About the Planting of Noah (136-140)

and the fifth son is in no respect different from the enjoyment of the trees planted in the fifth year; for the tiller of the earth after a fashion takes his reward from the trees in the fifth year, and he takes the offspring of the soul, Issachar, who was called the "reward," [*] [*] [*]

Therefore, the fruits of the trees are called the produce of the owners of the trees; but the fruit of instruction and wisdom is no longer the produce of man, but as Moses says, "of the universal Governor alone;" for after he has spoken of his produce, he adds, "I am the Lord your God," asserting most distinctly that there is one God, whose fruit is the produce of the soul.

And with this assertion, this oracle delivered by one of the prophets is consistent, "Fruit from me has been found by you. What wise man will understand this? Will any intelligent person comprehend it?" [*] For it does not belong to every one, but only to the wise man, to understand whose the fruit of the mind is.

Therefore, concerning that most ancient and sacred husbandry, which the Cause of all things uses with reference to the world, that most productive of trees, and concerning that other kind in imitation of it which the virtuous man studies, and concerning the ordinary quaternion of prizes, and the laws and precepts which all tend to the same point, we have now spoken to the best of our power.

Let us now consider the vine-planting of the just Noah which is a species of husbandry. For it is said that "Noah began to be a husbandman of the earth, and he planted a vineyard, and drank of the wine, and got drunk." [*] Therefore, the wise man here cultivates with skill and science the tree of drunkenness, though fools enter upon its management in an unartistic and negligent manner,