Complete Works of Philo Judaeus, Vol. 2

The search for the beautiful is enough to bring joy, even if the end is not attained. But we share in the sorrow of the self-loving Cain, because he has left his own soul without an image of the Existent, having voluntarily blinded the only faculty with which it could see.

§. 7. It is worth considering also the vice, into which he is sent from the presence of God, since it is called "wavering" original: "Naid" (Hebrew: Wanderings); for the lawgiver shows that he who uses restless and unstable impulses endures wavering and agitation, like a surging sea in the winter season under opposing winds, and he has not sensed calm or stillness even in a dream. And just as when a ship is wavering while at sea, it is then capable of neither sailing nor anchoring, and being carried here and there, it leans to either side, and while at sea it tilts against itself; so the base man, using a frantic and storm-tossed mind, unable to direct his own voyage without stumbling, is always wavering, studying the overthrow of life. And the sequence of the connection strikes me not a little; for it happens that that which approaches the Standing One longs for quietness due to the desire for likeness. Now, that which stands firmly is God, and that which is moved is creation. So, he who approaches God longs for stability, but he who departs, as he approaches creation which is changing, is naturally carried away.

§. 8. For this reason it is written in the curses, that

"You shall not find rest, nor shall there be a standing for the sole of your foot original: "Deut. 28, 65.";"
and a little later that
"Your life will be hanging opposite your eyes original: "Ibid. v. 66."."
For the fool is naturally always moving around the right reason, hostile to quiet and rest, and standing firmly on no dogma and being supported. At one time he holds certain opinions, and at another, different ones, and regarding the same things he sometimes, with no new event occurring, holds the opposite: big and small, and enemy and friend, and, to speak briefly, becoming all conflicting things in an instant.