is not equally clear or credible; for no cultivator of figs or grapes, or, in sort, of any fruit whatever, purifies them. XXVII. And again Moses says, "Its fruit shall be impure for three days, it shall not be eaten ;' as if in fact it were customary for it to be purified for ever. We must, therefore, say that this is one of those expressions which have a concealed meaning, since the words themselves are not quite consistent with it; for the expression is an ambiguous one; for it bears one sense of this kind, the fruit shall remain for three years; and then there is a distinct injunction, "it shall not be eaten before it is purified." But there is also another meaning, "the fruit of the tree shall for three years be unpurified, and while in that state it shall not be eaten." According, then, to the former statement one may understand it in this manner: the three years being taken for time which is divided into three portions; for it is the nature of time to be divided into the past, the present, and the future; therefore the fruit of education will exist, and will endure, and will last unimpaired through all the divisions of time, a statement equivalent to-it will never receive any corruption, for the nature of good is imperishable.

But the fruit which is not purified shall not be eaten; inasmuch as virtuous reasons, duly purified and rendered sound, nourish the soul, and give vigour to the mind; but the opposite kinds are not nutritious, but bring disease and destruction on the soul.

According to the other meaning, as in the disputes of dialecticians, the word "undemonstrated" is used in a double sense, either of a proposition which it is hard to demonstrate by reason of its difficulty, or of one which is intrinsically so plain as to require no demonstration, and the truth of which is established not by the testimony of any one else, but by its own internal evidence. So also fruit may be understood as not being purified, either when it is so impure as to be difficult to purify, or when it requires no purification, but is bright, and clear, and pure of itself.

Such now is the fruit of education; being for three years, that is to say for all time, divided as it is into three portions, most completely pure and brilliant, being overshadowed by no injurious thing, and having no need whatever of any

* Leviticus xix. 23.

washings or purifications, or any thing else whatever which tends to cleansing.

XXVIII. "But in the fourth year," says the scripture, "all the fruit of the tree shall be sacred, being praised by the Lord." The prophetic books appear often to dignify the number four in many places of the exposition of the law, and most especially in the account of the creation of the universe; for the light which is perceptible by the outward senses, and held in honour, being that which throws the most brilliant light both upon itself and upon other things, and upon its own parents the sun and the moon, and upon the most sacred company of the stars, which by their rising and setting fix the boundaries of night and day, and, moreover, of months and years, and which have shown the nature of number, to which, also, the greatest good of the soul is attributed, Moses says was created on the fourth day. And now he honours this day in a remarkable degree, assigning the fruit of the trees to God, in accordance with no other time than with the fourth year after they are planted; for this has a principle in it very consistent with nature and with good morals.

At all events it so happens that the roots of the universe, the elements of which the world is composed, are fourearth, water, air, and fire, Also, that the seasons of the year are equal in number, namely, winter and summer, and those others which are between these two, spring and autuinn. And as this is the most ancient of all square numbers, it is found to exist in right angles, as the figure of a square in geometry shows. And right angles are manifest examples of correctness of reason. And right reason is an everlasting fountain of virtues. It follows, therefore, of necessity that the sides of a square must be all equal to one another. And equality is the parent of justice, which is the mistress and ruler of all the virtues, so that it is now proved that this number four is the symbol of equality, and justice, and of all virtue, beyond any other number. And the number four is likewise called "all," because it comprehends in its power the numbers up to ten, and the number ten itself.

XXIX. That it comprehends all the numbers up to itself is manifest to every one; but that it also comprehends Leviticus xix. 25.

the numbers which come after it, is very easily seen by a calculation of numbers, when we have put them together, one, two, three, four, we shall find what we were doubting about; for of one and four, the number five will be found to be composed, and of two and four six are made up; the number seven, again, consists of three and four; again, according to a triple combination of one, and three, and four, the number eight is composed; also of two, and three, aud four, the number nine; and the number ten is made of all the numbers together, for one, and two, and three, and four make ten. On this account also, Moses said that in the fourth year all the fruit of the tree shall be holy; for this number has an even, and an entire, and a full, and (as one may almost say) every possible reason in it, because the number ten, of which four is the parent, is the first starting place of all the numbers when put together after the unit; and the number four and the number ten are both also called "all," but the number ten is so called by reason of its operation, this number four with reference to its potentiality.

