Works of Philo of Alexandria

Philo — Works Vol. I, Yonge — Section 104

XIX. " And a river goes forth out of Eden to water the Paradise. From thence it is separated into four heads : the name of the one is Pheison. That is the one which encircles the whole land of Evilat. There is the country where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. There also are the car- buncle and the sapphire stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon ; this is that which encircles the whole land of Ethiopia. And the third river is the Tigris. This is the river which flows in front of the Assyrians. And the fourth river is the Euphrates."* In these words Moses intends to sketch out the particular virtues. And they also are four in number, prudence, temperance, courage, and justice. Now the greatest river from which the four branches flow off, is generic virtue, which we have already called goodness ; and the four branches are the same number of virtues. Generic virtue, therefore, derives its beginning from Eden, which is the wisdom of God ■ which rejoices and exults, and triumphs, being delighted at and honoured on account of nothing else, except its Father, God. And the four particular virtues, are branches from the generic virtue, which like a river waters all the good actions of each, with an abundant stream of benefits. Let us examine the expressions of the writer: "A river," says he, "goes forth out of Eden, to water the Paradise.'' This river is generic goodness ; and this issues forth out of the Eden of the wisdom of God, and that is the word of God. For it is according to the word of God, that generic virtue was created. And generic virtue waters the Paradise : that is to say, it waters the particular virtues. But it does not derive its beginnings from any principle of locality, but from a principle of pre-eminence. For each of the virtues is really and truly a ruler and a queen. And the expression, " is separated," is equivalent to "is marked off by fixed boundaries ;" since wis- dom appoints them settled limits with reference to what is to be done. Courage with respect to what is to be endured ; temperance with reference to what is to be chosen ; and justice respect of what is to be distributed.