PHILO JUDÆUS.

were consistent with his words. He exhibited a perfect harmony between his language and his life, so that his words matched his life and his life matched his words, like people playing in tune together on a musical instrument.

Therefore, men in general, even if the slightest breeze of prosperity blows their way for a moment, become puffed up and give themselves great airs. They become insolent toward those in a lower condition than themselves, calling them "the dregs of the earth," "annoyances," "burdens of the earth," and all sorts of names of that kind, as if they were able to establish their prosperity on a solid, unchangeable foundation. Yet, very likely, they will not remain in that condition even until tomorrow, for there is nothing more inconstant than fortune, which tosses human affairs up and down like dice. Often, a single day has cast down a man previously placed on an eminence and raised a lowly man on high. While men see these events take place continually and are well assured of the fact, they still overlook their relations and friends, transgress the laws under which they were born, and overturn their national, hereditary customs—to which no just blame is attached—choosing to dwell in a foreign land and, because of their cordial reception of the customs among which they are living, no longer remembering a single one of their ancient traditions.

VII. But Moses, having now reached the very highest point of human good fortune and being looked upon as the grandson of this mighty king—being almost considered by everyone as the future inheritor of his grandfather's kingdom and addressed as the "young prince"—still felt a desire for and admiration of the education of his kinsmen and ancestors. He considered all the things thought good among those who had adopted him to be spurious (fake or illegitimate), even though they might have a brilliant appearance due to the current state of affairs; while those things valued by his natural parents, even though they might be obscure for a time, were at least akin to him and genuinely good.

Accordingly, like an uncorrupt judge of both his real parents