The Second Book of the Treatise on The Allegories of the Sacred Laws, after the Work of the Six Days of Creation.

 I. (1) And the Lord God said, It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help meet for him. Why, O prophet, is it not good for man to be

 II. (4) But it is not good for any man to be alone. For there are two kinds of men, the one made according to the image of God, the other fashioned ou

 III. (6) As, according to the most skilful physicians and natural philosophers, the heart appears to be formed before the rest of the body, after the

 IV. (9) Now of assistants there are two kinds, the one consisting in the passions and the other in the sensations. [...][A word or two are lost here.

 V. (14) This therefore he denominated the species of assistants, but the other part of the creation, the description, that is, of the formation of the

 VI. (16) But the moral meaning of this passage is as follows:--We often use the expression ti instead of dia ti (why?) as when we say, why (ti) have

 VII. (19) And God cast a deep trance upon Adam, and sent him to sleep and he took one of his ribs, and so on. The literal statement conveyed in the

 VIII. For immediately after the creation of the mind it was necessary that the external sense should be created, as an assistant and ally of the mind

 IX. (31) After this preface we must now proceed to explain the words: The Lord God, says Moses, cast a deep trance upon Adam, and sent him to sleep

 X. (35) He took one of his ribs. He took one of the many powers of the mind, namely, that power which dwells in the outward senses. And when he uses

 XI. (38) And he filled the space with flesh instead of it. That is to say, he filled up that external sense which exists according to habit, leading

 XII. (40) And he brought her to Adam. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. God leads the external sense, existing acco

 XIII. (44) And she shall be called woman. This is equivalent to saying, On this account the outward sensation shall be called woman, because it is d

 XIV. (49) On this account a man will leave his father and his mother and will cleave to his wife and they two shall become one flesh. On account of

 XV. (53) And they were both naked, both Adam and his wife, and they were not ashamed but the serpent was the most subtle of all the beasts that were

 XVI. (60) This is the most excellent nakedness, but the other nakedness is of a contrary nature, being a change which involves a deprivation of virtue

 XVII. (65) And the expression, they were not ashamed, we will examine hereafter: for there are three ideas brought forward in this passage. Shameles

 XVIII. (71) Now the serpent was the most subtle of all the beasts which are upon the earth, which the Lord God Made.[Ge 3:1.] Two things having been

 XIX. (76) Why need we enlarge on the pleasures of the belly? For we may almost say that there are as may varieties of pleasure as there are of gentle

 XX. (79) How, then, can there be any remedy for this evil? When another serpent is created, the enemy of the serpent which came to Eve, namely, the wo

 XXI. (82) Do you not see that wisdom when dominant, which is Sarah, says, For whosoever shall hear it shall rejoice with Me.[Ge 21:6.] But suppose t

 XXII. (87) See now the difference between him who turns to sin in the desert and him who sins in Egypt. For the one is bitten by serpents which cause

 XXIII. (90) Well, therefore, does the Godloving Moses answer. For truly the actions of the virtuous man are supported by education as by a rod, tranqu

 XXIV. (94) Such a serpent Jacob boasts that Dan is, and he speaks thus: Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel:[Ge 49:16.] and ag

 XXV. (99) Biting the heel of the horse,--Very consistently the disposition which shakes the stability of the created and perishable being is called

 XXVI. (103) And we must also inquire, what is the reason why Jacob says, that the rider will fall Backward,[Ge 49:17.] and Moses says, that the hor

III. (6) As, according to the most skilful physicians and natural philosophers, the heart appears to be formed before the rest of the body, after the manner of the foundation of a house or the keel of a ship, and then the rest of the body is built upon it; on which account, even after death, the physicians say, that the heart still quivers, as having been created before the rest of the body, and being destroyed after it; so also does the dominant portion of the soul appear to be older than the whole of the soul, and the irrational part to be younger; the formation of which Moses has not yet mentioned, but he is about to give a sketch of it, how the irrational part of the soul is the external sensation, and the passions which spring from it, especially if the judgments are our own. And this assistant of God is younger, and created, being thus described with perfect propriety. (7) But now let us see how that part, which was postponed before, acts as an assistant: how does our mind comprehend that such and such a thing is black or white, unless it employs sight as its assistant? and how does it know that the voice of the man who is singing to his harp is sweet, or, on the contrary, out of tune, if it has not the assistance of the faculty of hearing to guide it? And how can it tell that exhalations are fragrant or foulsmelling, unless it makes use of the sense of smell as its ally? How again does it judge of the different flavours, except through the instrumentality of its assistant, taste? (8) How can it distinguish between what is rough and what is smooth, except by touch? There is also another class of assistants, as I have already said, namely, the passions: for pleasure also is an assistant, co-operating towards the durability of our race, and in like manner concupiscence, and pain, and fear, biting the soul, lead it to treat nothing with indifference. Anger, again, is a defensive weapon, which has been of great service to many people, and so too have the other passions in the same manner. On which account Moses has said, with great felicity, "that he was an assistant to himself:" for he is in reality an assistant to the mind, as if he were its brother and near kinsman: for the external sensations and the passions are parts of one soul, and are its offspring.