על המידות הטובות י״גOn the Virtues 13
א׳
1[80] We have stated the proofs of the legislator’s humanity and fellow feeling, a quality which he possessed through a happy gift of natural goodness, and also as the outcome of the lessons which he learnt from the holy oracles. But we must also speak of the ordinances which he gave to posterity, if not all of them, which would be difficult, at least those which are closest akin to his way of thinking.
ב׳
2[81] He did not set up consideration and gentleness as fundamental to the relations of men to their fellows only, but poured it out richly with a lavish hand on animals of irrational nature and the various kinds of cultivated trees. We must mention the laws which he gave on each of these, taking them in turn and beginning with mankind.