Chapter XIV. The Same Author on The Government of the World by God’s Providence

[PHILO] [1] ‘Do you say that a Providence exists amid so great confusion and disorder of affairs? For which of the conditions of human life has been arranged in order? Nay rather, which is not full of disorder and destruction? Or are you alone ignorant that good things come to the worst and most wicked of mankind in riotous abundance, riches, reputation, honours in the opinion of the multitude, chief power again, health, fine senses, beauty, strength, enjoyment of pleasures uninterrupted because both of the abundance of means, and of the perfectly settled and good constitution of the body, while those who love and practise wisdom and every kind of virtue are, I may almost say, all of them poor, obscure, unhonoured, and of low estate?’

After saying these and numberless other things besides in disproof of Providence, he next proceeds to solve the objections by the following arguments:

‘God is not a tyrant who has practised cruelty and violence and all the acts of a despot’s merciless rule, but as a king invested with gentle and lawful authority, He governs the whole heaven and the world in righteousness.

‘Now a king has no more appropriate title than “father”: for what parents are to children in human relationships, such is a king to a city, and God to the world, having combined in indissoluble union by unalterable laws of nature two most noble qualities, the authority of the ruler and the kindly care of a guardian.

‘Just as parents therefore do not altogether neglect their dissolute sons, but taking compassion upon their unhappiness watch over and care for them, considering that it is the part of irreconcilable enemies to exult over their misfortunes, but of friends and kinsmen to lighten their disasters. And oftentimes they lavish their gifts upon these more than upon their well-conducted children, knowing certainly that the prudent conduct of the latter is an abundant source of wealth, while their parents are the only hope of the former, and if they lose this, they will be destitute even of the necessaries of life.

‘In the same way God also, being the father of the rational intellect, cares for all who have been endowed with reason, and takes thought even for those who live a culpable life, both giving them opportunity for amendment, and at the same time not transgressing His own merciful nature, which has goodness for its attendant and such kindness towards man as is worthy to pervade the divinely ordered world.

‘This then is one argument which thou, my soul, must meanwhile receive as a sacred deposit from Him, and a second consistent and harmonious with it of the following kind. Never be thou so far misled from the truth as to suppose any one of the wicked to be divinely favoured, even though he be richer than Croesus, and more sharp-sighted than Lynceus, and stronger than Milo of Crotona, and more beautiful than Ganymede,

“Whom for his beauty’s sake the gods caught up To heaven, to be the cupbearer of Zeus.” [2]

‘His own divine faculty at least, I mean his mind, he has shown to be the slave of innumerable masters, of love, desire, pleasure, fear, sorrow, folly, intemperance, cowardice, injustice, and so could never be divinely favoured, even if the multitude, failing of a true judgement, think him so, through being bribed by a double evil, pride and false opinion, evils strong to ensnare and mislead souls without ballast, and about which most of mankind are anxious.

‘If, however, with the eye of the soul steadily fixed thou shouldest desire to survey the thought of God, so far as is possible for human reason, thou wilt have a clearer perception of the only true good, and wilt laugh at the things of this world, which thou wert erewhile disposed to admire. For it is ever the case that in the absence of the better things the worse are held in honour, as inheriting their place: but when the better have appeared, they withdraw, and are content with the second prize. ‘Being therefore struck with: admiration of that godlike goodness and beauty, thou wilt thoroughly understand, that with God none of the things before-mentioned has been held worthy in itself to be ranked as good; because mines of silver and of gold are the most useless part of the earth, wholly and utterly inferior to that which is given up to the production of fruits.

‘For abundance of money is not the same thing as food, without which one cannot live. One most clear test of this is hunger, whereby what is really necessary and useful is put to proof: for a hungry man would gladly give all the treasures in the world in exchange for a little food.

