XL. (220) This nobleness has been an object of desire not only to God-loving men, but likewise to women, who have discarded the ignorance in which they have been bred up, which taught them to honour, as deities, creatures made with hands, and have learnt instead that knowledge of there being only one supreme Ruler of the universe, by whom the whole world is governed and regulated; (221) for Tamar was a woman from Syria Palestina, who had been bred up in her own native city, which was devoted to the worship of many gods, being full of statues, and images, and, in short, of idols of every kind and description. But when she, emerging, as it were, out of profound darkness, was able to see a slight beam of truth, she then, at the risk of her life, exerted all her energies to arrive at piety, caring little for life if she could not live virtuously; and living virtuously was exactly identical with living for the service of and in constant supplication to the one true God. (222) And yet she, having married two wicked brothers in turn, one after the other, first of all the one who was the husband of her virginity, and lastly him who succeeded to her by the law which enjoined such a marriage, in the case of the first husband not having left any family, but nevertheless, having preserved her own life free from all stain, was able to attain to that fair reputation which falls to the lot of the good, and to be the beginning of nobleness to all those who came after her. But even though she was a foreigner still she was nevertheless a freeborn woman, and born also of freeborn parents of no insignificant importance; (223) but her handmaidens were born of parents who lived on the other side of the Euphrates on the extremities of the country of Babylon, such as were given as part of their dowry to maidens of high rank when they were married, but still were often thought worthy to be taken to the bed of a wise man; and so they first of all were raised from the title of concubines to the name and dignity of wives, and in a short time, I may almost say, instead of being looked upon as handmaidens they were raised to an equality in point of dignity and consideration with their mistresses, and, which is the most extraordinary circumstance of all, were even invited by their mistresses to this position and dignity. For envy does not dwell in the souls of the wise, and whenever that is not present they all have all things in common. (224) And the illegitimate sons borne by those handmaidens differed in no respect from the legitimate children of the real wives, not only in the eyes of the father who begot them, for it is not at all surprising if he who was the father of them all displayed an equal degree of good-will to them all, since they were all equally his children; but they also were equally esteemed by their stepmothers. For they, laying aside all that dislike which women so commonly feel towards their stepsons, changed it into an unceasing affection with which they united themselves to them. (225) And the stepsons, showing a reciprocal good will to them, honoured their stepmothers as if they had been their natural mothers. And their brothers, being separated from them only by the mixture in their blood, nevertheless did not think them worthy of only a half degree of affection, but even increased their feelings so that they entertained a twofold degree of love for them, being equally beloved by them in return; and thus more than filled up what might else have appeared likely to be deficient, showing an eagerness to exhibit the same harmony and union of disposition with them that they did with their brethren by both parents.
Page 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334
