--- title: "On the Confusion of Languages" author: "Philo of Alexandria" translator: "C. D. Yonge" languages: [en] shelf: "Second Temple" section: 4 of 16 url: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg013-yonge-ogl/4/ cite: "Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge, On the Confusion of Languages, section 4. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg013-yonge-ogl/4/" --- # On the Confusion of Languages *Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge* ## 4. Section 39 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg013-yonge-ogl/4/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg013-yonge-ogl/4/#p-N [¶0] But many, who are not able vigorously to refute the plausible inventions of the sophists, because they have not very much practised discussion by reason of their continued application to action, have taken refuge in the alliance of the only wise Being, and have besought him to become their defender. As one of the friends of Moses, when praying, says in his hymns, "Let the treacherous lips become mute;" Psalm xxx. 19. and how can they become mute if they are not curbed by the only Exodus xiv. 30. Psalm xxx. 19. being who has speech itself as his subject? ### Section 40 [¶2] We must therefore flee, without ever turning back, from all associations entered into for the purposes of sin; but the alliance made with the companions of wisdom and knowledge must be confirmed. ### Section 41 [¶4] In reference to which I admire those who say, "We are all one man’s sons, we are men of peace," Genesis xlii. 11. because of their well-adapted agreement; since how, I should say, could you, O excellent men, avoid being grieved at war, and delighted in peace, being the sons of one and the same father, and he not mortal but immortal, the man of God, who being the reason of the everlasting God, is of necessity himself also immortal? ### Section 42 [¶6] For they who make out many beginnings of the origin of the soul, being devoted to the evil which is called polytheism, and turning each individual of them, to the honour of different beings, having caused great confusion and dissension both at home and abroad, from the beginning of their birth to the end of their life, filling life with irreconcilable quarrels; ### Section 43 [¶8] but they who rejoice in one kind alone, and who honour one as their father, namely right reason, admiring the well-arranged and all-musical harmony of the virtues, live a tranquil and peaceful life, not an inactive and ignoble one, as some persons think, but one of great manliness, and sharpened, and vigorous against those who endeavour to break the confederacy which they have formed, and who are always studying to bring about a violation of the oaths which have been taken; for it has come to pass that the men of peace have become men of war, sitting down to attack and to oppose those who seek to overturn the firmness of the soul. ### Section 44 [¶10] And there is testimony in support of this assertion of mine; first of all, in the disposition of every lover of virtue which acknowledges these inclinations; and secondly, in that comrade of the band of the prophets, who being inspired with a sacred frenzy, spoke thus, "O my mother, how hast thou brought me forth, a man of war, and a man of disquietude to all the earth! I have not benefited them, and they have not benefited me; nor is my strength free from their curses." Jeremiah xv. 10. ### Section 45 [¶12] But is not every wise man of necessity an irreconcilable enemy to all wicked men, not indeed using the apparatus of triremes or warlike engines, or arms, or soldiers, for his defence, but reasons? ### Section 46 [¶14] For when he sees war stirred up in the midst Genesis xlii. 11. Jeremiah xv. 10. of tranquil peace, so as to be continued and incessant among all men, both public and private, not existing only among nations and countries, and cities and villages, but also in every house, and between each particular individual; who is there who does not reproach and admonish and seek to correct the foolish men whom he sees, and not by day only, but also by night, his soul being unable to remain tranquil by reason of the hatred of wickedness implanted in his nature? ### Section 47 [¶16] For they do in peace every thing that is done in war; they plunder, they ravage, they drag into slavery, they carry off booty, they lay waste, they behave insolently, they assault, they destroy, they pollute, they murder treacherously, they murder openly if they are the more powerful; ### Section 48 [¶18] for every one of them, proposing to himself riches or glory as his object, aims all the actions of his life as so many arrows at it, and neglects equality, and pursues inequality, and repudiates associations, and labours to acquire to himself all the possessions together properly belonging to every one; he is a misanthrope and a hater of all his fellows, making a hypocritical pretence of benevolence, being a companion of a bastard kind of flattery, an enemy of genuine friendship, a foe to truth, a champion of falsehood, slow to do good, swift to do injury, very ready to calumniate, very slow to defend, clever at deceiving, most perjured, most faithless, a slave of anger, yielding to pleasure, a guardian of all that is evil, a destroyer of all that is good. ### Section 49 [¶20] These and other similar gifts are the most desirable treasures of peace, that blessing so celebrated and so admired, which the mind of each individual among the foolish men sets up for itself as an image, and admires and worships; at whom, very naturally, every wise man is grieved, and is accustomed to say to his mother and nurse, wisdom, "O mother, what a person hast thou brought me forth!" not in strength of body, but in energy and courage, a determined hater of wickedness, a man of disquietude and battle, by nature peaceful, and, on this very account, an enemy to those who pollute the desirable beauty of peace. ### Section 50 [¶22] "I have done no good to them, nor have they done any good to me;" nor have they even derived any advantage from my good things, nor have I from their evil things; but according to the word of Moses, "I have received no desirable thing from any one of them," Numbers xvi. 15. Numbers xvi. 15. inasmuch as I look upon as exceedingly pernicious every object of their desire, which they treasure up in their hearts as the greatest possible advantage; ### Section 51 [¶24] "Nor has my strength failed by reason of the curses which they laid upon me;" Psalm lxxix. 7. but embracing the divine doctrines with my most earnest power, I was not wearied so as to give up, but rather I vigorously reproached those who cursed me from their hearts.