‘But when the abundance of the necessaries of life flows in an immense and unchecked stream, and is poured out over the cities, while indulging luxuriously in the gifts of nature, we disdain to rest content upon them alone, but making insolent surfeit the ruling principle of life, and eagerly pursuing gains of silver and gold, we equip ourselves with all things from which we may hope for any gain, and as if blinded by love of money we no longer discern in our mind that silver and gold are mere lumps of earth, for which instead of peace there is constant and uninterrupted war.

‘Our garments indeed, as the poets somewhere say, are “the bloom of sheep,” [3] and as to the artistic skill in making them they are the weavers’ glory. And if any one thinks much of reputation, and welcomes the approval of the worthless, let him know that he is also worthless himself; for like takes pleasure in like. ‘But let him pray to get a share of purifications for the healing of his ears, for through them the chief disorders invade the soul. Also let all who are proud of their bodily vigour learn not to be arrogant, by looking at the countless herds of animals tame and untamed, who are born with strength and vigour: for it is a most absurd thing for a man to pride himself on the good qualities of beasts, and that too though surpassed by them.

‘And why should any man of good sense exult in bodily beauty, which a short time extinguishes by withering up its deceitful prime, before it has flourished its full time; and that too though in lifeless things he sees highly prized works of painters, and modellers, and other artists, in pictures, and statues, and embroidered tapestries----works renowned in every city both in Greece and in barbarous countries?

‘Of these things therefore, as I said before, none is by God held worthy to be ranked as good. And why should we wonder, if they are not so esteemed by God? For neither are they so esteemed among men who are beloved of God, by whom true excellence and beauty are held in honour, as they enjoy a well-endowed nature, and have improved that nature by study and exercise, which are the creations of a genuine philosophy.

‘But as many as devoted themselves to a spurious learning did not imitate even the physicians who heal the body that is the slave of the soul, though professing as they do to heal the mistress, the soul herself. For those physicians of the body, when any rich man has fallen sick, even if he be the great king, pass by all the colonnades, the men’s chambers, the women’s chambers, pictures, silver, gold uncoined or coined, abundance of drinking-vessels or of tapestries, and all the other celebrated ornaments of kings, and moreover disregard the crowd of servants, and the attendance of friends or relations and subjects high in office, even his bodyguards, and when they have reached the bedside pay no thought to the decorations of his person, nor wonder that the couches are inlaid with precious stones and are of solid gold, neither that the coverlets are of the finest web or embroidered linen, nor that the patterns of his garments are of varied beauty; but even pull off the blankets that cover him, and take hold of his hands, and pressing the veins note the pulsations carefully, whether they are healthy. Oftentimes too they even draw up his shirt, and examine whether the belly is distended, whether the chest is inflamed, whether the heart beats irregularly: and then they apply the proper treatment.

‘And the philosophers also, who profess to practise the art of healing the kingly nature of the soul, ought to disregard all the vain figments of false opinions, and pass on within and feel the mind itself, whether its pulsations are unequally quickened by anger, and unnaturally excited: also to touch the tongue, whether it is rough and slanderous, whether it is given to wantonness and extravagance: to feel the belly also, whether it is distended with some insatiable form of desire: and to make a general examination of the several passions, disorders, and infirmities, if they seem to be complicated, in order that they may not mistake the remedies conducive to a cure.

‘But now being dazzled by the brilliancy of the external things around them, as they are impotent to discern an intellectual light, they have been for ever wandering in error, not having been able to reach the sovereign reason; but coming hardly so far as the outer portals, and being struck with admiration of the attendants who stand at the gates of virtue, wealth and honour and health and things of the like kind, they proceeded to worship them.

‘But in fact as it is the excess of madness to use the blind as judges of colour, or deaf men of musical sounds, so it is to take evil men as judges of what is truly good: for these likewise are blinded in their master faculty of thought, over which folly has shed a deep darkness.

‘Do we then wonder now that a Socrates and this or that virtuous man continued in poverty, as men who never practised any of the arts which lead to gain, nor even deigned to accept what they might have taken from rich friends or from kings who offered them large gifts, because they regarded the attainment of virtue as the one thing good and beautiful, and while labouring at that took no account of whatever else was good?

