על החלומות, ספר ב כ״וOn Dreams, Book II 26
א׳
1[172] This vine of which we could take but a part men aptly liken to gladness, and in this I have the witness of one of the ancient prophets who under inspiration said, “The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel” (Is. 5:7).
ב׳
2[173] Israel is the mind which contemplates God and the world, for Israel means “seeing God,” while the house of the mind is the whole soul, and this is that most holy vineyard which has for its fruit that divine growth, virtue.
ג׳
3[174] So great and splendid is happy thinking, for that is the original meaning of gladness or εὐφροσύνη, that Moses tells us that God does not disdain to feel and shew it, particularly when the human race turns away from its sins and inclines and reverts to righteousness, following by a free-will choice the laws and statutes of nature.
ד׳
4[175] “For the Lord, thy God,” he says, “will turn to be glad over thee for good, as He was glad over thy fathers, if thou shalt hear His voice, to keep all His commandments and ordinances and the judgements which are written in the book of this law” (Deut. 30:9, 10).
ה׳
5[176] What could be better able to implant the yearning for virtue or an ardour for noble living than this? Dost thou wish, O mind, that God should be glad? Be glad thyself, and bring Him no costly gift (for what does He need of what is thine?), but contrariwise accept rejoicing all the good things which He gives thee.
ו׳
6[177] For it gladdens Him to give when the recipients are worthy of His bounty, since you surely must admit that if those who live a life of guilt can be rightly said to provoke and anger God, those whose life is laudable may be equally well said to gladden Him.
ז׳
7[178] Mortal parents, fathers and mothers, vast as are their deficiencies, are gladdened by nothing so much as by the virtues of their children. And shall not the Begetter of all, in Whom is no deficiency at all, be gladdened by the noble living of His creatures?
ח׳
8[179] So then, my mind, having learned how great an evil is the wrath of God, and how great a good is the gladness of God, stir not up to thine own destruction aught that deserves His anger, but practise those things only by which thou shalt make God glad.
ט׳
9[180] And these thou shalt not find by traversing long roads where no foot has trodden, or by crossing seas where no ship has sailed, nor by pressing without a pause to the boundaries of land and ocean. For they do not dwell apart in the far distance, nor are they banished from the habitable world, but, as Moses says (Deut. 30:12–14), the good is stationed just beside thee and shares thy nature, close bound with the three most essential parts, heart, mouth and hands, that is mind, speech, actions, since to think and speak and do the morally good is the essential thing, a fullness composed of good purposing, good action and good speaking.