על שהרע נוהג לארוב לטוב ד׳That the Worse is wont to Attack the Better 4
א׳
1[9] In order, then, that he may be taught better ideas than these, he is sent to men who hold that nothing is a good thing but what has true beauty, and that this is a property belonging to the soul as soul; men who are convinced that advantages pertaining to things outside and to the body are good things in name only, not in reality. For it says “Behold thy brethren tend their flocks,” and govern every irrational element of their being “in Sychem” (Gen. 37:13). “Sychem” means “shoulder,” a symbol of patient toil; for lovers of virtue carry a very great burden, namely resistance to the body and bodily pleasure, and in addition to these resistance to external things and the delights which they afford us.
ב׳
2[10] “Come then let me send thee to them,” (ibid.), that is, ‘submit to be summoned elsewhere, and draw nigh and entertain in thine understanding a ready eagerness for the receiving of better teaching. Up to the present time thou deludest thyself with the idea that thou hast welcomed the true education. For thou professest to be ready to be taught otherwise, though thou hast not yet in thine own heart acknowledged thy need of this. Thy cry “Here am I” seems to me to convict thee of rash and reckless compliance, rather than to indicate readiness to learn. A proof of this is that soon afterwards the real man will find thee wandering in the way (Gen. 37:15), whereas thou never wouldst have lost the way hadst thou with a healthy resolve come to be trained.
ג׳
3[11] And mark, the words in which thy father urges thee to go put no compulsion on thee, in order that thou mayest follow the better course at thine own prompting and by thine own spontaneous action. His words are: “Go see,” contemplate and observe and with perfect exactness consider the matter; for thou must first know that at which thou art about to labour, and then afterwards proceed to attend to it. When however thou hast surveyed it and with comprehensive glance obtained a complete view of it in all its parts,
ד׳
4[12] go on further to examine those who have already applied themselves to it and become its devotees. Thou must find out whether in pursuing this course they are of sound mind, and not mad, as those who love pleasure imagine in their mocking depreciation of them. Consider the matter, I say, and judge whether they be sane who practise this discipline; and yet let not thy judgement be final till thou hast brought word and made a report to thy father: for the judgements of those who are beginning to learn are unsettled and unstable, while in those who have made much progress they are firmly fixed; and the only way is for the others to acquire stedfastness from these.’