על החלומות, ספר א כ״חOn Dreams, Book I 28
א׳
1[173] So, after saying “I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac,” he adds “fear not” (Gen. 28:13). The words come naturally after the others; for how shall we any longer be afraid, when we have Thee our Defender, a weapon that brings deliverance from fear and every passion? Moreover, it was Thou that didst bring out of obscurity into distinctness the original patterns of our education, Abraham whose teacher, and Isaac whose parent Thou wast: for Thou didst condescend to be named instructor of the one and father of the other, giving one the position of pupil, the other that of son.
ב׳
2[174] It is because Thou art this that Thou dost promise that Thou wilt give him the land also, virtue I mean abounding in all manner of fruits, whereon the Practiser slumbers, asleep to the life of sense, but awake to that of the soul and therefore at rest. Thou graciously approvest his peaceful repose, which he won not without war and war’s hardships, a war in which he bore no arms and destroyed no men (away with the thought!) but overthrew the troop of passions and vices that oppose virtue.
ג׳
3[175] Wisdom’s race is likened to the sand of the earth (ibid. 14), both because its number is without limit and because the sand-bank forces back the inroads of the sea, as those of sinful and unjust deeds are kept back by trained reason. And this, in accordance with the Divine promises, is broadening out to the very bounds of the universe, and renders its possessor inheritor of the four quarters of the world, reaching to them all, to East, and West, and South and North: for it is said, “It shall spread abroad, to the West and to the South and to the North and to the East?” (ibid. 14).
ד׳
4[176] The man of worth is not just a good to himself but a common good to all men. From his ready store he proffers the boon which is his to give. For as the sun is a light to all who have eyes, so is the wise man to such as are partakers of a rational nature,