על אברהם כ״טOn Abraham 29
א׳
1[147] Such is the natural and obvious rendering of the story as suited for the multitude. We will proceed at once to the hidden and inward meaning which appeals to the few who study soul characteristics rather than bodily forms. Symbolically the group of five cities is the five senses in us, the instruments of the pleasures which, whether great or small, are brought to their accomplishment by the senses.
ב׳
2[148] For we get pleasure either by seeing varieties of colours and shapes in objects, whether possessed of physical life or not, or by hearing very melodious sounds or through taste in matters of food and drink, or through smell in fragrant perfumes or through touch in soft and warm and also in smooth substances.
ג׳
3[149] Now of the five, the three most animal and servile are taste, smell, and touch, which cause particular excitation in the cattle and wild beasts most given to gluttony and sexual passion. For all day and night they fill themselves with food insatiably or are at rut.
ד׳
4[150] The other two have a link with philosophy and hold the leading place—hearing and sight. But the ears are in a way more sluggish and womanish than eyes. The eyes have the courage to reach out to the visible objects and do not wait to be acted on by them, but anticipate the meeting, and seek to act upon them instead. Hearing, then, sluggish and more womanish as it is, must be put in the second place and a special precedence must be given to sight, for God has made it the queen of the other senses and set it above them all, and, establishing it as it were on a citadel, has associated it most closely with the soul.
ה׳
5[151] We may find a proof of this in the way in which it changes with the soul’s phases. When the soul feels grief, the eyes are full of anxiety and depression. When on the other hand it feels joy, they smile and rejoice. When fear is supreme, they are full of turbulent confusion, and move and quiver and roll confusedly.
ו׳
6[152] If anger prevails, the organ of sight is harsher and bloodshot, and during reflection and careful consideration of any question it has a quiet and distant appearance, almost as though it was accommodating itself to the outlook of the mind. In times of mental refreshment and relaxation it relaxes also and is at its ease.
ז׳
7[153] When a friend approaches, its peaceful and sunny look is the happy herald of the kindly feeling within, while in the case of an enemy it gives a warning of the soul’s displeasure. Courage makes the eyes dart swiftly forward. Modesty makes them gentle and reposeful. In short, one may say that sight has been created as an image of the soul, and through the perfection of the art which has produced so faithful a copy presents a clear and mirror-like reflection of the original whose nature is in itself invisible.
ח׳
8[154] But indeed it is not only in this way that the excellence of the eyes exceeds the other senses, but also because in waking moments, since we need not consider their inaction in sleep, they cease to function. For when no outward object moves them they are still, whilst the eyes, when open are constant and unceasing in their activities; they have always room for more, and in this way they shew their kinship with the soul.
ט׳
9[155] But, while the soul is always in motion and wakeful day and night, the eyes in which the fleshly is the principal ingredient must rest satisfied with the gift of continuing to exercise the activities which befit them for half the whole span of time and human life.