על שכל אדם ישר הוא בן חורין ז׳Every Good Man is Free 7
א׳
1VII. [41] The freedom of the good man may be learnt in other ways. No slave is really happy. For what greater misery is there than to live with no power over anything, including oneself? But the wise man is happy, ballasted and freighted by his high morality, which confers power over everything, and so beyond all doubt and of sheer necessity, the good man is free.
ב׳
2[42] Furthermore no one would deny that the friends of God are free. Surely when we agree that the familiars of kings enjoy not only freedom but authority, because they take part in their management and administration as leaders, we must not give the name of slaves to those who stand in the same relation to the celestial gods, who are god-lovers and thereby necessarily god-beloved, rewarded with the same affection as they have shown, and in the judgement of truth are as the poets say, rulers of all and kings of kings.
ג׳
3[43] The legislator of the Jews in a bolder spirit went to a further extreme and in the practice of his “naked” philosophy, as they call it, ventured to speak of him who was possessed by love of the divine and worshipped the Self-existent only, as having passed from a man into a god, though, indeed, a god to men, not to the different parts of nature, thus leaving to the Father of all the place of King and God of gods.
ד׳
4[44] Does one who has obtained so great a preferment deserve to be considered a slave and not rather the solely free? Though he was not deemed worthy of divine rank in his own right, yet because he had God for a friend, he was bound to have absolute felicity, for he had no feeble champion, nor one neglectful of the rights of friendship in Him who is the comrade’s god and keeps watch over the claims of comradeship.
ה׳
5[45] Further again, just as with cities, those which lie under an oligarchy or tyranny suffer enslavement, because they have cruel and severe masters, who keep them in subjection under their sway, while those which have laws to care for and protect them are free, so, too, with men. Those in whom anger or desire or any other passion, or again any insidious vice holds sway, are entirely enslaved, while all whose life is regulated by law are free.
ו׳
6[46] And right reason is an infallible law engraved not by this mortal or that and, therefore, perishable as he, nor on parchment or slabs, and, therefore, soulless as they, but by immortal nature on the immortal mind, never to perish.
ז׳
7[47] So, one may well wonder at the short-sightedness of those who ignore the characteristics which so clearly distinguish different things and declare that the laws of Solon and Lycurgus are all-sufficient to secure the freedom of the greatest of republics, Athens and Sparta, because their sovereign authority is loyally accepted by those who enjoy that citizenship, yet deny that right reason, which is the fountain head of all other law, can impart freedom to the wise, who obey all that it prescribes or forbids.
ח׳
8[48] Further, besides these just mentioned, we have a very clear evidence of freedom in the equality recognized by all the good in addressing each other. Thus it is argued that the following iambic verses contain sound philosophy:
No part or lot in law has any slave
and again
A slave thou art, no right of speech hast thou.
No part or lot in law has any slave
and again
A slave thou art, no right of speech hast thou.
ט׳
9[49] Just as the laws of music put all adepts in music on an equal footing in discussing that art and the laws of grammar and geometry do the same for their respective professionals, so, too, the laws of human life and conduct create a similar equality between those who are proficient in life-matters.
י׳
10[50] But the good are all proficient in such matters, because their proficiency embraces the whole of nature. Some of the good are admittedly free, and, therefore, all who enjoy the right to address them on an equal footing are free also. Consequently none of the good is a slave but all are free.