Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiari Soleat

Philo Judaeus

The works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus, volume 1. Yonge, C. D., translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.

And a very great proof of this is the conduct of the practiser of knowledge, Jacob, when warring against the opposite disposition, ignorance; when it is beheld in the field how he regulates the irrational faculties in the soul after a fashion, reproving and correcting them. "For Jacob having sent, called Leah and Rachel into the plain where the flocks were;" [*](Genesis xxxi. 4. )

showing here clearly, that the plain is the symbol of revolt and contention. And he calls them and says, "I see [*](Genesis iv. 8. ) [*](Genesis xxxi. 4. )

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the face of your father, that it is not to me as it was yesterday and the day before yesterday, [*]( Genesis xxxi. 5. ) but the God of my father was with me." And on this account I should be inclined to say, Laban is not favourable to you because God is on your side; for in the soul, by which the external object of the outward senses is honoured as the greatest good, perfect reason is not found to exist; but in the soul, in which God walks, the external object of the outward senses is not looked upon as the greatest good, according to which object the name of Laban is given and understood.