The Final Word: Philo Judaeus — Jewish Theologian and Philosopher (20 BC—50 AD) from his book, A Treatise on the Life of the Wise Man Made PerfectWickedness is a very multiform and extensive thing, on which account it is known to many persons; but virtue is rare, so that it is not comprehended even by a few. And besides, the bad man runs about through the market-place, and theatres, and courts of justice, and council halls, and assem-blies, and every meeting and collection of men whatever, like one who lives with and for curiosity, letting loose his tongue in immoderate, and interminable, and indiscriminate conversation, confus-ing and disturbing every thing, mixing up what is true with what is false, what is unspeakable with what is public, private with public things, things profane with things sacred, what is ridiculous with what is excellent, from never having been instructed in what is the most excellent thing in season, namely silence. And pricking up his ears, because of the abundance of his leisure, and his superflu-ous curiosity, and love of interference, he is eager to make himself acquainted with the business of other people, whether good or bad; for the bad man is by nature envious and a hater of all that is good, and a lover of all that is evil. But the good man, on the contrary, is a lover of that mode of life which is not troubled by busi-ness, and withdraws, and loves solitude, desiring to escape the notice of the many, not out of misanthropy, for he is a lover of mankind, if any one in the world is so, but because he eschews wickedness, which the multitude eagerly embraces.
|