nature of the servant to be well calculated for the reception of virtue, emptied her whole pitcher into the cistern, that is to say, she emptied the whole knowledge of the teacher into the soul of the learner. For the sophists, from a desire of gain and also from envy, repressing the natural characters of their pupils, keep silence about many things which ought to be mentioned, laying up for themselves a source of gain for future times. But virtue is an ungrudging and most liberal feeling, so that it does not hesitate to assist another with hand and foot, as the proverb goes, and with all its power. Therefore, pouring all that she knew into the mind of the pupil as into a cistern, she went again to the well to draw water, that is to say, she went to the ever-flowing wisdom of God, that what had been already imparted might be firmly fixed in by memory, and that he might also be irrigated with the knoweldge of other and newer things. For the wealth of the wisdom of God is illimitable, and as a tree which is continually putting forth new shoots after the old ones, so that it never ceases growing young again, and being in the flower of its strength. So that they are marvellously simple people who have ever had an idea of coming to the end of any branch of knowledge whatever. For that which has seemed to be near and within reach is nevertheless a long way distant from the end : since no created being is perfect in any department of learning, but falls as far short of it as a thoroughly infant child just beginning to learn Y 3QQ docs, in comparison of a man who both by age and skill is qualified to be a master.