032: Concerning Noah's Work As A Planter (Part 2)
CONCERNING NOAH’S WORK AS A PLANTER - Part 2*
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XIV. (59) And on this account, indeed, it is said in the greater prayer, "Inquire of thy father, and he will tell thee; of thy elders, and they will reply to thee, when the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he fixed the boundaries of the nations, according to the number of the angels of God, and the portion of the Lord himself was his people Israel." (13) [Deu 32:7] (60) For, behold, here again, he uses the expression, "the portion and inheritance of God," meaning that disposition which is capable of seeing him, and which sincerely worships him; and he says that the children of the earth, whom he calls the sons of Adam, were scattered and dispersed, and brought together again, and that a company was formed of them, since they were unable to use right reason as their guide. For, in real truth, virtue is the cause of harmony and unity, and the opposite disposition is the cause of dissolution and disagreement. (61) Indeed, it is a proof of what has been said, what happens every year on the day called the day of atonement; for on that day the people are enjoined "to take by lot two goats, one for the Lord, and one to be the Scapegoat;" (14) [Deu 15:6] that is to say, two reasons, the one in accordance with God, the other consistent with creation. He, therefore, who wishes to exalt the Cause of all things will acquire honour to himself; but he who attributes honour to creation will be banished, being driven from the most sacred places, and compelled to fall into inaccessible and wicked gulfs.
XV. (62) Moses, therefore, has such intimate connection with God, that, relying upon this in a very great degree, he is in the habit of using more fervent and energetic expressions and doctrines than are calculated for the ears of us inferior persons; for he not only thinks it fit to speak of God as an inheritor, but even, which is a more startling thing to the comprehension, he calls him the inheritance of others; (63) for to the entire tribe which came to him as a fugitive and a suppliant, he did not think fit to allot only a portion of land, as he did to the other eleven tribes, but he chose that they should receive an especial honour, namely, the priesthood, a possession not of earth, but of heaven. "For thou shalt not be," says God, as Moses represents, "a portion to the tribe of Levi, nor any inheritance among the children of Israel, because the Lord himself is their Inheritance." (15) [Deu 10:9] And again he speaks in the person of God, in his holy oracles, in this manner: "I am thy portion and Inheritance." (16) [Num 18:20] (64) For, in real truth, the mind which is perfectly purified, and which knows all the things of creation, knows and recognizes one only God, the Uncreate, whom it approaches, and by whom it is received. For to whom is it permitted to say, "He alone is my God," except to the man who is attached to none of the objects which are inferior to him? And this is the custom of the Levites; for the name of Levi, being interpreted, means, "He is to me," because different things are honoured by different people, but by him only that which is highest and most excellent, the Cause of all things.
XVI. (65) They tell an old story, that some man in ancient times, who had fallen madly in love with the beauty of wisdom, as if it had been the beauty of a most lovely woman, once, when he saw a most sumptuous preparation of unbounded and costly magnificence, looked towards some of his friends, and said, "Behold, O companions, how many things there are of which I have no need!" And yet he had nothing whatever of even necessary things beyond his mere clothes, so that he was not puffed up with the magnitude of his riches, which has been the case with numbers of people; so that, on this account, he spoke arrogantly against pomp and show. (66) The lawgiver teaches us that we should account those people wise who are not eager to be rich in created things, but who despise all created things in comparison of the friendship of the uncreated God, whom they look upon as the only true wealth, and the boundary of most perfect happiness. (67) Never, then, let those men boast, who have acquired power and sovereignty, as some do, because they have subdued one city, or country, or nation; and others, because they have acquired the dominion over all the countries of the earth, to its furthest borders, and over all Grecian and barbarous nations, and over all the rivers and seas, infinite both in number and magnitude. (68) For if, besides these things, they had made themselves masters (which it is impious even to mention) of that sublime nature which was the only thing that the Creator made free from the bond of slavery and servitude, they would still be looked upon but as private individuals in comparison with the great kings who have received God for their inheritance; for in proportion as that nature which has acquired a possession is better than the possession itself, and the Creator than the thing created, by so much also are they more royal.
