10 



Indiana University Studies 



Twice each day they are accustomed to pray, about dawn and 

 toward evening. When the sun is ri-ing they entreat God that the 

 good day may be for them the true kind of a good day. and that 

 theii' minds may be filled with heavenly light; and at sunset that 

 their souls having been completely freed from the burden of sensa- 

 tions and sensible things may trace out truth as it exists in its own 

 council-chamber and inner sanctuary. But the entire interval between 

 morning and evening is devoted to the practice of philosophy; for 

 taking up the reading of the Holy Scriptures, they philosophize and 

 interpret allegorically their native code of laws, since they regard 

 the words of the literal interpretation as symbols of a hidden nature 

 revealed only in such figures of -peech. They ha^'e. besides, writings 

 of men of olden time, Avho having been the founders of the sect 

 have left behind them many memorials of the real ideas wrapped 

 (M. 476) up in these allegories.^' These writings they use as examples, 

 as it were, and so try to imitate their manner of persuasion. So they 

 do not indulge in speculation only, ljut they. too. compose lyric 

 songs and hymns to God in all varieties of meters and melodies which 

 they write out as be-t tlicy can in more dignified rhythms. 



During six days, tlierefore. each person living in seclusion in the 

 places called ■"monasteries"", studies philosophy, never crossing the 

 threshold, and not even looking out of the window. But on the seventh 

 day.-'' they meet together as if for a common assembly, and sit doAvn 

 in order according to their ages Avith appropriate demeanor, keeping 

 their hands inside their garments, their right hand l^etAveenthe chest 



not. Avhf'ii abed, lie awake to talk with God. He can visit iis while we sleep, 

 and caiiM' us then to hear his voice. Onr heart ofttimes wakes when we sleep: 

 and God can speak to that, either by words, by Proverbs, by >"Signs. and 

 Similitudes, as well as if one was aAvake." 



" Altho the Alexandrians believed in the inspiration of the Scriptures, 

 the}' also adopted the Platonic maxim that "•Nothing is to be believed which 

 is unworthy of God." Here we have the underlying principle of Allegorism. 

 Clement of Alexandria expresses it well in his Homilit^ II. 40: -'ir '^e\dev r, 

 ypadh' Kara rov Beov -tbEvdog eoriv. Tlie initiated also refused to explain every- 

 thing to others, and here comes in the doctrine of "Reserve"" which is but 

 the well-known "■medicinal lie"" of Plato. 



-''The Jewish observance of the Sabbath had spread and in Philo's day 

 man}^ others besides .Jews had come to recognize its value and to respect its 

 observance. Philo says m 2. 1.37: "'Barbarians. Hellenes. ^lainhmders. 

 Islanders, races of the East and West. Europe. Asia, the entire inhaljited world 

 from end to end [observe Jewish law]. For who lias not prized and honoured 

 the Holy Sabbath, b}' granting respite from toil and a period of ease both to 

 himself and to his neighbors, not to the free only but to the slaves, nay qyqii 

 to the beasts of burthen" fConybeare's translation). 



