*

* But

the generality of men take for it, but knowledge. then, as some men-who, always remaining in their own houses, while their bodies have been worn away either by long sickness, or old age, still being healthy and vigorous in the better part of their souls, and being full of high thoughts, and inspired with a braver and happier fortitude, never meddling with warlike weapons, even in their dreams, nevertheless by their exposition and advocacy of wise counsels for the common advantage, have often re-established both the private affairs of individuals, and the prosperity of the country when in danger, putting forth unyielding and inflexible reasonings concerning what has been really expedient. These men are they who practice real courage, being studiers and practicers of wisdom. There is also no small number of other things in life very difficult to endure, such as poverty, want of reputation, and diseases, by which weak-spirited men are broken down, not being able to raise themselves at all through want of courage; but those who are full of high thoughts and noble spirits rise up to struggle against these things with fortitude and exceeding vigor.

THE VIRTUOUS ALONE FREE.

My former treatise was intended to prove that every wicked man was a slave, and that proposition I established fully by many natural and unquestionable arguments; and this treatise is akin to that one, in some sort a twin to it, since it will proceed to show that every virtuous man is free.

Now it is said that the most sacred sect of the Pythagoreans, among many other excellent doctrines, taught this one also, that it was not well to proceed by the plain ordinary roads,—not meaning to urge us to walk among precipices, but intimating, by a figurative mode of speech, that we ought not, either in respect to our words or actions, to use only such as are ordinary and unchanged,—and all men who have studied philosophy in a genuine spirit, showing themselves obedient to this injunction, have looked upon it as a sentence, or rather

a law, of equal weight with a divine oracle, and, departing from the common opinions of men, they have cut out for themselves a new and hitherto untraveled path, inaccessible to such as have no experience of wise maxims and doctrines, building up systems of ideas which no one who is not pure either can or may handle. When I speak of men not being pure, I mean those who have either been destitute of education, or else have tasted of it obliquely, and not in a straightforward manner, changing the stamp of the beauty of wisdom so as to give an impression of the unsightliness of sophistry.

*

Slavery is of two kinds-of the soul and of the body. * * * For in real truth, that man alone is free who has God for his leader; indeed, in my opinion, that man is even the ruler of all others, and has all the affairs of the world committed to him, being, as it were, the viceroy of a great king, the mortal lieutenant of an immortal sovereign. * * * *

If any one examine closely the matter (of freedom) he will see clearly that there is no one thing so nearly related to another as independence of action, on which account there are a great many things which stand in the way of the liberty of a wicked man: coveteousness of money, the desire of glory, the love of pleasure, and so on. But the virtuous man has absolutely no obstacle at all, since he rises up against, and resists, and overthrows, and tramples on, fear and cowardice, and pain, and all things of the kind, as if they were rivals defeated by him in the public games. For he has learned to disregard all the commands which those most unlawful masters of the soul seek to impose upon him, out of his admiration and desire for freedom, of which independence and spontaneousness of action are the most essential and inalienable inheritance; and by some persons the poet (Euripides) is praised who composed the iambic,

"No man's a slave who does not fear to die,"

as having had an accurate idea of the consequences of such courage.

FRAGMENTS FROM LOST OR UNPUBLISHED WORKS.

It is not possible with God that a wicked man should lose his good reward for a single good thing which he may have done among a number of evil actions; nor, on the other hand, that a good man should escape punishment and not suffer it, if, among many good actions, he has done wickedly in anything, for it is infallibly certain that God distributes everything according to a just weight and balance.

-The mind is the witness, to each individual, of the things which they have planned in secret, and conscience is an incorruptible judge, and the most unerring of all judges.

-No wicked man is rich, not even though he be the owner of all the mines in the world; but all foolish men are poor. Every foolish man is straitened, being oppressed by coveteousness, and ambition, and love of pleasure, and things of that sort, which do not permit the mind to dwell at ease or enjoy plenty of room.

-The wise man endeavors to secure quiet and leisure, and periods of rest from work, that he may devote himself peacefully to mediations on divine matters.

-If any one embraces all the virtues with earnestness and sobriety, he is a king, even though he may be in private station.

-Say what is right, and at the time when it is right, and you will not hear what is not right.

-Every wise man is a friend of God.

-There is nothing so opposite to and inconsistent with the most holy power of God as injustice.

-The influx of evils agitates and disturbs the soul, enveloping it in a giddiness which darkens its perceptions, and compels it to suffer that power of sight which by nature was pre-eminent, but which by habit has become blinded, to be obscured.

-All the powers of God are winged, being always eager and striving for the higher path which leads to the Father.

-The man who lives in wickedness, bears about destruction with him, since he has living with him that which is both treacherous, designing, and hostile to him. For the conscience of the wicked is alone a sufficient punishment to him, inflicting cowardice on his soul from its own inmost feelings, as it feared blows.

-Good men are of more value than whole nations, since they support cities and constitutions as buttresses support large houses.

-There is no place on earth more sacred than the mind of a wise man, while all the virtues hover around like so many

stars.

-No one may so far yield to unreasonable folly as to boast that he has seen the invisible God.

-As pillars support whole houses, so also do the divine. powers support the whole world.

-Justice, above all things, conduces to the safety, both of mankind, and of the parts of the world, earth, and heaven.

-Every soul which piety fertilizes with its own mysteries is necessarily awake to all holy services, and eager for the contemplation of those things which are worth being seen, for this is the feeling of the soul at the great festival, and this is the true season of joy.

—If you have a great deal of wealth, take care and do not be carried away by its overflow; but endeavor to take hold of some dry ground, in order to establish your mind with proper firmness; and this will be the proper exertion of justice and fairness. And if you have abundant supplies of all the things requisite for the indulgence of those passions which lie beneath the belly, be not carried away by such plenty, but oppose to them a saving degree of contentedness, taking in this way dry ground to stand on, instead of an absorbing quicksand.

-The most perfect and greatest of all good things are usually the result of laborious exercise and energetic, vigorous

labor. It is absurd for a man who is in pursuit of honors to flee from labors by which honors are acquired.

-The extremity of happiness is to rest unchangeably and immovably on God alone.

-When you are entreated to pardon offenses, pardon willingly those who have offended against you, because indulgence given in requital for indulgence, and reconciliation with our fellow-servants, is a means of diverting the divine anger.

-The virtuous man is a lover of his race, merciful and inclined to pardon, and never bears ill-will toward any man whatever, but thinks it right to surpass in doing good rather than in injuring.

-Let us not fear the diseases which come upon us from without, but those offenses on which account diseases come, diseases of the soul, rather than of the body,

MODERN JUDAISM.

CHURCH AND STATE.

Religion is universal; theology is exclusive. Religion is humanitarian; theology is sectarian. Religion unites mankind; theology divides it. Religion is love, broad and allcomprising as God's love; theology preaches love and practices bigotry. Religion looks to the moral worth of man; theology to his creed and denomination. Religion teaches us, as Vice-President Colfax so beautifully expresses it, "The common fatherhood of God, and the common brotherhood of man;" theology teaches predestination, eternal damnation, and that we rather should fear the anger of God, than trust to His paternal love and mercy. Religion, therefore, is light and love, and virtue and peace, unadulterated and immaculate; but theology is the apple of discord, which disunites and estranges us from one another. The sorrowful fact is that we have too