XVII. (69) Therefore, some people considered, that they who said that everything was the property of the one good Being, were speaking in an unreasonable manner, looking at the deficiencies and abundance which existed externally, and thinking no one rich who was in want of either money or possessions. But Moses thinks wisdom a thing of such pre-eminent value, and deserving to be so eagerly sought after, that not only the whole world deserves to be his inheritance, but that he even looks upon the Governor of the universe in that light; (70) and these are the doctrines, not of men who are halting between two opinions, but of those who are occupied in a firm and sure faith; since, even now, there are some persons among those who make a show and pretence of piety, who calumniate the literal meaning of this saying, saying that it is neither pious nor safe to speak of God as the inheritance of a man. (71) You say this I should say to them because ye have come not from genuine passion, but from a supposititious and illegitimate one, to the investigation of things. For you thought it a matter of equal consequence for God to be called the inheritance of possessions, of vineyards, and oliveyards, and such matters, and of wise men; and ye did not perceive that paintings are said to be the inheritance of painters, and, in short, that any art is said to be the inheritance of the artist, not looked at as an earthly possession, but as a heavenly prize; for none of such things are the property of any master, (72) but still they are an advantage to those who possess them: so that you, O sycophants, hear of the living God as an inheritance, not in the sense of being a possession, like those which I have enumerated, but as being the most beneficial and greatest of goods to those who think fit to worship the Cause of all good.
XVIII. (73) Having, therefore, now said what is proper concerning the original planter and the original plant, let us next proceed, in due order, to the consideration of matters of instruction and imitation. In the first place, then, the wise Abraham is said "to have planted a field at the well of the oath, and to have called upon the name of the everlasting Lord God." (17) [Gen 21:33] And here there is no peculiar property of the plants mentioned, but only the magnitude of the place. (74) And they who are in the habit of investigating these matters say, that everything which belongs to God has been very carefully and accurately described, both tree and place, and the fruit of the tree. Accordingly, they say that the tree was the field itself, not like those trees which sprung up out of the ground, but rather to those which grow according to the firmly-rooted mind of the man who loves God: and the place, they say, is the well of the oath, and the fruit, the change of the name of the Lord into that of "The Eternal God." (75) And it is necessary further to give the probable explanation of each point of the things here mentioned. The field, then, being in length a hundred cubits, and as many in breadth, multiplied together according to the nature and character of a square, is composed of ten thousand superficial cubits; (76) and this is the greatest limit of those numbers which increase from the unit, and also the most perfect: so that the limit is the beginning of numbers, and the end, in those calculations, according to the first combination, is the number ten thousand; in reference to which fact, some persons have not erred greatly, who have compared the limit to the starting-place, and the number ten thousand to the goal, and all the numbers between these two to those who contend in a race; for they, beginning to start from the unit, as from the starting place, come to the number ten thousand as to the goal. (77) Therefore, some persons, departing from these numbers, as from signals, have said that God is the beginning and end of everything, which is a doctrine admirably calculated to engender piety. This doctrine, being implanted in the soul, produces a most beautiful and nutritious fruit, holiness; and the place most suitable for this fruit, (78) is the well which is called the oath, in which there is a report that no water could be found. For, says Moses, "the children of Israel, coming thither, reported to him concerning the well which they had digged: and they said, We found no water; and he called that place, æThe Oath.’ " (18) [Gen 26:32] Let us now consider what is the meaning of this statement.
XIX. (79) Those who investigate the nature of things as they actually exist, and who conduct their examinations of each individual matter in no negligent manner, behave very like those men who dig wells; for they also are seeking springs in an obscure place. And all men have one common desire, to find something to drink. But some men’s nature is to be nourished by the food of the soul, and that of others by the food of the body. (80) As, therefore, some of those who have dug wells have often done so without finding water; so likewise those who advance far in knowledge, and who have made great progress in it, are still often unable to attain to the end which they desire. At all events, they say that men of extensive learning often find fault with their terrible ignorance, for they only just know how far they are removed from the truth. And there is a story that some man of old time, when he was admired for his wisdom, said, that it was a fine thing that he should be admired, who only just knew that he knows nothing. (81) And choose, if you like, any art you please, whether trifling or important, and the man, too, who is most excellent, and most highly thought of in regard of his skill in it, and then consider if the professions held out by the art are equal to the performances of the artist; for if you duly examine the matter, you will find that the performance falls short of the profession, not by a small, but by a vast distance, it being almost impossible for a man to be perfect in any art whatever, which is in continual motion like a fountain, and is constantly pouring forth various species of all kinds of speculations. (82) On this account, it is most appropriately denominated an oath, being the most certain sign of faith, comprehending also the testimony of God: for as he who swears, calls God to be a witness to a matter concerning which a question is raised, so it is not possible to swear so truly about any matter, as to the fact that the perfection of no art whatever can be found in the artist who professes it. (83) And the same assertion holds good also with respect to all the other powers which exist in us, or very nearly so; for, as they say, that no water was found in the well which had been mentioned, so also neither was there the faculty of seeing in the eyes, or that of hearing in the ears, or that of smelling in the nostrils, or, in short, any one of the senses in its corresponding organ; and similarly in the mind, there was not the faculty of comprehension. (84) For how could it have happened that any one should have made a mistake in what he saw, or in what he heard, or in what he understood, if the comprehensions of each of these faculties had been well established, and if they had had a trustworthy nature of themselves without God implanting accuracy in them?
