מי יורש קנייני אלוה ט׳Who is the Heir of Divine Things 9
א׳
1[45] Now there are three kinds of life, one looking Godwards, another looking to created things, another on the border-line, a mixture of the other two. The God-regarding life has never come down to us, nor submitted to the constraints of the body. The life that looks to creation has never risen at all nor sought to rise, but makes its lair in the recesses of Hades and rejoices in a form of living, which is not worth the pains.
ב׳
2[46] It is the mixed life, which often drawn on by those of the higher line is possessed and inspired by God, though often pulled back by the worse it reverses its course. And when the better life placed as a weight on the scales completely preponderates, the mixed life carried with it makes the opposite life seem light as air in the balance.
ג׳
3[47] Now Moses while he gives the crown of undisputed victory to the Godward kind of life, brings the other two into comparison by likening them to two women, one of whom he calls the beloved and the other the hated.
ד׳
4[48] These names are very suitable, for who does not look with favour on the pleasures and delights that come through the eyes, or the ears, or through taste and smell and touch? Who has not hated the opposites of these?—frugality, temperance, the life of austerity and knowledge, which has no part in laughter and sport, which is full of anxiety and cares and toils, the friend of contemplation, the enemy of ignorance, which puts under its feet money and mere reputation and pleasure, but is mastered by self-restraint and true glory and the wealth which is not blind but sees.
ה׳
5Now the children of virtue, the hated one, are always the senior.
