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

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 concealed beneath it; the lawgiver does not conceive that those only are cities which are built upon the earth, the materials of which are wood and stone, but he thinks that there are other cities also which men bear about with them, being built in their souls; (108) and these are, as is natural, the archetypes and models of the others, inasmuch as they have received a more divine building, and the others are but imitations of them, as consisting of perishable substances. But there are two species of cities, the one better, the other worse. That is the better which enjoys a democratic government, a constitution which honours equality, the rulers of which are law and justice; and such a constitution as this is a hymn to God. But that is the worse kind which adulterates this constitution, just as base and clipped money is adulterated in the coinage, being, in fact, ochlocracy, which admires inequality, in which injustice and lawlessness bear sway. (109) Now good men are enrolled as citizens in the constitution of the first-mentioned kind of city; but the multitude of the wicked clings to the other and worst sort, loving disorder more than orderliness, and confusion rather than well-established steadiness. (110) And the wicked man seeks for coadjutors in his practice of wickedness, not looking upon himself as sufficient by himself. And he exhorts the sight, and he exhorts the hearing, and he exhorts every outward sense in succession, to range itself on his side without delay, and every one of them to bring to him all things necessary for his service. And he raises up and sharpens all the rest of the company of the passions, which are by their own nature unmanageable, in order that by the addition of practice and care they may become irresistible. (111) The mind, therefore, having called in these allies, says, "Let us build ourselves a city;" an expression equivalent to, Let us fortify our own things; let us fence them around to the best of our power, so that we may not be easily taken by those who attack us; let us divide and distribute, as into tribes and boroughs, each of the powers existing in the soul, allotting some to the rational part, and some to the irrational part; (112) let us choose competent rulers, wealth, glory, honour, pleasure, by means of which we may be able to become masters of everything; banishing to a distance justice, the invariable cause of poverty and ingloriousness; and let us enact laws, which shall confirm the chief power and advantage to those who are always able to get the better of others. (113) And let a tower be built in this city as a citadel, to be a strong palace for the tyrant vice, whose feet shall walk upon the earth, and its head shall, through pride, be raised to such a height as to reach even to heaven; (114) for, in good truth, it rests not only upon human sins, but it also hastens forward as far as heaven, pushing up its words of impiety and ungodliness, since it either speaks of God so as to assert that he has no existence, or that, though he exists, he has no providence, or to affirm that the world had no beginning of creation, or that, admitting that it has been created, it is borne on by unsteady causes, just as chance may direct, at one time wrongly, at another time in an irreproachable manner, just as often happens in the case of chariots or ships. (115) For sometimes the voyage of a ship, or the course of a chariot, goes on properly even without charioteers or pilots; but success is not only now and then owing to providences, but very often to human prudence and invariably to divine, since error is admitted to be altogether incompatible with divine power. Now what object can the foolish man have who, speaking figuratively, build up the reasonings of wickedness like a tower, except the desire of leaving behind them a name which shall be far from a good name?