--- title: "On Three Virtues, that is to say, on Courage, Humanity, and Repentance" author: "Philo of Alexandria" translator: "C. D. Yonge" languages: [en] shelf: "Second Temple" section: 14 of 18 url: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg025-yonge-ogl/14/ cite: "Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge, On Three Virtues, that is to say, on Courage, Humanity, and Repentance, section 14. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg025-yonge-ogl/14/" --- # On Three Virtues, that is to say, on Courage, Humanity, and Repentance *Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge* ## 14. Section 167 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg025-yonge-ogl/14/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg025-yonge-ogl/14/#p-N [¶0] but it is right rather that the wise and prudent man should, to the best of his power, endeavour to bring his neighbours also into the same condition; and that the temperate man should seek to make others temperate, the brave man to make others courageous, the righteous man to make others just, and in short every good man ought to try to make everyone else good; for these qualities are, as it seems, powers, which the virtuous man will cling to as his own; but infirmity and weakness, on the contrary, are inconsistent with a virtuous character. Deuteronomy viii. 18. ### Section 168 [¶2] And in another place also the lawgiver gives this precept, which is most becoming and suitable to a rational nature, that men should imitate God to the best of their power, omitting nothing which can possibly contribute to such a similarity as the case admits of. Since then you have received strength from a being who is more powerful than you, give others a share of that strength, distributing among them the benefits which you have received yourself, in order that you may imitate God by bestowing gifts like his; ### Section 169 [¶4] for all the gifts of the supreme Ruler are of common advantage to all men; and he gives them to some individuals, not in order that they when they have received them may hide them out of sight, or employ them to the injury of others, but in order that they may bring them into the common stock, and invite all those whom they can find to use and enjoy them with them. ### Section 170 [¶6] We say therefore, that the men possessed of great riches, and of high renown, and of great strength of body, and of great learning, ought to endeavour to make everyone with whom they meet, rich, and strong, and learned, and in short good, and that they ought not to prefer envy and jealousy to virtue, so as to oppose those who might otherwise attain to prosperity; ### Section 171 [¶8] and the law has very beautifully brought those who are inflated by arrogance, and are altogether possessed by incurable pride, not before the tribunal of men, but before the judgment seat of God, to which alone it has assigned the office of judging them; for it says, "Whosoever attempts to do anything in a haughty arrogant manner, makes God Angry." Numbers xv. 30. ### Section 172 [¶10] Why so, because in the first place, haughty arrogance is a vice of the soul; but the soul is invisible to any one but God. And anyone who punishes, if he does so blindly, is blameable, as ignorance is his accuser: but if he does so with his eyes open, he is to be praised as doing everything with knowledge; and secondly, because every haughty arrogant man is full of vain groundless pride, looks upon himself as neither man nor demigod, but rather as an actual deity, as Pindar says, Pindar says nothing of the sort. The passage which Philo appears to allude to is the beginning of the second Olympic Ode: ἀναξίφόρμιγγες ὕμνοι τίνα θεὸν τιν᾽ ἡρῶα τίνα δ᾽ ἄνδρα κελαδήσομεν, which Horace has translated, Od. I. xii. 1. Quem virum, aut heroa, lyra, vel acri Tibia sumes celebrare, Clio? Quem Deum?! Cujus recinet jocosa Nomen imago. Numbers xv. 30. Pindar says nothing of the sort. The passage which Philo appears to allude to is the beginning of the second Olympic Ode: ἀναξίφόρμιγγες ὕμνοι τίνα θεὸν τιν᾽ ἡρῶα τίνα δ᾽ ἄνδρα κελαδήσομεν, which Horace has translated, Od. I. xii. 1. Quem virum, aut heroa, lyra, vel acri Tibia sumes celebrare, Clio? Quem Deum?! Cujus recinet jocosa Nomen imago. thinking himself worthy to overstep all the boundaries of human nature. ### Section 173 [¶12] And as the soul of such a man is blameable, so also is his body in all its positions and motions, for he walks on tip-toes, and lifts his head on high, strutting and giving himself airs, and he is elated and puffed up beyond his nature, and though he does see yet it is only with distorted optics, and though he hears he hears amiss; and he treats his servants as though they were cattle, and free men as though they were his slaves, and his kinsmen as strangers, and his friends as flatterers, and citizens as foreigners; ### Section 174 [¶14] and he looks upon himself as the most wealthy, the most distinguished, the most beautiful, the strongest, the wisest, the most prudent, the most righteous, the most rational, and the most learned of all men; and then he looks upon all the rest of mankind as poor, of no reputation, dishonoured, foolish, unjust, ignorant, mere dregs of mankind, entitled to no consideration. Very naturally then such a man will be likely to meet, as the interpreter of the will of God tells us, with God himself as his adversary and chastiser. ### Section 175 [¶16] ON REPENTANCE. [¶17] The most holy Moses, being a lover of virtue, and of honour, and, above all things, of the human race, expects all men everywhere to show themselves admirers of piety and of justice, proposing to them, as to conquerors, great rewards if they repent, namely, a participation in the best of all constitutions, and an enjoyment of all things, whether great or small, which are to be found in it. ### Section 176 [¶19] Now those blessings which are of the greatest importance in the body are good health, without disease; and in a matter of navigation, a successful voyage, without danger; and in the soul, an undying recollection of all things worthy to be remembered. And the blessings of the second class are those which consist of re-establishment, such as a recovery from diseases; a long wished for escape from and safety after great dangers encountered in a voyage, and a recollection which ensues after forgetfulness; the brother and closest relation of which is repentance, which is not indeed ranked in the first and highest class of blessings, but which has the principal in the class next to the first. ### Section 177 [¶21] For absolutely never to do anything wrong at all is a peculiar attribute of God, and perhaps one may also say of a God-like man. But when one has erred, then to change so as to adopt a blameless course of life for the future is the part of a wise man, and of one who is not altogether ignorant of what is expedient. ### Section 178 [¶23] On which account he calls to him all persons of such a disposition as this, and initiates them in his laws, holding out to them admonitions full of reconciliation and friendship, which exhort men to practise sincerity and to reject pride, and to cling to truth and simplicity, those most necessary virtues which, above all others, contribute to happiness; forsaking all the fabulous inventions of foolish men, which their parents, and nurses, and instructors, and innumerable other persons with whom they have been associated, have from their earliest infancy impressed upon their tender souls, implanting in them inextricable errors concerning the knowledge of the most excellent of all things.