XX. (85) Having now, therefore, discussed the place sufficiently in which the tree flourishes, let us now, in conclusion, examine also the subject of the fruit:--Now, what the fruit is, Moses will tell us himself: "For the Lord God everlasting," says he, "called it by its Name." (19) [Gen 21:33] (86) Therefore the appellations already mentioned reveal the powers existing in the living God; for one title is that of Lord, according to which he governs; and the other is God, according to which he is beneficent. For which reason also, in the account of the creation of the world, according to the most holy Moses, the name of God is always assumed by him: for it was fitting that the power according to which the Creator, when he was bringing his creatures into the world, arranged and adorned them, should be invoked also by that creation. (87) Inasmuch, therefore, as he is a ruler, he has both powers, that, namely, of doing good, and that of doing harm; regulating his conduct on the principle of requiting him who has done anything. But inasmuch as he is a benefactor, he is inclined only to one of these two courses, namely, to do good. (88) And it would be the greatest possible advantage to the soul no longer to feel any doubt about the power of the King for both purposes, but steadily to emancipate itself from the fear, which is suspended over it, on account of the vastness of his authority, and to kindle and keep alive a most firm hope of the acquisition and enjoyment of blessings arising from his being beneficent by deliberate intention. (89) Now the expression, "everlasting God," is equivalent to, God who bestows gifts, not sometimes giving and sometimes not, but always and incessantly; it is equivalent to, God who does good uninterruptedly; to God who, without intermission, is connecting a flow of benefits, coming one after the other; God, who pours forth blessings upon blessings, who is made up of mercies connected and united; God, who never omits any single opportunity of doing good; God, who is also the Lord, so that he is able to injure.
XXI. (90) This also Jacob, the practiser of virtue, asked at the end of his most holy prayers. For he said, "And the Lord shall be to me as God." Which is equivalent to: He will no longer display towards me the despotic power of his absolute authority, but rather the beneficent influence of his universally propitious and saving power, utterly removing the fear with which he is regarded as a master, and filling the soul with affection and benevolence as felt towards a benefactor. (91) What soul could ever conceive thus that the master and ruler of the universe, without changing anything of his own nature, but remaining in the condition in which he always was, is continually kind and uninterruptedly bounteous? (92) owing to which he is, to those who are happy, the most perfect cause of unlimited and overflowing blessings. And to trust in a king who is not by reason of the magnitude of his authority elated so as to do injury to his subjects, but who, through his love to mankind, prefers that every one should enjoy happiness without fear, is the greatest possible bulwark of prosperity and security.
XXII. (93) What, therefore, we originally undertook we have now nearly fulfilled, namely, to demonstrate that the fact spoken of must be taken to mean the principle which declares God to be the most glorious of all things. The portion of the subject which follows next, is the demonstration that perfection is found in no created thing, but that it does appear in them at times owing to the grace of the great Cause of all things. And the fruit of the tree is, that the graces of God endure for ever and ever, and that they are shed incessantly upon mankind, and never cease. (94) Thus, in truth, the wise man, following the practice of the first and greatest planter, displays his knowledge of husbandry; and the sacred scripture wishes the labours of husbandry to be performed, even by those of us who are not yet perfect, but who are still reckoned among the middle numbers of those things which are accounted duties; for it says, (95) "When you go forth into the land which the Lord your God giveth to you, and when you plant every tree which is good for food, you shall completely purify its uncleanness. For three years it shall be unclean as to its fruit, it shall not be eaten; but in the fourth year, all its fruit shall be holy, being praised by the Lord. And in the fifth year you shall eat the fruit thereof; and everything that it bears shall be useful to you: I am the Lord your God." (20) [Lev 19:23] Therefore it was impossible for the children of Israel, to plant those trees which are eatable, before they arrived in the country which had been given them by God; for he says, "When you go forth into the land, ... and when you plant every tree which is good for food." (96) So that while we are outside of the promised land, we should not be able to cultivate such trees; and this is very natural; (97) for as long as the mind has not entered upon the path of wisdom, but turns aside and wanders out of the road, it cares only for the trees which do not admit of being cultivated or used for food of men--trees which are barren and useless, and which, though they bear, bear no fruit which is eatable. (98) But when the mind, having entered upon the path of wisdom, marches along with its doctrines, and begins to keep pace with them all, it then cultivates the useful trees, which are capable of bearing eatable fruit, instead of caring for those useless kinds; it cultivates a mastery over, instead of the indulgence of the passions, and knowledge instead of ignorance, and good instead of evil. (99) Since therefore he who is led into the path of virtue is still at a long distance from the end, it is very naturally laid as an injunction upon the man who plants, to remove the uncleanness of that which is planted. And what this is, we will now consider.
