A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

312 PHILON. PHILON.
were only of a slender kind, lie was able to work Mundi QOpif 4), matter was looked upon by liinm a
up and combine with skill results at which previous the source of all imperfection and evil (de Justitia.
writers had already arrived. Above all, it was p. 367); whereas in other passages, in which he
necessary that this new philosophy of religion especially brings into notice the non-existence of
should take great care, in unison with the refined matter, God is represented as the creator, as disdoctrine respecting the Deity set forth by Plato tinguished from the mere fashioner of the universe
and others, to represent Jehovah as the absolutely (de Somn. i. p. 632, &c.). Philon could not conperfect existence. It was equally necessary to ceive of the unchangeable, absolutely perfect Deity
represent him as unchangeable, since transition, as the immediate cause of the changeable, imperfect
whether into abetter, a worse, or a similar condition, world; hence the assumption of a mediate cause,
is inconsistent with absolute perfection. (Quod which, with reference as well to the immanent and
deterius potiori insid. p. 202, Leg. alley. ii. pr., transient activity attributed to him for the projecQuod meundus sit incorrupt. p. 500,-de Sacrif: p. tion and realisation of the plan of the universe, as
165, Quod Deus sit immutabilis, p. 275.) The un- to the thinking and speaking faculty of man, dechangeable character of the Deity was defined more signated by one and the same word (d Ahdyos od v
closely as the absolutely simple and uncompounded &ravoia, 43aOies-ros and 7rpOPVPIKis), he designated
(quod mundus sit incorrupt. p. 492, de Nomin. as the divine Logos (de Cherub. p. 162, de Migrat.
nuutat. p. 600), incapable of combination with any Abrah. p. 436, &c., de Vita Mosis, iii. p. 154, &c.),
thing else (Leg. alleg. ii. pr. &c.), in need of nothing within which he then again distinguished on the
else (Leg. alley. ibid.), as the eternal (de Ilumanit. one hand the divine wisdom (the mother of what
p. 386, &c.), exalted above all predicates (quod was brought into existence), and the activity which
Deus sit imomut. p. 281, De Profugis, p. 575), exerts itself by means of speech (Leg. alleg. i. p.
without quality (Leg. alley. i. p. 51, &c.), as the 52, 58, &c., ii. p. 82, de Ebrietate, p. 361, &c., de
exclusively blessed (De Septenario, p. 280, &c.), Sacrif: p. 175, &c.), on the other hand the goodthe exclusively free (de Somn. ii. p. 692). While, ness (d'yao'Trs), the power (dpeTr21, Ceovala, Td
however, it was also recognised that God is incom- Kpi'Tos), and the world-sustaining grace (de Sacrif.
prehensible (adKaTarX7rros, de Somn. i. p. 630), p. 189, Quaest. in Gen. i. 57, de Cherub. p. 143, &c.).
and not even to be reached by thought (dcrepwr'-1- As the pattern (srapd3aeLy/Aa) of the visible world he
ous, de Nomin. mutat. p. 579, &c.), and inexpres- assumed an invisible, spiritual world (KdO'tos adopasible (aciKaroYvcuaroos Kal a`rqlros, de Somn. i. p. 575, TroY, vo'rTos, de Opif. 3, 6, 7, &c.), and this he rede Vit. Mosis, i. p. 614, &c.), and that we can only garded platonically as the collective totality of the
know of his existence (ivrapLs), not of his proper ideas or spiritual forms (Diihne, 1. c. p. 253); the
existence (itea v'r. de Praem. et Poen. p. 415, &c.), principia of the mediate cause he regarded as
nevertheless knowledge of God must be set down powers invisible and divine, though still distinct
as the ultimate object of human efforts (de Sacrif: from the Deity (de Migrat. A b-ra7. p. 464, &c.,
p. 264), and contemplation of God (72 TOO ovr'os ae'a, Dhne, p. 240, &c.); the spiritual world as comof4as seog, de Miyrat. Abrah. p. 462, &c.) must pletely like God, as his shadow (de Opif. M. p. 3,
be attainable; i. e. man by virtue of his likeness to Leg. alleg. iii. p. 106, &c.); the world of sense in
God can participate in the immediate manifestation like manner as divine, by virtue of the spiritual
of him (e1pao'rs?eapy2s, quod deter. pot. izsid. p. forms contained in it (de AlVundi Opif. p. 5). The
221, &c.); and therefore must exert himself in- relation of the world to the Deity lie conceived of
-cessantly in searching for the ultimate foundation partly as the extension (iErTeVeE,) of the latter to
of all that exists (Lie Monarch. i. p. 216, &c.). the former (de Nomin. muttat. p. 582, &c.), or as the
Visible phaenomena are to lead us over to the in- filling of the void by the boundless fulness of God
visible world (de Somn. i. p. 648, &c., de Praewn. et (de Opif: Mund. p. 36, &c.); partly under the image
Poen. p. 414), and to give us the conviction that of effulgence: the primal existence was then
the wisely and the beautifully fashioned world pre- looked upon by him as the pure light which shed
supposes a wise and intelligent cause (de Mlonarch. its beams all around, the Logos as the nearest circle
1. c. de Praem. et P'uen. I. c. de Mundi OpiJic. p. 2); of light proceeding from it, each single power as a
they are to become to us a ladder for getting to separate ray of the primordial light, and the unithe knowledge of God by means of God, and for verse as an illumination of matter, fading away
attaining to immediate contemplation (de Praemz. et more and more in proportion to its distance from
Poen. 1. c., Leg. alley. iii. p. 107). Partly because the primal light (de Somn. i. pp. 638, 641, &c.,
he was unable to raise himself above the old Greek de Praem. et Poen. p. 414, Leg. alleg. i. p. 47, &c.,
axiom, that nothing can be produced out of nothing iii. p. 120, &c.). Thus we already find in Philon
(quod mund. sit incorrupt. p. 488), partly that he in a very distinct form the outlines of the doctrine
might in no way endanger the conviction of the of emanations, which subsequently was further deIabsolute perfection of God, Philon, like the Greek veloped on the one hand by the Gnostics, on the
philosophers, took refuge in the assumption of a other by the Neo-platonists.
lifeless matter, in itself immoveable and non- 2. The MEGARIAN or DIALECTICIAN, was a disexistent, absolutely passive and primeval, and ciple of Diodorus Cronus, and a friend of Zenon,
destitute of quality and forim; and while again he though older than the latter, if. the reading in
conceived this as an unarrangtd and unformed mass, Diogenes La'rtius (vii. 16) is correct. In his
containing within itself the four primal elements Menexenus he mentioned the five daughters of his
(de Chlerub. p. 161, &c., de Plantat. pr. &c.), he teacher (Clem. Alex. Strom. iv. p. 528, a. ed. Potter),
represented the world-fashioning spirit of God as and disputed with him respecting the idea of the
the divider (TOcsu's) and bond (FoGs) of the All possible, and the criteria of the truth of hypotheti(de Alundi Opif. 3, de Somn. i. p. 641, &c., de Plant. cal propositions. With reference to the first point
Noae, 1. c.). In the second connection, conceived Philon approximated to Aristotle, as he recognized
as something subordinate to, and resisting the that not only what is, or will be, is possible (as
divine arrangement (quis rer div. haer. p. 495, de Diodorus liaintaiined), but also Chat is in itsil'