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.

But there are some persons who, neglecting the precepts of their mothers, adhere with all their might to the injunctions of their fathers, whom right reason has thought worthy of the greatest honour, namely, of the priesthood; and if we go through their actions, by which they have obtained this honour, we shall perhaps incur the ridicule of many, who are deceived by the first appearances which present themselves to them, and who do not perceive those powers which are invisible and kept in the shade.

For those who have applied themselves to prayers and sacrifices, and the whole body of ceremonies connected with the temple, are, what seems a most paradoxical thing, homicides, fratricides, murderers of those persons who are nearest and dearest to them, though they ought to be pure, and sprung from the pure, having no connection with any pollution, intentionally incurred, nay, not even unintentionally.

For it is said, "Each of you slay his brother, and each of you slay his neighbour, and each of you slay his nearest relations. And the sons of Levi did as Moses had spoken; and there fell of the people in that day about three thousand men." [*](Exodus xxxii. 27. ) And those who had slain such a vast multitude he praises, saying, "Ye have this day, each of you, filled your hands to the Lord in your son, or your brother, so that blessing shall be given to you."

What, then, are we to say, but that such men are caught by the common customs of men, having, as their accuser, their mother, who lives according to the laws of the state, and acts like a demagogue, namely, custom: but that the others preserve the laws of nature, having, for their ally, their father, namely, right reason;

for it is not the case, as some persons think, that the priests slay men, rational animals, compounded of soul and body, but they only eradicate from their minds all those things which are akin to and dear to the flesh, thinking it seemly for those who have become [*](Exodus xxxii. 27. )

On this account it is, that we shall slay a brother, not a man, but the body, which is brother to the soul; that is to say, we shall separate that which is devoted to the passions and mortal, from that which is devoted to virtue and divine. And, again, we shall slay a neighbour, not a man, but a company and a band; for such a company is, at the same time, akin to, and hostile to, the soul, laying baits and spreading snares for it, in order that being inundated by the objects of the outward senses, which overflow it, it may never emerge and look up to heaven, so as to embrace the beautiful and God-like natures. And we shall also slay those nearest to us: but that which is nearest to the mind is uttered speech, inserting false opinions among reasonable and natural plausibilities and probabilities, to the destruction of that best of all possessions, truth.

Why, then, are we not also to repel this being, too, who is a sophist and a polluted person, condemning him to the death which is suited to him, namely, silence (for silence is the death of speech), in order that the mind may be no longer led away by its sophisms, but being completely emancipated from all the pleasures which are according to the body, "the brother," and being alienated from, and having shaken off the yoke of, all the trickeries according to "the neighbour," and the neighbouring outward senses, and from the sophistries in accordance with the "nearest" nearest " speech, may be able, in all purity, to apply itself to all the proper objects of the intellect.

This is he "who says to his father and to his mother," his mortal parents, "I have not seen you," ever since I have beheld the things of God, who "does not recognize his sons," ever since he has become an acquaintance of wisdom, who "disowns his brethren," [*](Deuteronomy xxxiii. 9. ) ever since he has ceased to be disowned by God, and has been thought worthy of perfect salvation.

This is he who "took as coadjutor," that is to say, who searched for and sought out the things of corruptible creation, of which the chief happiness is laid up in eating and drinking, and who went, Moses says, "to the chimney," [*](Deuteronomy xxxiii. 9. )

Will not this person be justly looked upon as a murderer, by many who are influenced by the customs which have so much weight among women? But with God, the ruler and father of the universe, he will be thought worthy of infinite praises and panegyrics, and of rewards which can never be taken away; and the rewards are great, and akin to one another, being peace and the priesthood:

for it was an illustrious achievement, after having put to flight the almost invincible troops of men who live according to the common fashion, and having put down the civil war of the appetites in the soul, to establish a peace firmly; and for this great exploit to receive nothing else, not riches, not glory, not honour, not authority, not beauty, not strength, not any of the advantages of the body, nor, on the other hand, earth or heaven, or all the world, but that most important and valuable of all things, the rank of the priesthood, the office of serving and paying honour to Him who is in truth the only being worthy of honour and service; this is an admirable thing, an object worthy of contention.

And I was not wrong when I called those rewards, brothers to one another, but I said so, knowing that he cannot be made a true priest who is still serving in human and mortal warfare, in which vain opinions are the officers of the companies; and that he cannot be a peaceful man, who does not in sincerity cultivate and serve, with all simplicity, the only Being who has no share in warfare, and everlasting peace.

Such are the persons who honour their father, and the things belonging to their father, but who pay but little regard to their mother and to things that belong to her. But Moses represents the man who is at variance with both his father and his mother, and brings them forward as saying, "I know not the Lord; and I will not let Israel go." [*]( Exodus v. 2. ) For [*](Numbers xxv. 8. ) [*]( Exodus v. 2. )

And there are even now—for the human race has not as yet entirely purified itself from unmixed wickedness—there are still persons who have absolutely determined to do nothing which has any bearing on piety or on human society, but who, on the contrary, are the companions of impiety and atheism, and treacherous towards their equals.

And these men go about, being the greatest imaginable pests of their cities, out of curiosity and a love of interfering, mixing themselves up with, or rather, if one must tell the truth, throwing into confusion all kinds of affairs, both public and private, men who ought to have put up prayers and offered sacrifices to avert (as if it had been a great disease) famine, or pestilence, or any other evil inflicted by God; for these calamities are great evils to those on whom they fall; in reference to which Moses sings their destruction, when they have been destroyed by their own allies, and swallowed up by their own opinions, as if by the waves of a stormy sea.

Let us now, therefore, proceeding in regular order, speak of the enemies of these persons, men who honour instruction and right reason, among whom are those who are attached to the virtue of one of their parents, being half-perfect companions; these men are the most excellent guardians of the laws which the father, that is to say, right reason, established, and faithful stewards of the customs which education, their mother, instituted;