Philonis Judaei Opera Omnia (Vol. 7)

Second, both generate, both the virtuous mind and the depraved, yet they generate in a different way and in opposite ways: the virtuous generates good and useful things, but the depraved or evil generates base and useless things. Third, he who is still progressing and is to be invited to the very summit is near to the light, which among some is said to have been consigned to oblivion and to be unknown: he, therefore, as he is progressing, generates neither base nor virtuous things, because he is not yet perfect; but he is equal to one who is neither sick nor perfectly healthy in body, but who is still tending toward health from a long illness.

What is the meaning of: She had an Egyptian handmaid, whose name was Hagar? Genesis 16:1

§. 19. Hagar is explained as "pilgrimage," and she is a servant of a more perfect nature; by the Egyptian nation, too naturally: for the study of encyclical discipline preliminary/liberal studies loves the abundance of knowledge, and abundant knowledge is like a handmaid to virtue. For the complex of sciences and arts serves him who knows how to progress in the acquisition of it toward acquiring virtue. For virtue has its dwelling in the soul, but the complex of sciences and arts needs bodily instruments. The body, however, is symbolically Egypt, therefore he rightly asserted the Egyptian form of the encyclical studies. Nevertheless, on account of this, he also named her "pilgrimage," for sophistry is a stranger to...