De Virtutibus

Why so, because in the first place, haughty arrogance is a vice of the soul; but the soul is invisible to any one but God. And anyone who punishes, if he does so blindly, is blameable, as ignorance is his accuser: but if he does so with his eyes open, he is to be praised as doing everything with knowledge; and secondly, because every haughty arrogant man is full of vain groundless pride, looks upon himself as neither man nor demigod, but rather as an actual deity, as Pindar says, [*]( Pindar says nothing of the sort. The passage which Philo appears to allude to is the beginning of the second Olympic Ode: ἀναξίφόρμιγγες ὕμνοιτίνα θεὸν τιν᾽ ἡρῶατίνα δ᾽ ἄνδρα κελαδήσομεν, which Horace has translated, Od. I. xii. 1. Quem virum, aut heroa, lyra, vel acriTibia sumes celebrare, Clio?Quem Deum?! Cujus recinet jocosaNomen imago. ) [*]( Numbers xv. 30.) [*]( Pindar says nothing of the sort. The passage which Philo appears to allude to is the beginning of the second Olympic Ode: ἀναξίφόρμιγγες ὕμνοι τίνα θεὸν τιν᾽ ἡρῶα τίνα δ᾽ ἄνδρα κελαδήσομεν, which Horace has translated, Od. I. xii. 1. Quem virum, aut heroa, lyra, vel acri Tibia sumes celebrare, Clio? Quem Deum?! Cujus recinet jocosa Nomen imago. )

And as the soul of such a man is blameable, so also is his body in all its positions and motions, for he walks on tip-toes, and lifts his head on high, strutting and giving himself airs, and he is elated and puffed up beyond his nature, and though he does see yet it is only with distorted optics, and though he hears he hears amiss; and he treats his servants as though they were cattle, and free men as though they were his slaves, and his kinsmen as strangers, and his friends as flatterers, and citizens as foreigners;

and he looks upon himself as the most wealthy, the most distinguished, the most beautiful, the strongest, the wisest, the most prudent, the most righteous, the most rational, and the most learned of all men; and then he looks upon all the rest of mankind as poor, of no reputation, dishonoured, foolish, unjust, ignorant, mere dregs of mankind, entitled to no consideration. Very naturally then such a man will be likely to meet, as the interpreter of the will of God tells us, with God himself as his adversary and chastiser.

The most holy Moses, being a lover of virtue, and of honour, and, above all things, of the human race, expects all men everywhere to show themselves admirers of piety and of justice, proposing to them, as to conquerors, great rewards if they repent, namely, a participation in the best of all constitutions, and an enjoyment of all things, whether great or small, which are to be found in it.

Now those blessings which are of the greatest importance in the body are good health, without disease; and in a matter of navigation, a successful voyage, without danger; and in the soul, an undying recollection of all things worthy to be remembered. And the blessings of the second class are those which consist of re-establishment, such as a recovery from diseases; a

For absolutely never to do anything wrong at all is a peculiar attribute of God, and perhaps one may also say of a God-like man. But when one has erred, then to change so as to adopt a blameless course of life for the future is the part of a wise man, and of one who is not altogether ignorant of what is expedient.

On which account he calls to him all persons of such a disposition as this, and initiates them in his laws, holding out to them admonitions full of reconciliation and friendship, which exhort men to practise sincerity and to reject pride, and to cling to truth and simplicity, those most necessary virtues which, above all others, contribute to happiness; forsaking all the fabulous inventions of foolish men, which their parents, and nurses, and instructors, and innumerable other persons with whom they have been associated, have from their earliest infancy impressed upon their tender souls, implanting in them inextricable errors concerning the knowledge of the most excellent of all things.