Complete Works of Philo Judaeus (Vol. 6)

immovable decrees. For our own opinions, being prone to error because they are coupled with a mortal body, reasonably admit of turns and changes, but the things of the nature of the whole are immutable, since it prevails over all, and through the certainty of things once known, it guards the limits set from the beginning as immovable. If, therefore, it was considered fitting to be born perfect, even now a human would be born perfect, not becoming an infant, not a child, not a youth, but being a man immediately, and perhaps even ageless and immortal in every way; for to him growth and decline do not belong. For the changes up to the age of manhood consist in growth, while those from this point until old age and death consist in decline. To one not participating in the former, it is reasonable that the following do not occur. What was hindering humans from sprouting up now, just as they say they did before? The earth has not yet grown old, so as to seem barren due to length of time; but it remains in a similar state, always youthful, because it is the fourth part of the whole, and for the sake of the permanence of the whole it is required not to waste away, since its sister elements, water, air, and fire, continue ageless. A clear proof of the undistanced and eternal peak around the earth is the things that grow. For when cleansed either by the overflowing of rivers, as they say of Egypt, or by the annual rains, it is relieved and loosened from the weariness of decay, and then, having rested, it regains its own power until full strength, then begins again the generation of similar things, giving back abundant nourishment to all kinds of animals. 944 P.

§. 7. Wherefore it seems to me not off the mark for poets to call her Pandora, gifting everything, both things for benefit and for the enjoyment of pleasure, not to some, but to all that share in a soul. If 494 M.