But it very often happens to the followers of virtue, also, to become languid and to weep, either because they are bewailing the calamities of the foolish, on account of their participation in their common Numbers xi. 4. nature, and their natural love for their race, or through excess of joy. And this excess of joy arises whenever on a sudden an abundance of all kinds of good coming together are showered down to overflowing, without having been previously expected; in reference to which kind of joy it is that the poet appears to me to have used the expression—Smiling amid her tears. Homer’s Iliad, vi. 484.
Section 157
For exceeding joy, the best of all feelings, falling on the soul when completely unexpected, makes it greater than it was before, so that the body can no longer contain it by reason of its bulk and magnitude; and so, being closely packed and pressed down, it distils drops which it is the fashion to call tears, concerning which it is said in the Psalms, "Thou shalt give me to eat bread steeped in tears;" Psalm LXXX. 5. and again, "My tears have been my bread day and night;" Psalm xlii. 3. for the food of the mind are tears such as are visible, proceeding from laughter seated internally and excited by virtuous causes, when the divine desire instilled into our hearts changes the song which was merely the lament of the creature into the hymn of the uncreated God.
Section 158
Some persons then repudiate this mixed and rough multitude, and raise a wall of fortification to keep it from them, rejoicing only in the race which loves God; but some, on the other hand, form associations with it, thinking it desirable to arrange their own lives according to such a system that they can place them on the confines between human and divine virtues, in order that they may touch both those which are virtues in truth and those which are such in appearance.
Section 159
Now the disposition which concerns itself in the affairs of state adheres to this opinion, which disposition it is usual to call Joseph, with whom, when he is about to bring his father, there go up "all the servants of Pharaoh, and the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the whole family of Joseph, himself, and his brothers, and all his father’s house." Genesis 1. 7.
Section 160
You see here that this disposition which is conversant about affairs of state is placed between the house of Pharaoh and his father’s house, in order that it might equally reach the affairs of the body, that is to say, of Egypt; Homer’s Iliad, vi. 484. Psalm xlii. 3. Psalm LXXX. 5. Genesis 1. 7. and those of the soul, which are all laid up in his father’s house as in a treasury; for when he says, "I am of God," Genesis 1. 19. and all the other things which are akin to or connected with him abide among the established laws of his father’s house; and when he mounts up into the second chariot of the mind, which appears to bear sovereign sway, namely, Pharaoh, he is again establishing Egyptian pride.
Section 161
And he is more miserable who is looked upon as a king of considerable renown, and who is born along in the chariot which has the precedence; for to be preeminent in what is not honourable is the most conspicuous disgrace, just as it is a lighter evil to come off second best in such a contest.
Section 162
But you may learn to perceive how wavering a disposition such a man has from the oaths which he swears, swearing at one time "by the health of Pharaoh," Genesis xlii. 16. and then again, on the contrary, "not by the health of Pharaoh." But this latter formula of oath, which contains a negation, looks as if it were the injunction of his father’s house, which is always meditating the destruction of the passions, and wishing that they should die; but the other brings us back to the discipline of Egypt, which desires that these passions should be preserved;
Section 163
on which account, although so great a multitude went up together, he still does not call it a mixed multitude, since to a person who is endowed with a real power of seeing, and who is a lover of virtue, every thing which is not virtue nor an action of virtue, appears to be mixed and confused; but to him who still loves the things of earth, the prizes of earth do by themselves seem to be worthy of love and worthy of honour.
Section 164
Accordingly, as I have already said, the lovers of wisdom will raise a wall of exclusion against the man who, like a drone, has resolved to injure his profitable labours, and who follows him with this object, and he will receive those who, out of their admiration of what is honourable, follow him with a view to imitating him; assigning to each of them that portion which is suited to them; for, says he, "of the men who went with me, Eschol, Annan, and Mamre, shall receive a share." Genesis xiv. 24. And by these names of persons he means dispositions which are good by nature and fond of contemplation;
Section 165
for Eschol is an emblem of a good disposition, having a name of fire, since a good disposition is full of good daring Genesis 1. 19. Genesis xlii. 16. Genesis xiv. 24. and fervour, and adheres to what it has ever applied itself. And Annan is the symbol of a man fond of contemplation; for the name, being interpreted, means "the eyes," from the fact that the eyes of the soul also are opened by cheerfulness; and of both these persons a life of contemplation is the inheritance, which is entitled Mamre, which name is derived from seeing; and to the contemplative man, the faculty of seeing is most appropriate and most peculiarly belonging.
Section 166
But when the mind, having been under the tuition of these trainers, finds nothing wanting for practise, it then proceeds onwards with and accompanies perfect wisdom, not outstripping it nor being outstripped by it, but marching alongside of it step by step, with equal pace. And the words of scripture show this, in which it is distinctly stated that "they both of them went together, and came to the plain which God had mentioned to them:" Genesis xxii. 3.
Section 167
a most excellent equality of virtues, better than any rivalry, an equality of labour with a natural good condition of body, and an equality of art with self-instructed nature, so that both of them are able to carry off equal prizes of virtue; as if the arts of painting and statuary were not only able, as they are at present, to make representations devoid of motion or animation, but were able also to invest the objects which they paint or form with motion and life; for in that case the arts which were previously imitative of the works of nature would appear now to have become the natures themselves.
Section 168
But whoever is raised on high to such a sublime elevation will never any more allow any of the portions of his soul to dwell below among mortal men, but will draw them all up to himself as if they were suspended by a rope; for which reason a sacred injunction of the following purport was given to the wise man, "Go thou up to thy Lord, thou, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel." Exodus xxiv. 1.