על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר ד י״אOn the Special Laws, Book IV 11
א׳
1[62] The second instruction to the judge is not to take gifts, for gifts, says the law, blind the eyes which see and corrupt the things that are just, while they prevent the mind from pursuing its course straight along the high road.
ב׳
2[63] And while receiving bribes to do injustice is the act of the utterly depraved, to receive them to do justice shows a half depravity. For there are some magistrates half way in wickedness, mixtures of justice and injustice, who having been appointed to the duty of supporting the wronged against the wrongdoers think themselves justified in refusing without a consideration to record a victory to the necessarily victorious party and so make their verdict a thing purchased and paid for.
ג׳
3[64] Then when they are attacked they plead that they did not pervert justice, since those who ought to lose did lose and those who deserved to win were successful. This is a bad defence, for two things are demanded from the good judge, a verdict absolutely according to law and a refusal to be bribed. But the awarder of justice who has taken gifts for it has unconsciously disfigured what nature has made beautiful.
ד׳
4[65] Apart from this he offends in two other ways; he is habituating himself to be covetous of money, and that vice is the source from which the greatest iniquities spring, and he is injuring one who deserves to be benefited when that person has to pay a price for justice.
ה׳
5[66] And therefore Moses gives us a very instructive command, when he bids us pursue justice justly, implying that it is possible to do so unjustly. He refers to those who give a just award for lucre, not only in law courts but everywhere on land and sea and one may almost say in all the affairs of life.
ו׳
6[67] Thus we have heard of a person accepting a deposit of little value and repaying it with a view to ensnare rather than to benefit the person to whom he gives it. His object was by baiting his hook with trustworthiness in small matters to secure trustfulness in greater things, and this is nothing else than executing justice unjustly, for while repayment of what is due to others is a just deed, it was not done justly being done in pursuit of further gains.
ז׳
7[68] Now the principal cause of such misdeeds is familiarity with falsehood which grows up with the children right from their birth and from the cradle, the work of nurses and mothers and the rest of the company, slaves and free, who belong to the household. By word and deed they are perpetually welding and uniting falsehood to the soul as though it were a necessary part inherent in its nature, though if nature had really made it congenital it ought to have been eradicated by habituation to things excellent.
ח׳
8[69] And what has life to show so excellent as truth, which the man of perfect wisdom set as a monument on the robe of the high priest in the most sacred place where the dominant part of the soul resides, when he wished to deck him with a sacred ornament of special beauty and magnificence? And beside truth he set a kindred quality which he called “clear showing,” the two representing both aspects of the reason we possess, the inward and the outward. For the outward requires clear showing by which the invisible thoughts in each of us are made known to our neighbours. The inward requires truth to bring to perfection the conduct of life and the actions by which the way to happiness is discovered.