‘And who would not thus disregard things spurious to provide the genuine? And if as partakers of a mortal body, and burdened with the misfortunes of humanity, and living in the midst of sucha multitude of unrighteous men, the number of whom it would not be easy to discover, if, I say, they were plotted against, why should we lay the blame on their nature, when we ought rather to reproach the cruelty of their assailants?

‘For if they had been in a pestilential atmosphere, they must certainly have fallen sick; and wickedness is more, or certainly not less, destructive than a pestilential climate. And as the wise man, if he were to spend his time in the open air, when it is raining, must necessarily get wet through, and when a cold north wind is blowing must be pinched with cold and shivering, and in the height of summer must be scorched with heat, since it is a law of nature that our bodies are affected in accordance with the changes of the seasons; in the same way the man who dwells in places of this kind,

“Mid murders, famines, and all kinds of death,” [4]

must in return necessarily incur the penalties which result from such evils.

‘For in the case of Polycrates, when for his dreadful deeds of injustice and impiety he met with a requital in the worse misery of his subsequent life----to which you must add how he was punished by the great king, and was impaled, in fulfilment of an oracle,----”I know,” said he, “that not long ago I seemed to see myself being anointed by the sun and washed by Zeus.” [5] For these enigmatical utterances expressed in figurative language, though originally obscure, received the most manifest confirmation through the facts which followed.

‘And not only at the end, but throughout his whole life from the beginning, he had been unconscious that his soul was impaled before his body was: for he was worried by perpetual fear and trembling at the multitude of those who were plotting against him, and well knew that he had not one friend, but only enemies implacable because of their misery.

‘The authors too of the history of Sicily bear witness to the: unavailing and perpetual caution (of Dionysius), and say that he entertained suspicions of the wife who was dearest to his soul.[6] And a proof of it was this: he ordered the entrance into his apartment, by which she would have to come to him, to be loosely covered with planks, that she might never creep upon him unobserved, but might give notice of her arrival by the creaking and rattling of her passage over the boards; also that she was to come to him not simply undressed, but naked even in all those parts which ought not to be seen by men. And in addition to this, he ordered the continuity of the ground at the entrance to be cut across to the width and depth of a farm-dyke, because he feared lest some attempt at a plot should be concealed from observation, and this was sure to be detected by leaps or long strides.

‘How full of miseries then was the man who took these precautions and devices in the case of a wife, whom he ought to have trusted before all others! But in fact he was like those who, in order to observe more clearly the natural phenomena in the sky, climb precipices on a rugged mountain, and when they have with difficulty reached an overhanging ledge are neither able to ascend any further from failure of strength for the remaining height, nor have courage to descend, but turn giddy at the sight of the chasms below.

‘For having been enamoured of despotic power as a godlike and enviable lot, he began to suspect that it was neither safe to remain nor to run away: for if he remained, there were innumerable evils rushing on like a torrent one after another against him; and if he wished to run away, there was the risk of his life hanging over him, from men armed against him if not in their bodies yet certainly in their thoughts.

‘And this is made manifest also by the practical test which Dionysius is said to have employed against the friend who praised the happy life of despotic rulers. For having invited him to a display of a most brilliant and costly banquet, he ordered a well-sharpened axe to be suspended over him by a very slight thread: and when on reclining he suddenly saw this, he was neither bold enough to rise up out of his place because of the tyrant, nor able from fear to enjoy any of the luxuries provided for him; but giving no heed to the abundant and costly pleasures, he sat with neck and eyes stretched upwards expecting his own destruction.

‘And when Dionysius perceived it, he said, Do you then now understand this celebrated and enviable life of ours? For such, if one would not flatter himself, is its real nature, since it contains great abundance of supplies, without the enjoyment of any one good thing, but terrors coming one after another, and dangers for; which there is no remedy, and a disease more grievous than any cancerous and wasting sickness, which is continually threatening irremediable destruction.

