De Ebrietate

therefore, the contributions for the most excellent object are the desire of virtue, the imitation of good men, continued care, laborious practise, incessant and unwearied labours; the contributions for the opposite object are relaxation, indifference, luxury, effeminacy, and a complete desertion of what is right.

And we may see those who every day descend into the arena to contend in drinking much wine, and practising this quality every day, and striving to gain the victory in greediness and voracity, bringing their contributions as though they had some desirable object in view, and injuring themselves in every thing, in their property, and their bodies, and their souls; for by contributing their property they diminish their substance; and they break down and enervate the powers of their bodies by their luxurious way of life, and as for their souls, inundating them with immoderate food like a swollen torrent, they compel that to sink down to the lowest depth.

For the same manner all those, who bring contributions for the destruction of learning, injure the most important thing in them, namely, their mind, cutting off every thing that might save it—prudence, and temperance, and courage, and justice; on which account he seems to me himself to use a compound word, συμβολοϰοπω̃ν, for the more manifest manifestation of his meaning, because they who bring forward attempts at virtue as their offering and contribution, wound and lacerate, and cut to pieces, obedient and learning-loving souls to the extent of their utter destruction.

Therefore the wise Abraham is said to have returned again from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings who were with him. [*](Genesis xiv. 17. ) And on the other hand, Amalek is said to have cut to pieces the rear of the company of the meditator of virtue, [*](Deuteronomy xxv. 18. ) in strict accordance with the truth of nature; for what is contrary to one is also hostile to the other, [*](Genesis xiv. 17. ) [*](Deuteronomy xxv. 18. )

But one may especially blame a man who contributes offerings on this account, because such an one has not only determined to do wrong, but also to co-operate with others in doing wrong, thinking fit in some things to be the leader himself, and in others to follow the leadership of others; so that, erring both by nature and through what he has learnt, he leaves himself no good hope of safety, and this, too, though the law has expressly said that one must "not follow a multitude to do evil;" [*](Exodus xxiii. 2. )

for, in truth, evil is a very manifold and very fertile thing in the souls of men, but good is but a contracted and rare thing. Again it is a most useful recommendation, not to join with many persons to do evil, but to unite with a few whose chief practise is to do justly.

The fourth and greatest of the accusations, is that of drunkenness, not slight but excessive drunkenness. For devotion to crime is equivalent to devotion to swelling up, and kindling, and inflaming the poison which is the great cause of folly, namely ignorance, a thing which can never be extinguished, but which is at all times and in every case raising a conflagration and fury in the soul.

Very naturally, therefore, justice will follow which purifies every evil disposition of the mind, for it is said, "Thou shalt utterly get rid of the wicked man," not out of the city, or out of the country, or out of the nation, but "out of yourselves." [*](Deuteronomy xxi. 21. ) For there are many faulty and blameable thoughts lurking in us, and taking up their abode in the recesses of our hearts, which, since they are incurable, it is necessary to eradicate and destroy.

Therefore it is just that this disobedient and contentious man, who is always advancing plausible reasons as a sort of offering and contribution on his part towards the destruction of what is good, and who is inflamed with strong wine, and raging in a drunken manner against virtue, and being absurdly excited to his own injury by wine, should have his allies for his accusers, his own father and mother, since he ought to receive every possible reproof and chastisement from those who can be saved;

but of the father and mother the appellations are common, but their powers are different. [*](Exodus xxiii. 2. ) [*](Deuteronomy xxi. 21. )

Accordingly wisdom is represented by some one of the beings of the divine company as speaking of herself in this manner: "God created me as the first of his works, and before the beginning of time did he establish me." For it was necessary that all the things which came under the head of the creation must be younger than the mother and nurse of the whole universe.

Who then is able to encounter the accusation of these parents? No one can withstand even their moderate threats, or their very slightest reproach; for neither is any one able to contain the immeasurable multitude of their gifts, perhaps even the whole world is not; but like a shallow channel, when the great fountain of the bounties of God flows into it, it will be very speedily filled so as to overtop its bounds and overflow; but if we are unable to receive his benefits, how shall we endure his chastising powers when they come upon us?

But these parents of the universe must be taken out of the present discussion; and for the present let us consider their pupils and acquaintances who have had assigned to them the care and superintendence of such souls as are not unwilling to learn and illiterate. Therefore we say that the father is masculine and perfect right reason, and that the mother is that middle and encyclical course of study, and instruction, and learning, which it is honourable and advantageous to obey as a child obeys his parents.

The recommendation then of the father, that is of right reason, is to follow and obey reason, pursuing naked and undisguised truth; and the injunction of learning, the mother that is, is to obey the just customs, which ancient men who embraced opinion, as if it were truth, have established in cities, and nations, and countries.

Now these parents have four classes of children. First of all comes that class which is obedient to them both, the

Now of the soul attached to its mother, yielding to the opinions of the many and constantly changing its appearance in accordance with the various forms arising from the manifold and different ways of life, after the manner of the Egyptian Proteus, who was able to assume the likeness of anything in the whole world, and to conceal his real form so as to render it entirely invisible, the most visible image is Jothor, a compound of pride, who evidently represents a city and constitution of men from all quarters, and of all nations, carried away by vain opinions.

For after the wise Moses had invited the whole people of the soul to observe piety and to pay the honour due to God, and had taught them the commandments and the most sacred laws, (for he says, "When there is a controversy among them and they come to me, I will decide between them all, and I will bring together to them the commandments of God and his law.") [*](Exodus xviii. 16. ) then Jothor, wise in his own conceit, uninitiated in the divine blessings, but having principally lived among human and corruptible things, harangues the people, and proposes laws contrary to those of nature, having regard only to opinion, while those other laws are all referrible to the standard of reality and truth.

And indeed the prophet, pitying this man and commiserating his exceeding error, thinks it fitting to endeavour to teach him better things, and to persuade him to change his ways, and to forsake vain opinions and steadily to follow the truth.

For says he, "We after having cut up and [*](Exodus xviii. 16. )

But he, being as it were subdued by enchantment in this way, will neglect what is said, and will by no means follow any kind of knowledge whatever, but will retire and will run off to his own individual and empty pride. For it is said in the scripture that he replied to him, "I will not go, except to my own country and to my own race;" that is to say, to his kindred infidelity imbued with false opinions, since he had not learnt that true faith which is dear to men.