XXII. (119) Having now, therefore, said what was proper on the subject of fugitives, we will proceed with what follows in the regular order of the context. In the first place it is said, “The angel of the Lord found her in the Way,”{28}{#ge 16:7.} pitying the soul which out of modesty had voluntarily committed the danger of wandering about, and very nearly becoming a conductor of her return to opinion void of error. (120) It is desirable also not to pass over in silence the things which are said in a philosophical strain by the lawgiver on the subject of discovery and investigation; for he represents some persons as neither investigating nor discovering anything, others as succeeding in both these paths, others as having chosen only one of them; of which last class some who seek do not find, and others find without having sought. (121) Those, then, who have no desire for either discovery or investigation have shamefully debased their reason by ignorance and indifference, and though they had it in their power to see acutely, they have become blind. Thus he says that “Lot’s wife turning backwards became a pillar of Salt;”{29}{#ge 19:26.} not here inventing a fable, but pointing out the proper nature of the event. (122) For whoever despises his teacher, and under the influence of an innate and habitual indolence forsakes what is in front of him, by means of which it may be in his power to see, and to hear, and to exert his other powers, so as to form a judgment in things of nature, and turns his head round so as to keep his eyes on what is behind him, that man has an admiration for blindness in the affairs of life, as well as in the parts of the body, and becomes a pillar, like a lifeless and senseless stone. (123) For, as Moses says, “such men have not hearts to understand, nor eyes to see, nor ears to Hear,”{30}{#de 29:4.} but make the whole of their life blind, and deaf, and senseless and mutilated in every respect, so as not to be worth living, caring for none of those matters which deserve their attention.
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