Legum Allegoriarum Libri I-III

It is best, therefore, to trust in God, and not in uncertain reasonings, or unsure conjectures. Abraham trusted in the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness.[*](Genesis xv. 6. ) And Moses governed the people, being testified to that he was faithful with his whole house. But if we distrust our own reason, we shall prepare and build ourselves a city of the mind which will destroy the truth. For Sihon, being interpreted means destroying.

In reference to which he who had dreamed, waking up, found that all the motions and all the advances of the foolish man are merely dreams that have no portion of truth in them, for the very mind is found to be a dream; and the only true doctrine is to believe in God, and to trust to vain reasonings is a mere delusion.[*](Numbers xii. 7. ) But irrational impulse goes forth and proceeds to each extremity, while both the reasonings and the mind corrupt the truth. On which

And it devours even as far as Moab; that is to say, as far as the mind. For what other creature, except the miserable mind, can a false opinion deceive? It devours and consumes, and, in truth, it swallows up the pillars in it; that is to say, all the particular notions which are engraved and impressed upon it, as upon a pillar. But the pillars are Arnon, which, being interpreted, means the light of Arnon, since every one of these facts is made clear by reasoning.

Accordingly, Moses begins presently to lament over the self-satisfied and arrogant mind in this manner: Woe unto thee, O city of Moab! For, if you give attention to the riddles which arise out of the perception of what is probable, you have destroyed the truth by so doing. The people of Chemosh, that is to say, thy people and thy power, have been found to be mutilated and blinded. For Chemosh, being interpreted, means feeling with the hand. And this action is the especial characteristic of one who does not see.

Now, their sons are particular reasonings—exiles; and their opinions are in the place of daughters, being captives to the king of the Amorites, that is to say, of those who converse with the sophist. For the name Amorites, being interpreted, means talkers, being a symbol of the people who talk much; and their guide and leader is the sophist, and he who is skilful in reasoning and clever in investigating arts; a man by whom all those are deceived who once overpass the boundary of truth.

Sihon, then, who destroys the sound rule of truth, and his seed also, shall both perish; and so shall Heshbon, namely, the sophistical riddles, as far as Debon; which, being interpreted, means adjudication. And very consistently with nature shall this be. For what is probable and plausible has not a positive knowledge respecting truth, but only a trial and controversy and a litigious contest and strife, and all such things as these.

But it was not sufficient for the mind to have its own peculiar evils, which were perceptible only to the intellect; but still the women burnt additional fire, that is to say, the outward senses excited a great conflagration to have an effect upon it.

But now, as it is, the multitude of the outward senses has brought against it a most incalculable multitude of evils, partly from objects of sight and partly from sounds; and besides that, from flavours and from such essences as affect the sense of smell. And one may almost say that the flavour which arises from them has a more pernicious influence on the disposition of the soul than that which is engendered in the soul itself, without any co-operation or agency of the organs of sense.

One of these women is Pentephoe, the wife of Pharaoh’s chief cook.[*](Genesis xxxix. 1. ) We must now consider how a man who was a eunuch can be represented as having a wife. For there will here be something which will seem to offer a reasonable ground for perplexity to those who do not take the expressions of the law in an allegorical sense. For the mind is really a eunuch, and really the chief of cooks, using not merely such pleasures as are simple, but those also which are superfluous, and is therefore called a eunuch and barren of all wisdom, being the eunuch and slave of no other master than of that squanderer of all good things, Pharaoh. On another principle, therefore, it might appear a most desirable thing to be a eunuch, if our soul, by that means escaping vice, might be able also to avoid all knowledge of passion.

On which account Joseph, that is to say, the disposition of continence, says to Pleasure, who accosts him with, Lie with me, and being a man behave as a man, and enjoy the pleasant things which life can afford. He, I say, refuses her, saying, I shall be sinning against God, who loves virtue, if I become a votary of pleasure; for this is a wicked action.

And, at first, he only skirmishes, but presently he fights and resists valiantly, when the soul enters into her own dwelling, and, having recourse to her own strength and energy, renounces the temptations of the body, and performs her own appropriate actions as those which are the proper

The house, therefore, is the soul, to which he runs, leaving all external affairs, in order that what is spoken of may there be done. But may we not say that the conduct of the temperate man is what it is, and is directed by the will of God? For there was not present any inconsistent idea of all those which are accustomed to find their place within the soul. Moreover, pleasure never ceases from struggling against the yoke, but, seizing hold of his clothes, she cries, Lie with me. Now, clothes are, as it were, the covering of the body, just as life is protected by meat and drink. And she says here, Why do you renounce pleasure, without which you cannot live?

Behold, I take hold of the things which cause it; and I say that you could not possibly exist unless you also made use of some of the things which cause it. What, then, says the temperate man? Shall I, says he, become a slave to passion, on account of the material which causes passion? Nay, I will depart out of reach of the passion. For, leaving his garment in her hand, he fled, and escaped out of doors.