על הבריחה והמציאה כ״גOn Flight and Finding 23
א׳
1[124] As leader of this company we see the king of the country which symbolizes the body; for we read that “Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and did not set his heart even to this” (Ex. 7:23, R.V. mg.), as much as to say that he set it to nothing at all, but allowed it like an untilled plant to wither away and become barren and bear nothing.
ב׳
2[125] It is whetted and made keen by those who consider and observe and examine all things carefully; and when it is in exercise it bears its proper fruits, shrewdness and insight, which save it from being duped; but the unobservant man blunts and crushes the edges of intelligence.
ג׳
3[126] We must, then, let alone the irrational and truly lifeless company of such men as these, and scan well that of those who practise looking and finding. Our first example shall be the man who takes part indeed in public life, but is very far from having a mad thirst for fame: his ambition is for that better family, which the virtues have taken as their heritage, and he is represented as both seeking and finding it.
ד׳
4[127] For we are told that “a man found Joseph wandering in the plain, and asked him, ‘What art thou seeking?’ and he said ‘I am seeking my brethren; tell me, where are they feeding their flocks?’ And the man said to him, ‘They have departed hence, for I heard them saying, Let us go to Dothan.’ And Joseph went his way after his brethren, and found them in Dothan” (Gen. 37:15–17).
ה׳
5[128] Dothan means “a thorough for-saking,” and is the symbol of a soul that has in no half measure but completely run away from those empty notions which resemble the practices of women rather than those of men. Accordingly it is finely said that Sarah, who is Virtue, “forsakes the ways of women” (Gen. 18:11), those ways on which we toil who follow after the unmanly and really feminine life. But the wise man too “forsaking is added” (Gen. 25:8), as Moses says in perfect accord with the nature of things: for the subtraction of vainglory is the addition of reality.
ו׳
6[129] If a man, while spending his days in this mortal life full of such diverse elements and assuming so many phases, and while he has at his disposal abundant material for a life of luxury, makes that better family, which has an eye only for what is morally excellent, his study and quest, he is worthy of approbation, if the dreams and phantoms of things that have the name and appearance of good things do not rise to the surface again and get the better of him.
ז׳
7[130] For if he continues in that soul inquiry and keeps it free from alloy, he will not give up walking in the track of the objects of his quest, and following them up until he has reached those for whom he yearns.
ח׳
8[131] But none of them will he find among the worthless. Why so? Because “they have departed hence,” forsaking all that we care about, and have removed into the abode of the pious where no evil men are found. The speaker is the true “man,” the Monitor, set over the soul, who, seeing its perplexity, its inquiring, its searching, is afraid lest it go astray and miss the right road.