Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit

For as the meaning "to stoop" (κύπτειν) is not contained in (ἀνακύπτειν) "to lift up the head," nor "to drink" (πίνω) in, "to absorb" (καταπίνω), nor "a horse" (ἵππος) in the word (μάρσιππος) "a bag," so also "to love" (φιλεῖν) is not necessarily contained in "to kiss" (κατα­φιλεῖν); since men yielding to the bitter necessities of life [*](Genesis xxxiii. 5. )

But what that salutation is which consists of a kiss, but not of sincere friendship for us, I will explain without any reservation or concealment. It is, forsooth, that life which exists in union with the external senses, which is called Meshech, being completely secured and defended, which there is no one who does not love, which men in general look upon as their mistress, but which virtuous men consider their handmaid, not a foreign slave or one bought with a price, but born in the house, and in some sense, a fellow citizen with themselves. Well, one class of these men have learnt to kiss this, not to love it; but the other class have learnt to love it to excess, and to think it an object of desire above all things.

But Laban, the hater of virtue, will neither be able to kiss the virtues which are assigned to the man who is inclined to the practise of virtue, but, making his own life to depend on hypocrisy and false pretenses, he, as if indignant, for he is not in reality affected, says, "I was not accounted worthy to kiss my children and my daughters;" [*](Genesis xxxi. 28. ) speaking very naturally and decorously, for we have all been taught to hate irony irreconcileably.

Do thou, therefore, love the virtues, and embrace them with thy soul, and then you will be not at all desirous to kiss, which is but the false money of friendship; — "For have they not yet any part or inheritance in thy house? • have they not been reckoned as aliens before thee? and has not thou sold them and devoured the money?" [*](Genesis xxxi. 14. )so that you could neither at any subsequent time recover it, after having devoured the price of their safety and their ransom. Do you pretend, therefore, to wish to kiss, or else to wage endless war against all the judges? But Aaron will not kiss Moses, though he will love him with the genuine affection of his heart. "For," says the scripture, "he loved him, and they embraced one another." [*](Exodus xviii. 7. )

But there are three kinds of life. The first life, to God; the second, with respect to the creature; the third, is on the borders of both, being compounded of the two others. Now, the life to God has not descended to us, and has not come to the necessities of the body. Again, life with respect to the creature has not wholly ascended up to heaven, nor has it sought to ascend, but it lurks in unapproachable recesses, and [*](Genesis xxxi. 28. ) [*](Genesis xxxi. 14. ) [*](Exodus xviii. 7. )

And the mingled kind is that one which often ascends upwards, being conducted upwards by the better part, and it gazes on divine things, and contemplates them; but still it often turns back, being dragged in the contrary direction by the worse part: and when the portion of the better life, as if placed in the balance of a scale, outweighs the whole, then the weight of the opposite kinds of life is dragged in the contrary direction, so that the lightest weight appears to be in the opposite scale.

But Moses having, without any contest or doubt, given the crown of victory to that kind of life which is life to God, brings that forward as the best, likening the other two kinds to two women, one of whom he calls beloved, and the other hated, giving them both most appropriate names.

For who is there who is not at times influenced by the pleasures and delights which he receives by means of his eyes, or by those which reach him through the medium of his ears, or of his sense of taste, or of his sense of smell and touch? And who is there who does not hate the contrary things, want and self-denial, and a life of austerity, and seeking after knowledge, which has never any share in amusement or laughter, but is full of gravity, and cares and labours, loving contemplation, an enemy to ignorance, superior to money, and glory, and pleasure, but under the dominion of temperance and true glory, and of that wealth which sees and is not blind? These, then, are at all times the eldest offspring of wisdom.

But Moses thinks those things which, though younger in point of time are nevertheless honourable by nature, worthy of the first honours of the birth-right, giving them a double share, and taking from the others half of their share; for, says he, "If a man have two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and if they both bear children, then when he is about to distribute his property, he shall not be able to give the portion belonging to the first-born to the son of her who is beloved," [*](Deuteronomy xxi. 15. ) namely, to the son of pleasure; for he is but young, even though in point of time he may be old; but he looks upon the son of her who is hated, namely, of wisdom, as the elder, ever since he was a child; and, accordingly, to him he has assigned a double share.

But because we have, on a previous occasion, explained the [*](Deuteronomy xxi. 15. )

"For the Lord," says the scripture, "seeing that Leah was hated, opened her womb, but Rachel was barren." [*](Genesis xxix. 31. ) Is it not then the case, that when the soul is pregnant, and begins to bring forth such things as are becoming to the soul, then all those objects of the outward senses are barren and unproductive, objects to which the salutation belongs, which is given by a kiss and not by genuine affection?

Each individual then among us is the son of life according to the outward sense, which he calls Meshech, honouring and admiring the foster-mother and nurse of the mortal race, namely, the outward sense, whom also, when the earthly mind, by name Adam, saw after it had been created, he named her life his own death;

for, says the scripture, "Adam called his wife’s name Eve (ζωή), because she was the mother of all living," [*](Genesis iii. 20. ) that is to say, of those who are in real truth dead as to the life of the soul; but they who really live have wisdom for their mother and the outward sense for their slave, which has been created by nature for the purpose of ministering to knowledge;

and the name of that man who was born of life (ζωή), whom we have recognized by a kiss, he calls Damascus, which name, being interpreted, means "the blood of a sack;" by this figurative language, calling the body a sack, with great power and felicity; and by blood, he means the life which depends on the blood.

For since the soul is spoken of in two ways, first of all as a whole, secondly, as to the dominant part of it, which, to speak properly, is the soul of the soul, just as the eye is both the whole orb, and also the most important part of that orb, that namely by which we see; it seemed good to the law-giver that the essence of the soul should likewise be two-fold; blood being the essence of the entire soul, and the divine Spirit being the essence of the dominant part of it; accordingly he says, in express words, "The soul of all flesh is the blood thereof." [*](Genesis ix. 8. )

He does well here to attribute the flow of blood to [*](Genesis xxix. 31. ) [*](Genesis iii. 20. ) [*](Genesis ix. 8. )

So that the race of mankind also is twofold, the one being the race of those who live by the divine Spirit and reason; the other of those who exist according to blood and the pleasure of the flesh. This species is formed of the earth, but that other is an accurate copy of the divine image;

and that description of us which is but fashioned clay, and which is kneaded up with blood, has need, in no slight degree, of assistance from God; on which account it is said, this Damascus of Eleazar. [*](Genesis xv. 2. ) But the name Eleazar, being interpreted, means, "God is my helper." Since the mass of the body, which is filled with blood, being of itself easily dissolved and dead, has its existence through, and is kept alive by, the providence of God, who holds his arm and shield of defence over it, while our race cannot, by any resources of its own, exist in a state of firmness and safety for a single day.

Do you not see that the second of the sons of Moses has also the same name as this man? For, "the name of the second," says the scripture, "was Eleazar." [*](Exodus xviii. 4. ) And he adds the reason: "for the Lord has been my helper, and has delivered me out of the hand of Pharaoh."

But those who are still companions of that life which owes its existence to blood, and which is appreciable by the outward senses, are attacked by that disposition which is such a formidable disperser of piety, by name Pharaoh; from whose sovereignty, full as it is of lawlessness and cruelty, it is impossible to escape, unless Eleazar be born in the soul, and unless one puts one’s hope of succour in the only Saviour.