Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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Such a life, he concludes, "is adapted not for those who are called men, but for those who are truly so."2
For those, then, who consciously set their feet upon the ladder of true manhood, there is a Way up even to Deity Itself, for Philo writes :
" Stability, and sure foundation, and eternally abiding in the same, changeless and immovable, is, in the first place, a characteristic of That-which-is ; and, in the second, [a characteristic] of the Eeason (Logos) of That-which-is — which Eeason He hath called his Covenant ; in the third, of the wise man ; and in the fourth, of him who goeth forward [towards wisdom]." 3
How, then, continues Philo, can the wicked mind think that it can stand alone — " when it is swept hither and thither by the eddies of passion, which carry the body forth to burial as a corpse ? "
And a little later on he proceeds to tell us that Eden must be taken to stand for the Wisdom of God.
1 Ibid., § 19 ; M. i. 638, P. 582 (Hi. iii. 239).
2 Ibid., 20 ; M. i. 639, P. 584 (Ri. iii. 241). Of. G. H., x. (xi.)
24.
3 De Svm., ii. § 36 ; M. i. 690, P. 1140 (Ri. iii. 312).
" And the Divine Reason (Logos) floweth down like a river, from Wisdom, as from a source, that it may irrigate and water the heavenly shoots and plants of Virtue-lovers, that grow upon the sacred Mountain of the Gods,1 as though it were a paradise.
THE RIVER OF THE DIVINE REASON
" And this Holy Reason is divided into four sources — I mean it is separated into four virtues — each of which is a queen. For its being divided into sources 2 does not bear any resemblance to division of space, but rather to a sovereignty,3 in order that, having pointed to the virtues, as its boundaries, he ['Moses'] may immediately display the wise man, who makes use of these virtues, as king, elected to kingship, not by the show of men's hands, but by choice of that Nature [namely, Virtue] which alone is truly free, and genuine, and above all bribes. . . .
"Accordingly, one of the companions of Moses, likening this Word (Logos) to a river, says in the Hymns : ' The river of God was filled with water.' 4
" Now it is absurd that any of the rivers flowing on earth should be so called ; but, as it seems, he [the psalmist] clearly signifies the Divine Reason (Logos), full of the flood of Wisdom, having no part of itself bereft or empty [thereof], but rather, as has been said, being entirely diffused throughout the universe, and [again] raised up to the height [thereof], by reason of the perpetual and continuous [circling] course of that eternally flowing fountain.
1 Lit., Olympian.
2 apxal mean sources, but also principles and sovereignties. It is, however, impossible to keep the word-play in English.
3 Or kingdom, namely, " of the heavens," or rulership of the celestial realms, or rather of one's self.
* Ps. Ixv. 9. So also LXX. ; but A.V., " Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water."
" There is also the following song-verse : ' The rapid flow of the river maketh glad the city of God.' l
JERUSALEM ABOVE
" What kind of city ? For what is now the holy city,2 in which is the holy temple, was founded at a distance from sea and rivers ; so that it is clear that [the writer] intends to represent by means of an undermeaning something different from the surface-sense.
" For indeed the stream of the Divine Eeason (Logos) continually flowing on with rapidity and regularity, diffuses all things through all and maketh them glad.
" And in one sense he calls cosmos the City of God, inasmuch as, receiving the whole cup3 of the Divine draught it . . .,* and, being made joyous, it shouteth with a joy that can never be taken away or quenched for the eternity.
" But in another sense [he uses it of] the soul of the wise man, in which God is said to walk as in a city, for ' I will walk in you and I will be your God.' 5
" And for the happy soul that stretches forth its own reasoning 6 as a most holy drinking vessel 7 — who is it that poureth forth the sacred measures of true joy, if not the cup-bearer of God, the [Divine] Reason (Logos), who is master of the feast ? — he who differs not from
1 Ps. xlvi. 4. LXX. has the plural, rivers or streams. A.V. translates : " There is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God."
2 The physical Jerusalem in Palestine.
3 KpaTTjpa, — lit., crater or mixing-bowl.
4 A lacuna occurs here in the text.