A Treatise on the Confusion of Languages.

 I. (1) As to the preceding topics, what has been already said will be sufficient. We might next proceed to consider, and that in no slight or cursory

 II. (2) Those who are discontented at the constitution under which their fathers have lived, being always eager to blame and to accuse the laws, being

 III. (6) And there is also another story akin to this, related by the deviser of fables, concerning the sameness of language existing among animals: f

 IV. (9) But he who brings his account nearer the truth, has distinguished between the rational and irrational animals, so that he testifies that ident

 V. (14) Those, then, who put these things together, and cavil at them, and raise malicious objections, will be easily refuted separately by those who

 VI. (16) Now who is there who does not know the great influence of fortune, when men, in addition to the diseases or mutilations of the body, are atta

 VII. (21) Let us now again in its turn consider what is the united body of evils voluntarily incurred. Our souls being capable of being divided into t

 VIII. (26) These are they who made a treaty with one another in the valley of Salt.[Ge 14:3.] For the region of the vices and of the passions is a h

 IX. (29) But Moses, the prophet of God, will meet them and check them, though they come on with exceeding boldness even though, placing in the front

 X. (33) It is very appropriately said that the meeting took place on the bank of the river but the banks are also called the lips, and the lips are t

 XI. (39) But many, who are not able vigorously to refute the plausible inventions of the sophists, because they have not very much practised discussio

 XII. (44) And there is testimony in support of this assertion of mine first of all, in the disposition of every lover of virtue which acknowledges th

 XIII. (49) These and other similar gifts are the most desirable treasures of peace, that blessing so celebrated and so admired, which the mind of each

 XIV. (60) But those who conspired to commit injustice, he says, having come from the east, found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt There [Ge

 XV. (64) But an example of the worse kind of dawning is afforded by the words used by the man who was willing to curse the people who were blessed by

 XVI. (70) Accordingly, the body-loving race of the Egyptians is represented as fleeing, not from the water, but under the water, that is to say, ben

 XVII. (75) And take notice that Moses does not say that they came unto a plain in which they remain, but that they found one, having searched around

 XVIII. (83) But the wicked man, desiring to exhibit the fact that identity of language, and the sameness of dialect does not consist more in names and

 XX. (91) And before now some persons, even more excessively extravagant in wickedness than these, have not only prepared their own souls for such acti

 XXI. (98) But he says that the world perceptible to the outward senses is, as it were, the footstool of God on this account: first of all, that he may

 XXII. (101) And they are represented as baking the bricks in the fire, for the purpose of intimating by this symbolical expression that they are stren

 XXIII. (107) And the expression, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, the top of which shall reach to heaven, has such a meaning as this

 XXIV. (116) For they say, Let us make for ourselves a name. O, the excessive and profligate impudence of such a saying! What say ye? When ye ought t

 XXV. (122) But all these men are the offspring of that wickedness which is always dying but which never dies, the name of which is Cain. Is not Cain r

 XXVI. (128) The children who have received from their father the inheritance of self-love are eager to go on increasing up to heaven, until justice, w

 XXVII. (134) And the statement, The Lord went down to see that city and that tower must be listened to altogether as if spoken in a figurative sense

 XXVIII. (142) We say that this is the reason why it is said that God went down to see the city and the tower and the addition, Which the sons of men

 XXIX. (150) But against those who praise themselves on justice, the Lord said, Behold, there is one race and one language among them all, an express

 XXX. (156) What, then, is the proof that they had not entirely completed this building? First of all, the manifest notoriety of the fact. For it is im

 XXXI. (159) At all events, the law says that that soothsayer and diviner who was led into folly in respect of his unstable conjectures (for the name,

 XXXII. (163) These things are an exhibition of a soul destitute of prudence, and which meets with no impediment to its indulging in sin for whoever i

 XXXIII. (168) And it is worth while to consider in no superficial manner what the meaning of that expression which is put by Moses into the mouth of G

 XXXIV. (171) This point then being thus granted, it is necessary to convert with it also what follows, so as to adapt it properly. Let us then conside

 XXXV. (176) These things, then, it was necessary to give an idea of beforehand but for what reason this was necessary we must now say. The nature of

 XXXVI. (180) And this may be enough to say in this manner and it is right that this point also should be considered, namely that God is the cause onl

 XXXVII. (183) We must now examine what this confusion is. How then shall we enter on this examination? In this manner, in my opinion. We have very oft

 XXXVIII. (190) This, now, is our opinion upon and interpretation of this passage. But they who follow only what is plain and easy, think that what is

XVI. (70) Accordingly, the body-loving race of the Egyptians is represented as fleeing, not from the water, but "under the water," that is to say, beneath the impetuous speed of the passions. And when it has once placed itself under the power of the passions, it is shaken and agitated; it casts away the stable and peaceable qualities of virtue, and takes up in their stead the turbulent and confused character of wickedness; for it is said that "God shook the Egyptians in the middle of the sea, fleeing under the Water."[Ex 14:27.] (71) These are they who neither knew Joseph--the diversified pride of life--but who, having their sins revealed, have not received any trace, or shade, or image of goodness and excellence. (72) For, says Moses, "Another king arose over the Egyptians who knew not Joseph,"[Ex 1:8.] the latest and most modern good perceptible by the outward senses, who utterly destroyed not only the perfections but even all improvements, and all the energy which can be exerted by the sight, and all the teaching which can be implanted by means of the hearing, saying, "Come, curse me Jacob; and come, defy Israel for Me;"[numbers 23:7.] an expression which is equivalent to, Destroy both these things, the sight and the hearing of the soul, that it may neither see nor hear any true and genuine good thing; for Israel is the emblem of seeing and Jacob of hearing. (73) Accordingly the mind of such persons rejects the nature of good, being in some degree shaken; and, on the other hand, the mind of good persons, setting up a claim to the unmingled and unalloyed ideas of good things, shakes off and discards all that is evil. (74) Consider, therefore, what the practiser of virtue says: "Take up the foreign gods that are among you from out of the midst of you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments, and rise up and let us go to Bethel;"[Ge 35:2.] in order that, even if Laban should demand a power of examining, the images might not be found in his whole house, but only such things as have a real subsistence and essence, being fixed like pillars in the mind of the wise man, which the self-taught offspring Isaac has received as his inheritance; for he alone receives his father's substance as his Inheritance."[Ge 25:5.]