על החלומות, ספר ב כ״הOn Dreams, Book II 25
א׳
1[169] The deduction follows that the vine symbolizes two things—folly and gladness.
ב׳
2Each of them is shewn by many proofs, but to avoid prolixity I will give only a few.
ג׳
3[170] There was a time when he led us along the way of philosophy, the way of the desert, barren of passions and of wrongdoings, and took us as to the high land and there set right reason on a peak of wide view and bade it survey the whole land of virtue, whether it is rich and deep of soil, fertile of grass and fruit, and well fitted both to give increase to the lessons there sown and to raise the stalk of tree-like verities there planted, or the opposite of all this; survey, too, the actions which are as cities, whether they are thoroughly well fenced and secure, or uncovered and stripped of the security which is as a wall; survey the inhabitants, too, whether they have increased in number and strength, or whether they are weak through fewness, or few through weakness (Num. 13:18–21).
ד׳
4[171] And it was then that, unable to carry the whole main-stalk of wisdom, we cut a single branch and cluster of grapes and raised it up, a manifest sign of joy, as the lightest of burdens, meaning by the vine so rich in clustering grapes to shew forth to those of keen mental vision the sprouting and fruit-bearing alike of noble living (Num. 13:24).