De Migratione Abrahami

But there are some persons who have made a treaty with the body to last till the day of their death, and who have buried themselves in it as in a chest or coffin or whatever else you like to call it, of whom all the parts which are devoted to the slavery of the body and of the passions are consigned to oblivion and buried. But if anything well affected towards virtue has shot up by the side of it, that is preserved in the recollection, by means of which good things are naturally destined to be kept alive.

Accordingly, the sacred scriptures command the bones of Joseph—I mean by this the only parts of such a soul as were left behind, being species which know no corruption and which deserve to have mention made of them—to be preserved, thinking it preposterous for pure things not to be united to pure things.

And what is especially worthy of being mentioned is this, that he believed that God would visit the race which was capable of seeing," [*](Genesis 1. 24. ) and would not give it up for ever and ever to ignorance, that blind mistress, but would distinguish between the immortal and the mortal parts of the soul, and leave in Egypt those parts which were conversant about the pleasures of the body and the other immoderate indulgences of the passions; but with respect to those parts which [*](Exodus ii. 23. ) [*](Genesis 1. 24. )

What then are the parts which are imperishable? In the first place, a perfect alienation from pleasure which says, "Let us lie down together," [*](Genesis xxxix. 7. ) and let us enjoy human enjoyments; secondly, presence of mind combined with fortitude, by means of which the soul separates and distinguishes from one another those things which by vain opinions are accounted good things, as so many dreams, confessing that "the only true and accurate explanations of things are to be found with God;" [*](Genesis xl. 8. ) and that all those imaginings, which exist in the unsteady, puffed up, and arrogant life of those men who are not yet purified, but who delight in those pleasures which proceed from bakers, and cooks, and wine-bearers, are uncertain and indistinct;

so that such a man is not a subject but a ruler of Egypt, that is to say of the whole region of the body; so that "he boasted of being of the race of the Hebrews," [*](Genesis xl. 15. ) who were accustomed to rise up and leave the objects of the outward senses, and to go over to those of the intellect; for the name Hebrew, being interpreted, means "one who passes over," because he boasted that "here he had done nothing." [*](Genesis xl. 17. ) For to do nothing of those things which are thought much of among the wicked, but to hate them all and reject them, is praiseworthy in no slight degree;