De Fuga Et Inventione

Philo Judaeus

The works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus, volume 2. Yonge, C. D., translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.

"Dwell, therefore," says she, "O my child, with him," not all thy life, but "certain days;" that is to say, learn to be acquainted with the country of the external senses; know thyself and thy own parts, and what each is, and for what end it was made, and how it is by nature calculated to energise, and who it is who moves those marvellous things, and pulls the strings, being himself invisible, in an invisible manner, whether it is the mind that is in thee, or the mind of the universe.

And, when you have become thoroughly acquainted with yourself, then examine accurately also the peculiar qualities of Laban; the things which are accounted brilliant instances of the success of empty glory; but do not you be deceived by any one of them, but like a good workman adapt them all in a skilful manner to your own necessities; for if, while immersed

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in this political and much confused life, you display a stable and well-instructed disposition, I will send for you from thence that you may receive the same prize which also your parents received: and the prize is the unchangeable and unhesitating service of the only wise God.

And his father also gives him similar precepts, adding a few trifling injunctions; for he says, "Rise up and flee into Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, the father of thy mother, and from thence take a wife to thyself of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother." [*](Genesis xxviii. 2. )