XXIII. (100) These duties which are as it were in the middle, appear to me to be properly looked upon in the same light as those trees, which admit of being cultivated and used for food; for each of them bears most useful fruits, the one for the body, and the other for the soul. But in the middle there must necessarily be many injurious plants springing up with and growing along-side of them, which must be removed in order that the better sorts may not be injured. (101) May I not call the restoration of a deposit a useful plant of the soul? But still this plant requires purification and exceeding attention. What then is the purification? This. Having taken a deposit from a man while he is sober, you must not restore it to him while he is drunk, or intemperate, or mad; for in such a case though he may have received the advantage of having his own back again, he will have no opportunity of being benefited by it. Again. You must not restore a deposit to debtors or to slaves while their creditors or their masters are present; for that is betraying, and not a restoration of a deposit. Nor must you keep faith in small things in the hope merely of gaining confidence, so as to have greater things entrusted to you. (102) For those who fish, and who let down small baits into the sea, with the view of catching larger fish, are not very much to be blamed, as they say that they are providing for the good supply of the market, and in order that they may supply men with unlimited food for every day. (103) But no one should use as a bait, the restoration of a deposit of small value by way of obtaining a larger one, holding forth in his hands, and displaying the deposit of one individual, and that a trifling one, and in his intention appropriating the deposits of every body, and those too of unspeakable value. If, therefore, you remove the uncleanness of your deposit, as of these trees, namely, the inquiries threatened by plotters, the evils arising from want of opportunity and treachery, and all things of similar kinds; you will bring into a state of cultivation and usefulness, that which was on the point of becoming wild.
XXIV. (104) And in the case of the tree of friendship, it is necessary to cut down and eradicate these things which shoot up by the side of it for the sake of preserving the more valuable plant. And the evil plants which spring up alongside are these: the tricky blandishments of courtesans towards their lovers, and the deceitfulness of parasites to those whom they flatter. (105) For one may see those who make a traffic of their personal beauty, clinging to their lovers as if they were excessively fond of them; but they love not them but themselves, and they are eager only for their daily gains. And as for flatterers, sometimes they conceal unspeakable hatred towards those whom they flatter; but still, being slaves to gluttony and intemperance, they are on that account induced to pay court to those who can supply their immoderate appetites. (106) But the tree of science and unadulterated friendship having rejected and discarded these things, will bear fruit of the greatest possible service to those who use it, namely, incorruptible good faith. For good-will is a desire that one’s neighbour should enjoy good things for his own sake. But courtesans and flatterers are anxious solely for their own advantage, which is the only motive why they should confer pleasure, the first on their lovers, and the latter on the objects of their flatteries. We must therefore cut down all trickeries and flatteries as evil plants growing up near the tree of friendship.
XXV. (107) The due attention to sacred rites, and good faith in the matter of sacrifices, are the most excellent of trees; but along-side of them an evil grows up, namely, superstition, which it is desirable to eradicate before it has time to blossom. For some persons have fancied the sacrificing of oxen to be piety, and they assign a portion of all that they steal or obtain by denials, or by cheating their creditors, or by plundering, to the altars. Impious wretches that they are, thinking that thus they are paying a price to buy themselves off from suffering punishment for their offences. (108) But to such persons I would say, O ye men, the tribunal of God is not to be corrupted by bribes; so that those who have guilty minds will be rejected, even if they sacrifice a hundred oxen every day; and those who are innocent will be received, even if they never sacrifice at all. For God delights in altars on which no fire is burned, but which are frequented by virtues, and which do not blaze with great flame, such as those sacrifices do kindle which are offered by impious men, and which are no sacrifices at all, and which serve to remind one of the ignorances and wickedness of each of the sacrificers; for Moses has somewhere spoken of a sacrifice "reminding one of Sin." (21) [Num 5:15] (109) All such things therefore, being the causes of great injury, it is necessary to cut off and eradicate, in obedience to the oracle in which it is enjoined "to remove the uncleanness of the tree which has been planted, bearing eatable Fruit." (22) [Lev 19:23]
XXVI. (110) But we, even after we have been instructed, make no progress in learning; but some persons, having a self-taught natural instinct, purify what is good from the evils which surround it, as Jacob did, he who was surnamed the practicer of virtue; for he "peeled the rods, leaving on the white bark, having stripped off all the Green;" (23) [Gen 30:37] in order that the dark and dusky vanity in the middle being taken away in every case, a white appearance might be displayed, which should be produced so as to be akin to it, not by diversified art but by nature; (111) in reference to which it is also commanded in the law which was established in cases of leprosy, that "the man who was not infected with any variation of colour, but who was white all over from the head to the extremity of his feet, should be Pure." (24) [Lev 13:12] In order that, according to the similitude of the body, those who have discarded the crafty, and unscrupulous, and ambiguous, and uncertain disposition of mind, may embrace the simple, uncoloured, unambiguous, plain complexion of truth; (112) therefore, to say that the tree is purified, contains a principle, the assertion of which is founded surely in truth, but to make the same statement with respect to the fruit is saying what is not equally clear or credible; for no cultivator of figs or grapes, or, in sort, of any fruit whatever, purifies them.
