על השכר והעונש ט״וOn Rewards and Punishments 15
א׳
1[85] Enmity is of two kinds. There is the enmity of men which has selfishness for its motive and is deliberately practised, and there is the enmity of wild beasts which is actuated by natural antipathy without such deliberation. Consequently each must be treated separately, taking first that of our natural foes, the beasts, whose hatred is directed not towards a single city or nation but to mankind as a whole and endures not for a limited period but is age-long, without bound or limit of time.
ב׳
2[86] Some of these fear man as their master and cringe before him yet retain a rancorous hatred, others are audacious and more venturesome and are the first to attack, lying in wait to seize their opportunity if they are weaker, openly if they are stronger.
ג׳
3[87] For this is the one war where no quarter or truce is possible; as wolves with lambs, so all wild beasts both on land and water are at war with all men. This war no mortal can quell; that is done only by the Uncreated, when He judges that there are some worthy of salvation, men of peaceful disposition who cherish brotherly affection and good fellowship, in whom envy has either found no room at all or has entered only to take its departure with all speed, because their will is to bring their private blessings into the common stock to be shared and enjoyed by all alike.
ד׳
4[88] Would that this good gift might shine upon our life and that we might be able to see that day when savage creatures become tame and gentle. But a very necessary preliminary to this is that the wild beasts within the soul shall be tamed, and no greater boon than this can be found. For is it not foolish to suppose that we shall escape the mischief which the brutes outside us can do if we are always working up those within us to dire savagery? Therefore we need not give up hope that when the wild beasts within us are fully tamed the animals too will become tame and gentle.
ה׳
5[89] When that time comes I believe that bears and lions and panthers and the Indian animals, elephants and tigers, and all others whose vigour and power are invincible, will change their life of solitariness and isolation for one of companionship, and gradually in imitation of the gregarious creatures show themselves tame when brought face to face with mankind. They will no longer as heretofore be roused to ferocity by the sight, but will be awe-struck into respectful fear of him as their natural lord and master, while others will grow gentle in emulation of the docility and affection for the master shown for instance by the little Maltese dogs, who express their fondness with the tails which they so cheerily wag.
ו׳
6[90] Then too the tribes of scorpions and serpents and the other reptiles will have no use for their venom. The Egyptian river too carries man-eating creatures called crocodiles and hippopotamuses in close proximity to the inhabitants of the country, so too the seas have their multitudinous species of very formidable animals. Among all these the man of worth will move sacrosanct and inviolate because God has respected virtue and given it the privilege that none should imagine mischief against it.