‘But the inexperienced multitude being deceived by the brilliant display are affected in the same way as those who are ensnared by ugly courtesans, who veil their ugliness by dress and gold ornaments, and pencil their eyes, and fabricate a false beauty for want of genuine to catch the beholders.

‘Such is the heavy fate with which the over-prosperous are burdened, and of which they estimate the excessive evils in their own mind and do not conceal them; but, like those who are forced by pain to acknowledge their infirmities, they give utterance to perfectly sincere expressions which are forced from them by suffering, while they live surrounded with penalties both present and expected, like beasts that are being fatted for sacrifice; for these also receive the utmost care in order that they may be slaughtered to make a plentiful feast of meat.

‘Some men also have been not obscurely but manifestly punished for sacrilegious gains: to give a list of their whole number would be a superfluous labour, but one fact may suffice to stand as an example of all. It is said then by the historians of the sacred war in Phocis, that whereas there was a law established that he who plundered a temple should be cast down a precipice, or drowned in the sea, or burnt to death, three men who had plundered the temple at Delphi, Philomelus, and Onomarchus, and Phayllus, divided the punishments among them. For the first was hurled down over a rugged and stony cliff by the fall of a rock, and crushed to death; the second was carried by his horse, which had run away, down to the sea, and being overwhelmed by the tide, went down, horse and all, into a yawning gulf. And Phayllus either wasted away by a consumptive disease (for the story about him is twofold), or perished by being burnt in the conflagration of the temple at Abae.

‘To say that these things happened by mere chance is a very perverse contention. For though it would have been reasonable to allege the uncertainty of fortune as an explanation, if some only had been punished either at different times or by other kinds of punishment; yet when the whole band were punished, and that about the same time, and not by other punishments, but by those which were included in the laws, there is good reason to affirm that they were overtaken by the judgement of God.

‘But if any of the violent men who have been left unmentioned, and who have risen up against the people, and enslaved not only other communities but also their native countries, remained unpunished to the end, there is nothing wonderful in that. For in the first place man judgeth not as God judgeth, because, while we search out only visible facts, He noiselessly enters into the recesses of the soul, and beholds the thought as clear as in the sunlight, stripping off the coverings in which it is wrapped up, and surveying its devices in their naked truth, and instantly distinguishing the false coinage from the true.

‘Never therefore let us prefer our own judgement to that of God, and say that it is more unerring and more full of wisdom; for that is impious. For in the one the causes of error are many, illusions of the senses, insidious passions, the very formidable leaguer of vices; but in the other there is nothing that tends to deception, but justice and truth, whereby each action is judged and naturally rectified in a satisfactory manner.

‘In the next place do not think, my good friend, that a temporary despotism brings no advantage, for neither is punishment unprofitable, but for the good it is either more beneficial, or not unnecessary, to suffer retribution; for which cause this is embodied in all laws that are rightly constituted, and the lawgivers are commended by all: for punishment is in a law what a tyrant is in a people.

‘Whenever therefore a terrible want and scarcity of virtue has overtaken the cities, while an abundance of folly overflows them, then God desiring to draw off the stream of wickedness, as it were the flood of a winter torrent, in order to purify our race, gives strength and power to those who are in their natures fitted to rule.

‘For wickedness is not purged away without the help of some stern soul. And in the same way as cities support public executioners to suppress murderers and traitors and sacrilegious persons, not because they approve the disposition of the men, but. because they find by experience the usefulness of their service; in the same way the guardian of the great metropolis of this world sets up tyrants like public executioners over the cities in which He perceives violence, injustice, impiety, and all the other evils in full flood, that so He may at length stop and abate them.

‘Then also with regard to the agents, as having given their service from an impure and ruthless spirit, He thinks it right to prosecute them last of all, as being in a manner ringleaders. For just as the power of fire, after it has consumed the fuel thrown upon it, feeds at last upon itself, in the same way those also who have gained despotic power over peoples, when they have exhausted the cities and emptied them of men, perish after them at last in satisfaction of the vengeance due for all.

