על שהרע נוהג לארוב לטוב ל״בThat the Worse is wont to Attack the Better 32
א׳
1[119] To the godless Cain, on the other hand, the earth affords nothing that contributes to healthy vigour, in spite of his being occupied with nothing beyond the concerns of earth. It is a natural consequence of this that he is found “groaning and trembling upon the earth” (Gen. 4:12), that is to say, a victim to fear and grief. Such is the sorry life of the wretched man, a life to which have been allotted the more grievous of the four passions, fear and grief, the one identical with groaning, the other with trembling. For such a life some evil thing must either be present or on its way. The expectation of that which is on its way begets fear, the experience of that which is present begets grief.
ב׳
2[120] But the man that follows after virtue is sure to be in corresponding states of blessedness; he has either won the prize or is on the way to win it; then to have it produces joy, fairest of possessions; to be expecting that you will reach it produces that food of souls that love virtue, hope, which makes us cast away hesitation, and essay with hearty alacrity all noble deeds.
ג׳
3[121] When righteousness has, for some soul, given birth to a male progeny in the shape of righteous reasoning, from that soul all painful things are forthwith banished. Our witness for this shall be the birth of Noah. “Noah” means righteous, and it is said of him, “This man shall cause us to rest from our works and from the pains of our hands and from the earth which the Lord God hath cursed” (Gen. 5:29).
ד׳
4[122] For it is the nature of justice in the first place to create rest in the place of toil, owing to its complete indifference to objects on the border-land between vice and virtue, such as wealth, fame, official posts, honours, and everything of that sort, with which the majority of mankind are busy. It is its nature, in the next place, to abolish griefs which take shape under the action of things that we do entirely of our own motion. For Moses does not, as some impious people do, say that God is the author of ills. Nay, he says that “our own hands” cause them, figuratively describing in this way our own undertakings, and the spontaneous movement of our minds to what is wrong.