על יוסף י״בOn Joseph 12
א׳
1[58] We should now, however, in due course show the lessons revealed to us by this story. The purchaser of the subject of our examination is said to be a eunuch; rightly so, for the multitude which purchases the statesman is in very truth a eunuch, possessing to all appearance the organs of generation but deprived of the power of using them, just as those who suffer from cataract have eyes but lack the active use of them and cannot see.
ב׳
2[59] How then does the multitude resemble eunuchs? It is because the multitude is unproductive of wisdom, though it seems to practise virtue. For when a mixed crowd of heterogeneous persons comes together, it says what is right, but it thinks and does the opposite. It prefers the spurious to the genuine, because it is under the dominion of appearances and does not practise what is truly excellent.
ג׳
3[60] And, therefore, also, paradoxical though it be, this eunuch is mated with a wife. For the multitude woos desire as a man woos a woman, and makes her his medium in all that he says and does, and takes her as his counsellor in all things great and small, whether decency sanctions them or not, and is wont to pay little heed to the promptings of reason.
ד׳
4[61] Very aptly too does Moses call him a chief cook; for, just as the cook is solely occupied in endlessly providing superfluous pleasures for the belly, so is the multitude, considered as politicians, in choosing what charms and pleases the ears, and thus the tension of the understanding is relaxed and the sinews of the soul, so to speak, unstrung.
ה׳
5[62] As for the difference between cooks and physicians, it is a matter of common knowledge. The physician devotes all his energies solely to preparing what is wholesome, even if it is unpalatable, while the cook deals with the pleasant only and has no thought of what is beneficial.
ו׳
6[63] Now in a democracy, physicians are represented by laws, and those who rule in accordance with the law, members of councils and juries who consider the safety and security of the common weal and are proof against flattery; cooks by the swarming crowd of younger spirits, for they do not care what will be beneficial but only how they may reap pleasure for the moment.