על המידות הטובות י׳On the Virtues 10
א׳
1[55] The clearest proof I can give of this statement is as follows. He had a friend whom he had known well almost from his earliest years, Joshua by name. This friendship had not been effected in any of the ways that other friends are usually made, but by the rapturous love, which is of heaven, all pure, and truly from God, from which in fact all virtue springs. This Joshua had shared his home and board, except when solitude was prescribed to him, that is when he was under inspiration and receiving the oracles. All other services he rendered him on a different footing from the multitude and was almost his lieutenant, associated with him in the duties of government.
ב׳
2[56] Yet although Moses had so long carefully tested his excellence in word and deed, and, what was most vital of all, his loyal affection for the nation, he did not think he should leave the succession even to him. He feared that he might be deceived in thinking him a good man when he was not really so, since the standards of human judgement are such as to be vague and uncertain.
ג׳
3[57] And therefore, slow to trust in himself, he besought and entreated God, who surveys the invisible soul and to whom alone it is given to discern the secrets of the mind, to choose on his merits the man most fitted to command, who would care for his subjects as a father. And stretching up to heaven his pure, and, as it might be put figuratively,
ד׳
4[58] his virgin hands he said, “Let the God of spirits and all flesh look to find a man to set over the multitude to guard and protect it, a shepherd who shall lead it blamelessly that the nation may not decay like a flock scattered about without one to guide it.”
ה׳
5[59] Yet who of those who heard this prayer would not have been astounded? “Master,” he would say, “what do you mean, have you not lawful sons, have you not nephews? Bequeath the sovereignty to your sons as the first choice, for they naturally take precedence as heirs, or if you reject them, at least to your nephews,
ו׳
6[60] or if you count them also unsuitable and prefer the people at large to your nearest and closest, you have a blameless friend who has given proof of perfect virtue to your unerring wisdom. Why do you not think fit to approve of him, if the choice is not to rest on birth but on high excellence of life.”
ז׳
7[61] He will say in reply, “It is very right that we should take God for our Judge in all things and particularly in great matters, where a decision for good or ill brings happiness, or, contrariwise, misery to countless multitudes. No matter is greater than sovereignty, to which is committed the charge of all the affairs of cities and countries in war and peace. For just as successful navigation demands a pilot of good judgement and knowledge, so, too, a governor of all-round wisdom is needed to secure for his subjects in every place a happy and orderly life.
ח׳
8[62] Now wisdom’s years are from of old, ere not only I, but the whole universe was born, and it is not lawful or possible that any other should judge her save God, and those who love her with a love that is guileless and pure and genuine.
ט׳
9[63] I have learnt from my own history not to choose anyone else from among those who seem to be suitable and approve him for government. I did not of my own free-will choose to superintend and preside over public affairs, nor did I receive the office through appointment by some other of mankind, but when God by plain oracles and manifest declarations made clear to me His will and bade me take command, considering the greatness of the task I held back with prayers and supplications, until, when He many times repeated the command, I trembled but obeyed.
י׳
10[64] With this example before me, surely reason requires that I should follow in the same steps, and, after having had God for my approver when I was about to take command, should give the election of my successor to Him alone without the participation of human judgement, which is nearer akin to the seeming than to the true. It is a special reason for so doing that the person appointed will preside not over some ordinary nation, but over the most populous of all the nations upon earth, one which makes the greatest of all professions that it is a suppliant of Him who truly exists and is the Maker and Father of all.
י״א
11[65] For what the disciples of the most excellent philosophy gain from its teaching, the Jews gain from their customs and laws, that is to know the highest, the most ancient Cause of all things and reject the delusion of created gods. For no created being is God in reality, but only in men’s fancies, bereft as it is of the essential attribute of eternality.”