XXVII. (113) And again Moses says, "Its fruit shall be impure for three days, it shall not be Eaten;" (25) [Lev 19:23] as if in fact it were customary for it to be purified for ever. We must, therefore, say that this is one of those expressions which have a concealed meaning, since the words themselves are not quite consistent with it; for the expression is an ambiguous one; for it bears one sense of this kind, the fruit shall remain for three years; and then there is a distinct injunction, "it shall not be eaten before it is purified." But there is also another meaning, "the fruit of the tree shall for three years be unpurified, and while in that state it shall not be eaten." (114) According, then, to the former statement one may understand it in this manner: the three years being taken from time which is divided into three portions; for it is the nature of time to be divided into the past, the present, and the future; therefore the fruit of education will exist, and will endure, and will last unimpaired through all the divisions of time, a statement equivalent to it will never receive any corruption, for the nature of good is imperishable. But the fruit which is not purified shall not be eaten; inasmuch as virtuous reasons, duly purified and rendered sound, nourish the soul, and give vigour to the mind; but the opposite kinds are not nutritious, but bring disease and destruction on the soul. (115) According to the other meaning, as in the disputes of dialecticians, the word "undemonstrated" is used in a double sense, either of a proposition which it is hard to demonstrate by reason of its difficulty, or of one which is intrinsically so plain as to require no demonstration, and the truth of which is established not by the testimony of any one else, but by its own internal evidence. So also fruit may be understood as not being purified, either when it is so impure as to be difficulty to purify, or when it requires no purification, but is bright, and clear, and pure of itself. (116) Such now is the fruit of education; being for three years, that is to say for all time, divided as it is into three portions, most completely pure and brilliant, being overshadowed by no injurious thing, and having no need whatever of any washings or purifications, or any thing else whatever which tends to cleansing.
XXVIII. (117) "But in the fourth year," says the scripture, "all the fruit of the tree shall be sacred, being praised by the Lord." (26) [Lev 19:25] The prophetic books appear often to dignify the number four in many places of the exposition of the law, and most especially in the account of the creation of the universe; (118) for the light which is perceptible by the outward senses, and held in honour, being that which throws the most brilliant light both upon itself and upon other things, and upon its own parents the sun and the moon, and upon the most sacred company of the stars, which by their rising and setting fix the boundaries of night and day, and moreover, of months and years, and which have shown the nature of number, to which, also, the greatest good of the soul is attributed, Moses says was created on the fourth day. (119) And now he honours this day in a remarkable degree, assigning the fruit of the trees to God, in accordance with no other time than with the fourth year after they are planted; (120) for this has a principle in it very consistent with nature and with good morals. At all events it so happens that the roots of the universe, the elements of which the world is composed, are four earth, water, air, and fire. Also, that the seasons of the year are equal in number, namely, winter and summer, and those others which are between these two, spring and autumn. (121) And as this is the most ancient of all square numbers, it is found to exist in right angles, as the figure of a square in geometry shows. And right angles are manifest examples of correctness of reason. And right reason is an everlasting fountain of virtues. (122) It follows, therefore, of necessity that the sides of a square must be all equal to one another. And equality is the parent of justice, which is the mistress and ruler of all the virtues, so that it is not proved that this number four is the symbol of equality, and justice, and of all virtue, beyond any other number. (123) And the number four is likewise called "all," because it comprehends in its power the numbers up to ten, and the number ten itself.