על אברהם מ״הOn Abraham 45
א׳
1[262] There is another record of praise attested by words from Moses’ prophetic lips. In these it is stated that he “trusted in God.” Now that is a little thing if measured in words, but a very great thing if made good by action.
ב׳
2[263] For in what else should one trust? In high offices or fame and honours or abundance of wealth and noble birth or health and efficacy of the senses or strength and beauty of body? But office is wholly precarious, beset by countless foes who lie in wait for it, and if by chance it is secured the security is accompanied by countless ills in which those in high positions are either the agents or the victims.
ג׳
3[264] Fame and honour are a most precarious possession, tossed about on the reckless tempers and flighty words of careless men: and, when it abides, it cannot of its own nature contain genuine good.
ד׳
4[265] As for wealth and high birth, they attach themselves even to the most worthless of men, and even if they were confined to the virtuous they would be a compliment not to the actual possessors but to their ancestors and to fortune.
ה׳
5[266] Again, neither should we pride ourselves greatly on bodily endowments in which the unreasoning animals have the advantage over us; for what man is stronger or more muscular than the bull among domestic and the lion among wild beasts? Who has a keener sight than the hawk or the eagle? or who is so favoured in powers of hearing as that stupidest of animals, the ass? And as for smell, who has more accurate discernment than the hound, which, as the huntsmen tell us, led unerringly by the scent, races to the distant quarry which it has not seen; for what sight is to other animals the nostrils are to the hounds used for hunting or tracking.
ו׳
6[267] Health? Why, most of the unreasoning animals are exceedingly healthy and as far as possible free from disease. Beauty? In the competition for this, I should say that some lifeless objects can beat and surpass the comeliness both of men and women. Such are the images and statues and pictures and in general all the creations of the painters and the sculptors which achieve success in either art and rouse the enthusiasm of Greeks and barbarians alike, who set them up in the most conspicuous places to adorn their cities.