‘And why do we wonder, if God makes use of tyrants to drive away a flood of wickedness spread abroad in cities and countries and nations? For He often does this by Himself without using other assistants, inflicting either famine or pestilence or earthquake and any other visitations of God, by which great crowds and multitudes of men perish every day and a large portion of the habitable world is left desolate, because of His desire to maintain virtue.

‘Enough however, I think, at least for the present, has been said to prove that no wicked man is happy, a fact by which the existence of a providence is most strongly established. But if you are not yet convinced, speak out boldly the doubt still lurking in your mind: for by discussing the question both together we shall know which way the truth lies.’

And after other things he says again:

[PHILO IUD.] [7] ‘Storms of wind and rain were not wrought by God, as you used to think, for the hurt of those at sea, or of men who till the ground, but for the benefit of our whole race. For by rains He purifies the earth, and by winds the whole region beneath the moon; and by both together He nourishes plants and animals, and makes them grow, and brings them to perfection.

‘And if sometimes He hurts those who are voyaging or tilling the earth out of due season, there is nothing wonderful in this; for they are but a small part, and His care is for the whole race of mankind. As therefore the anointing in the gymnasium is appointed for the benefit of all, yet the gymnasiarch, on account of political necessities, often changes the usual order of time, whereby some of those who were to be anointed are too late; so also God in His care for the whole world, as it were a city, is wont to make summers wintry, and winters like spring, for the general benefit, even though some shipmasters or tillers of the ground would probably be injured by the irregularities of these seasons.

‘Knowing therefore that the mutual interchanges of the elements, out of which the world was compacted and still consists, is a very necessary work, He keeps them free from hindrance; and frosts and snows and other things of like kind follow upon the cooling of the atmosphere, and again lightnings and thunderstorms follow upon the collision and friction of the clouds: none of which things perhaps is the direct work of providence, but these are consequences of rains and winds which are the causes of life and nourishment and growth to things on earth.

‘As for example, when from rivalry a gymnasiarch often incurs unlimited expenses, some of the ill-bred being drenched with oil instead of water, shake off drops upon the ground, and then immediately there is the most slippery mud, yet no one in his right senses would say that the mud and the slipperiness had been made by the intention of the gymnasiarch, but that they had been accidental consequences of the abundance of the supplies (of oil).

‘Again, a rainbow and a halo and all things of like kind arc-consequences of the sun’s rays being mingled with the clouds, not primary works of nature, but accidents which follow upon the natural operations. Not but what these also supply some necessary use to the wiser sort of men; for from these signs they draw conjectures, and so foretell calms and winds, and fine weather and storms.

‘Do you not see the porticoes in the city? Most of these face towards the south, in order that those who walk in them may be warmed in winter, and catch the breeze in summer. But there is also another indirect consequence, which does not follow by the intention of the person who arranged them. And what is this? The shadows which fall away from our feet mark to our experience the different hours.

‘Fire moreover is a most necessary product of nature, and smoke is a further consequence of it. But nevertheless smoke itself sometimes offers an advantage. For instance in the case of beacon fires at midday, when the fire grows dim from the beams of the sun shining down upon it, the approach of enemies is indicated by smoke.

‘The same kind of explanation as in the case of the rainbow is also true of eclipses, for eclipses are the consequences of the divine natures of the sun and moon; and they are indications either of the death of kings, or of the destruction of cities, a fact to which Pindar obscurely alluded on the occasion of an eclipse in the passage previously quoted.[8]

‘The circle too of the Milky Way partakes of the same essential nature as the other constellations, and though the cause of it is difficult to explain, those who are accustomed to investigate the principles of nature should not shrink from it; for the discovery of such things is most beneficial, and the inquiry is also most delightful in itself to those who are fond of learning.

