The library · Edition and sources
Philo: On the Birth of Abel
C. D. Yonge (1854–1855) · Translated text with edition notes
Section XXIII
XXIII. (79) On which account it is said also: "And ye shall eat old store, and old food from the old store, and you shall also bring forward the old out of the sight of the New."
{39}
{#le 26:10.}
As it is fitting to repudiate no ancient piece of learning from considerations of time, while we endeavour to meet with the writings of wise men, and to be present as it were with the opinions and expositions of those who relate ancient matters, and to be always fond of inquiring about the former ages of men, and ancient events, since it is the pleasantest of all things to be ignorant of nothing. But when God causes new shoots of self-taught wisdom to spring up in the soul, then it behoves us immediately to circumscribe and to contract the things which we have acquired from instruction, which of their own accord do return and flow back to their source. For it is impossible that one who is a follower, or a friend, or a disciple of God, or any other name which one may think fit to call him, should tolerate mortal lessons.
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