De Ebrietate

And she is said not to have had a mother, having received the inheritance of relationship from her father only, and not from her mother, having no share in the female race; for some one has said somewhere, "And yet, in truth, she is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother." [*](Genesis xx. 12. ) For she is not formed of the material perceptible by the outward senses, which is always in a state of formation or of dissolution, which is called the mother, and nurse and bringer up of created things; among which, first of all, the tree of wisdom sprang up, but rather of the cause and father of all.

She, therefore, having emerged out of the whole corporeal world, and exulting from the joy which is in God, laughs at the pursuits of men, which are conversant about either war or peace.

We, then, being overcome by the unmanly and woman-like association with the outward senses, and the passions, and the objects of the outward senses, are not able to stand up in opposition to anything that is apparent. But [*](Genesis xviii. 11. ) [*](Genesis xx. 12. )

and if our army, not being able to execute the commands of the father, were to yield, it would nevertheless have for an ally its mother, moderate learning, which enacts in different cities such laws as are in common use, and appear to be just, and establishes different institutions in different countries.