על שהרע נוהג לארוב לטוב כ״זThat the Worse is wont to Attack the Better 27
א׳
1[100] The manner in which the mind becomes accurst from the earth is next indicated by the words, “which opened its mouth to receive thy brother’s blood” (Gen. 4:11). It is a cruel thing that the inlets of the senses should be opened wide for the torrent of the objects of sense to be poured, like a river in spate, into their gaping orifices, with nothing to stay their violent rush. For then the mind, swallowed up by the huge inpouring, is found at the bottom, unable so much as to rise to the surface and look out.
ב׳
2[101] We ought to employ each one of these faculties, not on all that it is capable of doing but rather on the objects of greatest value. The eye is capable of seeing all colours and all forms, but let it see those that are meet for light not for darkness. The ear too is capable of apprehending all uttered words, but some let it refuse to hear, for countless things that are said are disgraceful. And because nature has given you taste, as she has to us all, do not, O senseless one, be like a cormorant and greedily devour all things. For maladies causing acute pain have been brought on in many cases by food that was not nourishing only but rare and expensive.
ג׳
3[102] And because, with a view to the persistence of the race, you were endowed with generative organs, do not run after rapes and adulteries and other unhallowed forms of intercourse, but only those which are the lawful means of propagating the human race. And because a tongue and a mouth and organs of speech have been allotted to you, do not blurt out all things, even those which are secrets; for there are places where it is good to refrain from speech; and it seems to me that those who have learned to speak have learned also to be silent, since the same faculty renders us capable both of exercising speech and of refraining from its exercise; and those who talk about things they should not, appear to me to display not power of speech but weakness in keeping silent.
ד׳
4[103] So let us make it our earnest endeavour to bind up each of the openings which we have mentioned with the adamantine chains of self-control. For Moses says elsewhere (Numb. 19:15) that “every open vessel which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean,” implying that wretchedness is due to the different parts of the soul having been left loose and gaping and unfastened, while proper ordering of life and speech is the result of these being kept close and tight. So we see that God cannot but curse the godless and impious Cain, because, opening wide the inner chambers of his complex being, he stood agape for all outward things, praying in his greed to be able both to take them in, and to find room for them for the destruction of Abel, or the teaching devoted to God.