XXX. And Moses very appropriately says that the fruit of education is not only holy but also praised; for every one of the virtues is a holy thing, but most especially is gratitude holy; but it is impossible to show gratitude to God in a genuine manner, by those means which people in general think the only ones, namely offerings and sacrifices; for the whole world could not be a temple worthy to be raised to his honour, except by means of praises and hymns, and those too must be such as are sung, not by loud voices, but by the invisible and pure mind, which shall raise the shout and song to him. At all events there is an old saying often quoted, originally invented by wise men, but, as is often the case, handed down in succession to future ages, and one which has not escaped our ears, which are always greedy of instruction, and it is to this effect, "When, say they, "the Creator had finished the whole world, he asked of one of his ministers, whether he felt that any thing that was wanting which had not been created of all the things that are in the earth, or in the water, or of all that have received the sublime nature of the air, or the loftiest nature of all the universe, namely, that of the heaven; and he replied, that every thing every where was perfect and

complete; but that he wished for one thing only, namely for reason, which should be able duly to praise it all, and which should not so much praise as give an accurate account of the exceeding excellence existing throughout, even in these things which appeared the most unimportant and the most obscure; for he said that an exact account of the works of God was their most complete and adequate panegyric, since they required no addition of external things to set them forth, but were of such a character that the bare plain truth was their most perfect encomium." And when the Father had heard what he said he praised it all, and at no distant time produced a race, which should be capable of receiving all learning, and of composing hymns of praise, producing them from one of the faculties existing around him, the virgin memory, whose name men in general distort and call her Mnemosyne.

XXXI. This is then the purport of that legend of the ancients, and we in accordance with that story say, that it is the most appropriate work of God to confer benefits, and of created beings to show gratitude, since they are unable to give any requital of those benefits beyond gratitude; for whatever he might be inclined to give as a requital for the other things which he has received, will be found to be the private property of him who is the Creator of all things, and not of the nature which offers it. Having learnt therefore that there is only one employment possible for us of all the things that seem to contribute to the honour of God, namely the display of gratitude, let us at all times and in all places study this, with our voice, and with useful writings, and let us never desist composing encomiastic orations and poems, in order that both the Creator and the world may be honoured by every description of utterance which can be exhibited in either speaking or singing; the one being, as some has said, the best of all causes, and the other the most perfect of all created things.

XXXII. Since therefore all the fruit of the soul is consecrated in the fourth year and the fourth number; in the fifth year we ourselves shall be allowed the use and enjoy-. ment of it for ourselves; for the scripture says, "In the fifth year ye shall eat the fruit thereof;" since it has been established by a perpetual law of nature, that account shall

be taken of the creation after the Creator in every thing; so that even if we are thought worthy of the second place, it must be considered a marvellous thing; and on this account it assigns to us the fruit of the fifth year, because the number five is the number appropriate to the outward sense; and if one must tell the truth, that which nourishes our minds is the outward sense, which by means of our eyes sets before us the distinctive qualities of colours and forms, and by means of our ears presents us with all the various peculiarities of sounds, and with smells by means of the nose, and with tastes through the medium of the mouth, and which enables us to judge of the yielding softness and resisting hardness, or of softness and roughness, or again of heat and cold, by means of the faculty which is dispersed over the whole body, which we usually denominate touch.

*

XXXIII. But the most correct example of what has been said, is afforded by the sons of Leah, that is of virtue, not all her sons, but the fourth and fifth; for with respect to the fourth, Moses says that, then she ceased to bring forth, and his name was called Judah, which, being interpreted, is "confession to the Lord," and the fifth she called Issachar, and the name being interpreted, means "reward;" and after she had brought forth in this manner, the soul immediately spoke and related what it had suffered; for says Moses," She called his name Issachar, which means reward." Therefore Judas, the mind which blesses God, and which is without ceasing, devoted to pouring forth hymns of praise and gratitude to him, is himself in truth "the holy and praiseworthy fruit," being produced not by the trees of the earth but by a rational and virtuous nature. In reference to which, the nature which brought him forth is said to have desisted from bringing forth, since she knew not which way to turn, when she had come to the limit of perfection; for of all successful actions which are brought forth, the best and most perfect production is a hymn to the Father of the universe; and the fifth son is in no respect different from the enjoyment of the trees planted in the fifth year; for the tiller of the earth after a fashion takes his reward from the trees in the fifth year, and he takes the offspring of the soul, Issachar, who was called the "reward," * Genosis xxix. 33. + Genesis xxx. 18. Leviticus xix. 24.