על בריאת העולם י״זOn the Account of the World's Creation 17
א׳
1[53] The aforesaid numeral, then, having been deemed worthy of such high privilege in nature, it was a matter of course that its Maker arrayed the heaven on the fourth day with a most divine adornment of perfect beauty, namely the light-giving heavenly bodies; and, knowing that of all things light is best, He made it the indispensable means of sight, the best of the senses; for what the intellect is in the soul, this the eye is in the body; for each of them sees, one the things of the mind, the other the things of sense; and they have need, the mind of knowledge, that it may become cognisant of incorporeal objects, the eye of light, for the apprehending of bodily forms.
ב׳
2Light has proved itself the source of many other boons to mankind, but pre-eminently of philosophy,
ג׳
3[54] the greatest boon of all. For man’s faculty of vision, led upwards by light, discerned the nature of the heavenly bodies and their harmonious movement. He saw the well-ordered circuits of fixed stars and planets, how the former moved in unchanging orbit and all alike, while the latter sped round in two revolutions out of harmony with each other. He marked the rhythmic dances of all these, how they were marshalled by the laws of a perfect music, and the sight produced in his soul an ineffable delight and pleasure. Banqueting on sights displayed to it one after another, his soul was insatiate in beholding. And then, as usually happens, it went on to busy itself with questionings, asking What is the essence of these visible objects? Are they in nature unoriginate, or had they a beginning of existence? What is the method of their movement? And what are the principles by which each is governed? It was out of the investigation of these problems that philosophy grew, than which no more perfect good has come into the life of mankind.