‘As therefore the sun and moon, so also all the heavenly bodies have been made by providence, even though we in our inability to trace out their several natures and powers may be silent about them.

‘Earthquakes too, and pestilences and thunderbolts, and all tilings of this kind, though said to be sent from God. are not so in truth (for God is not the cause of any evil at all), but these are produced by the changes of the elementary atoms, and are not primary works of nature, but follow necessary laws as consequences of the primary operations.

‘If then some of the more refined experience their share in the damage which these things cause, they must not lay the blame upon the administration. For in the first place it does not follow, if certain persons are held among us to be virtuous, that they are so in reality, since God’s means of judgement are more exact than any formed according to the standard of the human mind. And in the second place foresight is content to look to the most comprehensive laws of the universe, just as in monarchies and military governments it looks to the cities and the armies, not to any one casual individual of the neglected and obscure.

‘Some too say that just as it is customary when tyrants are slain that their relatives also should be put to death, in order that wrong doings may be checked by the magnitude of the punishment, in like manner also in pestilential diseases some of the innocent perish with the rest, in order that the others may prudently keep aloof; apart from the fact that those who venture into a pestilential atmosphere must necessarily fall sick, just as those on board ship in a storm share equally in the danger.

‘Wild beasts too of great strength (for I must not pass over this in silence, although with your powerful eloquence you were inclined to anticipate my defence and pull it in pieces) have been created for the sake of training men for the conflicts of war. For gymnastic exercises and constant hunting are excellent for hardening and nerving men’s bodies, and, what is more important than their bodies, accustom their souls in the steadfastness of their strength to disregard any sudden assaults of enemies.

‘But those who are of a peaceable nature are allowed to pass their lives shut up not only within walls but also within chamber-doors, safe from hostile designs, with abundant herds of tame animals for their enjoyment; since boars, and lions, and other beasts of like disposition are by their own natural inclination driven far away from a town, from a desire to suffer no harm from the devices of men.

‘And if any from indolence live carelessly amid the lairs of wild beasts unarmed and unprepared let them blame themselves and not nature for what happens, because they neglected to take precautions as they might have done. For instance, ere now at horse-races I have seen some persons give way to thoughtlessness, who when they ought to have been sitting in their places, and looking on in an orderly manner, stood in the course, and being knocked over by the rush of the four-horsed chariots, were crushed by the hoofs and wheels, and met the rewards of their folly.

‘On this subject then enough has been said. But of reptiles the venomous kinds have not been created according to providential design, but in the way of natural consequence, as I said before. For they are quickened into life, when the moisture that is in them changes to excessive heat. Some also are vivified by putrefaction, as worms by putrid food, and lice by sweat. But all which have their origin from a proper substance, in the primary and natural way of seminal generation, are reasonably ascribed to providence.

‘About these also, as having been created for the benefit of man, I have heard two accounts, which I must not conceal. The one was of the following kind: some said that the venomous reptiles were useful for many medical purposes, and that those who regularly pursue the art, by using them scientifically for suitable cases, are well supplied with antidotes, to the unexpected cure of persons in the most dangerous condition; and to the present day one may see those who undertake to practise medicine in no idle or careless fashion, employing the several venomous reptiles in the composition of their remedies, not without careful consideration.

‘But the other story was not medical, but philosophical, as it seems. For it asserted that these animals are prepared by God as punishments for sinners, as scourges or even iron by generals and leaders. On which account, though quiet at other times, they are stirred up to violence against the condemned, whose nature passes sentence of death upon itself in its own incorruptible tribunal.

‘But that they have their holes especially in houses is false, for they are usually seen outside a town in open fields and desert places, avoiding man as their master. Not but what, if it is true, there is some reason in it; for refuse and filth in large quantities are heaped up in corners, and they like to slip in under these, besides that the smell also has an attractive force.

‘If swallows also live among us, it is nothing strange, for we abstain from hunting them. And the desire of safety is implanted not only in rational souls, but also in irrational. But none of those animals which we use for food lives among us, because of our designs against them, except in nations where the use of such animals is forbidden by law.

