על צאצאי קין כ״דOn the Posterity of Cain and his Exile 24
א׳
1[83] Therefore, O mind, have nothing to do with Ada, who bears witness to (the success of) worthless things, and is borne witness to (as helping) in the attempts to accomplish each of them. But if you shall think well to have her for a partner, she will bear to you a very great mischief, even Jobel (Gen. 4:20), which signifies “one altering.” For if you delight in the witness borne to (the goodness of) everything that may present itself, you will desire to twist everything and turn it round, shifting the boundaries fixed for things by nature.
ב׳
2[84] Moses, full of indignation at such people, pronounces a curse on them saying, “Cursed is he that shifteth his neighbour’s boundaries” (Deut. 27:17). What he describes as “near” and “hard by” like a neighbour is the thing that is good. For it is not necessary, he says, to fly up into heaven, nor to get beyond the sea in searching for what is good; for that it stands hard by and is near to each man.
ג׳
3[85] And in a thoroughly philosophic way he makes a threefold division of it: saying “It is in thy mouth and in thy heart and in thine hand” (Deut. 30:11–14), that is, in words, in plans, in actions. For these are the parts of the good thing, and of these it is compacted, and the lack of but one not only renders it imperfect but absolutely destroys it.
ד׳
4[86] For what good is it to say the best things but to plan and carry out the most shameful things? This is the way of the sophists, for as they spin out their discourses on sound sense and endurance they grate on the ears of those most thirsting to listen, but in the choices that they make and the actions of their lives we find them going very far wrong.
ה׳
5[87] And what is the good of having right intentions, and yet resorting to unfitting deeds and words, by the words inflicting loss on those who hear them, and by the deeds on those who are their victims? Again, it is blameworthy to practise the things that are excellent without understanding and explicit speech.
ו׳
6[88] For what is done apart from these comes under the head of involuntary action, and in no way whatever merits praise. But if a man succeeded, as if handling a lyre, in bringing all the notes of the thing that is good into tune, bringing speech into harmony with intent, and intent with deed, such an one would be considered perfect and of a truly harmonious character. Thus the man who removes the boundaries of the good and beautiful both is accursed and is pronounced to be so with justice.