On Sobriety 6

¹Following this law consistently and aiming his arrows skilfully at the mark he has set before him, Moses shews us Jacob as younger in years than Esau, but older in worth and value, since folly is congenital to us from our earliest years, but the desire for moral excellence is a later birth, and therefore Esau is forced to surrender the inheritance of the firstborn to the rightful claims of Jacob. ²The same truth is borne out by the story of the sons of Joseph, a story which shews rich and careful thought. The sage, we read, under inspiration lays his hands on the heads of the boys who stood opposite him, but lays them not straight in front but crosswise, meaning to touch with his left hand the boy who seemed the elder and the younger with his right (Gen. 48:13, 14). ³Now the elder boy is called Manasseh and the younger Ephraim—and if these names are translated into Greek we shall find they represent “reminiscence” and “memory.” For Manasseh is by interpretation “from forgetfulness,” another name for which is reminiscence, since anyone who is reminded of what he has forgotten, issues from a state of forgetfulness. Ephraim on the other hand is “fruit-bearing,” a very suitable title for memory; since truth unforgotten, because memory has been unbroken, is a fruit most profitable, a real food to souls. ⁴Now memories belong to those who have reached settled manhood and therefore as being late-born are accounted younger. But forgetfulness and recollection follow in succession in each of us almost from our earliest years. And therefore theirs is the seniority in time and a place on the left, when the Sage marshals his ranks. But in seniority of virtue memories will have their share, and the God-beloved will lay on them his right hand and adjudge them worthy of the better portion which is his to give. ⁵To resume. ⁶When the just man has returned to soberness and knows “what his younger son has done to him,” he utters curses stern and deep. For indeed when the mind becomes sober, it must follow that it at once perceives the former doings of the young rebellious wickedness within it, doings which in its drunken state it was incapable of comprehending.