‘On the sea-coast of Syria there is a city named Ascalon. Having been there at the time when I was journeying to the Temple of my fathers to offer prayers and sacrifices, I saw an incredible number of pigeons upon the roads and at every house. And when I asked the cause, they said that it was not lawful to catch them, for the inhabitants had been forbidden from ancient times to use them for food. So thoroughly has the animal grown tame from fearlessness, that it constantly came not only under the same roof but also to the same table, and revelled in its freedom from attack.

‘But in Egypt there is a still more wonderful thing to be seen. For the crocodile, the most troublesome of all animals, addicted also to devouring men, being born and bred in the most sacred waters of the Nile, although it lives in the depths is conscious of the benefit bestowed upon it. For among the people by whom it is honoured it multiplies exceedingly, but never appears at all among those who injure it: so that in some places even the boldest of voyagers dare not put down even the tip of a finger where the crocodiles congregate in shoals, while in other places even the most timid persons leap out and swim in sport.

‘But in the country of the Cyclopes, since their race is a legendary fiction, in the absence of sowing and husbandmen there grows no eatable fruit, just as nothing is produced out of that which does not exist. We must not accuse Greece of being poor and barren, for here also there is much deep rich soil. And if the country of the barbarians excels in fruitfulness, then though superabounding in food, it falls short in the people to be fed, for whose sake the food is produced. For Greece alone is truly the mother of men, as giving birth to a plant of heavenly origin, and a godlike germ which has been brought to perfection, namely reasoning united to science. And the cause is this: by the lightness of the atmosphere the mind is naturally sharpened.

‘Wherefore also Heracleitus makes no mistake in saying, “Where the soil is dry, the soul is most wise and virtuous.” [9] And this one might conjecture also from the fact that the sober and frugal are more intelligent, while those who are always filling themselves with drink and food are least sensible, inasmuch as their reason is drowned by the things which overlay it.

‘Wherefore in the land of the barbarians plants and trunks of trees are very tall from being well nourished, and the most prolific of irrational animals it produces abundantly, but very little intelligence: because the successive and continuous exhalations of earth and water have prevailed to hinder it from being raised up out of the air which is its source.

‘But the various kinds of fishes and birds and land animals are no reasons for accusing nature as inviting us to luxury, but a terrible reproach to our intemperate use of them. For to the completeness of the universe, that order might exist in every part of it, it was necessary that all species of animals should be produced; but it was not necessary that man, the creature most akin to wisdom, should rush to feast upon them, and change his nature into the fierceness of wild beasts.

‘Wherefore even to the present day those who have regard to temperance abstain altogether from them all, and feed with the sweetest enjoyment upon green vegetables and fruits of trees as their dainties. But against those who think that the feasting upon the aforesaid animals is according to nature there have risen up in various cities teachers, censors, lawgivers, whose care it has been to check men’s immoderate appetites, by not permitting an unscrupulous use of all things to them all.

‘Roses also and crocuses, and all the other variety of flowers, are meant, if for health, yet not all for pleasure. For their virtues are infinite, and they are beneficial of themselves by their scents, filling us all with fragrance; and far more beneficial in the medicinal compositions of drugs. For some of them when compounded make their own virtues more conspicuous, just like the union of male and female for the generation of an animal, each separately not being fitted by nature to effect what both can do combined.

‘These arguments I have been obliged to state in answer to the rest of the questions raised by you, and they are sufficient to produce a satisfactory belief, in those who are not contentious on the subject, of God’s careful superintendence of human affairs.’

These then are the brief extracts which. I have made from the writer before mentioned, both by way of showing what sort of men the Hebrews have been according to the testimony of the moderns, and at the same time of clearly establishing the facts of their pious judgement concerning God, and of their agreement with their forefathers. But now it is time to pass from this point to the testimonies of foreigners on the same subjects.

[Footnotes numbered and moved to the end]