---
title: "On the Meeting for the sake of receiving Instructions"
author: "Philo of Alexandria"
translator: "C. D. Yonge"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Second Temple"
section: 6 of 14
url: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg016-yonge-ogl/6/
cite: "Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge, On the Meeting for the sake of receiving Instructions, section 6. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg016-yonge-ogl/6/"
---

# On the Meeting for the sake of receiving Instructions

*Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge*

## 6. Section 65

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg016-yonge-ogl/6/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg016-yonge-ogl/6/#p-N

[¶0] But still what advantage is derived from all that is said? For men, instead of attending, turn their mind in other directions, some to marine and mercantile affairs, others to rents and agriculture; some to public honours and affairs of state, some to the gains to be derived from each different profession and art, others to revenging themselves upon their enemies, others again to the enjoyments to be derived from the indulgence of the amorous appetites, and in short every body is under the influence of some distracting idea or other; so that, as far as the subjects of the discussion are concerned, they are completely deaf, and are present with their bodies only, but are at a distance as to their minds, being in no particular different from images or statues.

### Section 66

[¶2] And if any persons do attend, they sit all that time only listening, and when they have departed they do not recollect a word of what has been said, but they have come in fact rather to be pleased through the medium of their hearing than with the view of deriving any solid advantage; Genesis xxv. 27. Genesis xvi 2. so that their soul has not been able to comprehend anything or to become pregnant with any new idea, and even the cause which at first excited their pleasure soon ceases and their attention is extinguished.

### Section 67

[¶4] There is a third kind of persons to whom what is said is for a time attended to and remembered, as if still sounding in their ears; but still they are found to be sophists rather than philosophers: of these men the language indeed is praiseworthy but the life is blameable; for they are powerful at speaking, but have no ability to do what is best.

### Section 68

[¶6] It is therefore hardly possible to find a man who is inclined to attend and endowed with a good memory, honouring deeds rather than words; as is testified to in the praise of the man fond of hearing in the the words, "He listened to the voice of Sarah." For he is not represented merely as hearing but also as listening to: and this last is a particularly felicitous expression to indicate one who approves of and is influenced by what he hears.

### Section 69

[¶8] And the expression, "to the voice," is not inconsiderately or incorrectly used in preference to saying—he listened to Sarah speaking. For it is the especial character of a learner to listen to the voice and words of his teacher; for by these alone is he taught. But he who acquires what is good by practise, and solitary meditation, and not by instruction, does not attend to what is said but rather to those who say it, imitating the lives of those men in their actions which are in each particular irreproachable.

### Section 70

[¶10] For it is said, in the case of Jacob when he was sent away to form a marriage among his kinsmen, "Jacob listened to his mother and his father, and went into Mesopotamia." Genesis xxviii. 7. He listened not to their voice, nor to their words, for it was fitting that he who was an imitator of their actions should be a practiser of virtue not a listener to speeches. For this is the peculiar character of one who is being taught, but the other is the mark of one who is enduring labours, in order that from this instance we may comprehend the difference between a practiser and a learner, the one being regulated with regard to him who is speaking, and the other with regard to his speech.

### Section 71

[¶12] Therefore, continues the sacred historian, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, having taken Hagar, the Egyptian woman, her own handmaiden, ten years after Abraham had begun to Genesis xxviii. 7. dwell in the land of Canaan, gave her to Abraham her "husband, to be his wife." Genesis xvi. 3. Wickedness is by nature an envious, and bitter, and evil-disposed thing, but virtue is gentle, and inclined to communion, and friendly; wishing in every possible manner to benefit those who are well disposed, either by its own power or by the means of others.

### Section 72

[¶14] So now accordingly, as we are not able to become the fathers of children by prudence, she espouses us to her own handmaiden, encyclical instruction, as I have said before, and all but endures to be the bridesmaid and manager of the marriage; for it is said that Sarah herself took this woman and gave her to her own husband.

### Section 73

[¶16] And here it is worth while to raise the question why it is that now again Moses calls the wife of Abraham Sarah, when he had already repeatedly told us what her name was before; for he was not a writer who ever indulged in that worst description of prolixity, tautology. What, then, are we to say? Since she is about to betroth to him the handmaiden of wisdom, encyclical instruction, he says that she did not forget the duty which she owed to her mistress, but knew that she was, both in law and in her master’s feelings, his wife, and that she herself was only such because of necessity and the force of opportunity. And this happens to every man who is fond of learning. And he who has experienced it may be looked upon as the most trustworthy witness to this fact.

### Section 74

[¶18] At all events I, when I was first excited by the stimulus of philosophy to feel a desire for it, when I was very young connected myself with one of her handmaidens, namely, grammar; and all the offspring of which I became the father by her, such as writing, reading, and the acquaintance with the works of the poets and historians, I attributed to the mistress.

### Section 75

[¶20] And at a subsequent time, forming connection with another of her handmaidens, geometry, and admiring her beauty (for she had beautiful symmetry and proportions in all her parts), I still appropriated none of the offspring, but carried them to the citizen wife, and bestowed them on her.

### Section 76

[¶22] I was desirous also to form a similar connection with a third, and she was full of good rhythm, well arranged, and well limbed, and was called music. And by her I became the parent of diatonic, and chromatic, and harmonic, and combined and separate melodies, and all the different concords belonging to fourths and to fifths, Genesis xvi. 3. and to the diapason. And, again, I concealed none of all these things, in order that my legitimate citizen wife might become wealthy, being ministered unto by a multitude of ten thousand servants;

### Section 77

[¶24] for some men, being attracted by the charms of handmaidens, have neglected their true mistress, philosophy, and have grown old, some in poetry, and others in the study of painting, and others in the mixture of colours, and others in ten thousand other pursuits, without ever being able to return to the proper mistress;