על הבריחה והמציאה ל׳On Flight and Finding 30

א׳

1[166] Having said thus much about the third head also, we will go on to the fourth and last of those proposed for consideration, in which there has been no “seeking,” and yet “finding” meets us unbidden. Under this head is ranged every wise man who learns directly from no teacher but himself; for he does not by searchings and practisings and toilings gain improvement, but as soon as he comes into existence he finds wisdom placed ready to his hand, shed from heaven above, and of this he drinks undiluted draughts, and sits feasting, and ceases not to be drunken with the sober drunkenness which right reason brings.

ב׳

2[167] This is he whom Holy Writ calls “Isaac,” whom the soul did not conceive at one time and give birth to at another, for it says “she conceived and gave birth” (Gen. 21:2) as though timelessly. For he that was thus born was not a man, but a most pure thought, beautiful not by practice but by nature. And for this reason she that gave birth to it is said “to have forsaken the ways of women” (Gen. 18:11), those human ways of custom and mere reasoning.

ג׳

3[168] For the nature of the self-taught is new and higher than our reasoning, and in very deed Divine, arising by no human will or purpose but by a God-inspired ecstasy. Do you not know that Hebrew mothers need no midwives for their delivery, but as Moses says “before the midwives” (Exod. 1:19), that is before systems, arts, sciences, come in, they give birth with the co-operation of nature alone?

ד׳

4Admirable and most suitable are the marks which the Lawgiver sets forth to define the direct learner: one, “that which is quickly found,” another, “that which God delivered.”

ה׳

5[169] While that which is taught needs a long time, that which comes by nature is rapid, and, we may say, timeless; and, while the one has man as teacher, the other has God. The former mark he sets down in a question: “What is this which thou didst find quickly, Child?” the other in a reply, in the words “that which God the Lord delivered” (Gen. 27:20).