על הגירת אברהם כ״דOn the Migration of Abraham 24
א׳
1[132] Using still loftier language to express the irrepressible craving for moral excellence, he calls on them to cleave to Him. His words are: “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and Him shalt thou serve, and to Him shalt thou cleave” (Deut. 10:20). What then is the cementing substance? Do you ask, what? Piety, surely, and faith: for these virtues adjust and unite the intent of the heart to the incorruptible Being: as Abraham when he believed is said to “come near to God” (Gen. 18:23).
ב׳
2[133] If, however, as he goes on his way, he neither becomes weary, so that he gives in and collapses, nor grows remiss, so that he turns aside, now in this direction, now in that, and goes astray missing the central road that never diverges; but, taking the good runners as his example, finishes the race of life without stumbling, when he has reached the end he shall obtain crowns and prizes as a fitting guerdon.
ג׳
3[134] Are not the crowns and prizes just this, not to have missed the end of his labours, but to have obtained those final aims of good sense that are so hard of attainment?
ד׳
4What, then, is the end of right-mindedness? To pronounce on himself and all created being the verdict of folly; for the final aim of knowledge is to hold that we know nothing, He alone being wise, who is also alone God.
ה׳
5[135] Accordingly Moses does right well in representing Him as both the Father of the universe and Overseer of the things created, where he says: “God saw all things which He had made, and lo! they were fair exceedingly” (Gen. 1:31): for it was not possible for anyone perfectly to see the things which had been formed save their Maker.
ו׳
6[136] Come forward now, you who are laden with vanity and gross stupidity and vast pretence, you that are wise in your own conceit and not only declare (in every case) that you perfectly know what each object is, but go so far as to venture in your audacity to add the reasons for its being what it is, as though you had either been standing by at the creation of the world, and had observed how and out of what materials its several parts were fashioned, or had acted as advisers to the Creator regarding the things He was forming—come,
ז׳
7[137] I say, and then, letting go all other things whatever, take knowledge of yourselves, and say clearly who you are, in body, in soul, in sense-perception, in reason and speech, in each single one, even the most minute, of the subdivisions of your being. Declare what sight is and how you see, what hearing is and how you hear, what taste, touch, smelling are, and how you act in accordance with each of them, or what are the springs and sources of these, from which is derived their very being.
ח׳
8[138] For pray do not, O ye senseless ones, spin your airy fables about moon or sun or the other objects in the sky and in the universe so far removed from us and so varied in their natures, until you have scrutinized and come to know yourselves. After that, we may perhaps believe you when you hold forth on other subjects: but before you establish who you yourselves are, do not think that you will ever become capable of acting as judges or trustworthy witnesses in the other matters.