About the Planting of Noah (76-80)

and this is the greatest limit of those numbers which increase from the unit, and also the most perfect: so that the limit is the beginning of numbers, and the end, in [*]

Therefore, some persons, departing from these numbers, as from signals, have said that God is the beginning and end of everything, which is a doctrine admirably calculated to engender piety. This doctrine, being implanted in the soul, produces a most beautiful and nutritious fruit, holiness; and the place most suitable for this fruit,

is the well which is called the oath, in which there is a report that no water could be found. For, says Moses, "the children of Israel, coming thither, reported to him concerning the well which they had digged: and they said, We found no water; and he called that place, " The Oath." [*] Let us now consider what is the meaning of this statement.

Those who investigate the nature of things as they actually exist, and who conduct their examinations of each individual matter in no negligent manner, behave very like those men who dig wells; for they also are seeking springs in an obscure place. And all men have one common desire, to find something to drink. But some men’s nature is to be nourished by the food of the soul, and that of others by the food of the body.

As, therefore, some of those who have dug wells have often done so without finding water; so likewise those who advance far in knowledge, and who have made great progress in it, are still often unable to attain to the end which they desire. At all events, they say that men of extensive learning often find fault with their terrible ignorance, for they only just know how far they are removed from the truth. And there is a story that some man of old time, when he was admired for his wisdom, said, that it was a fine thing that he should be admired, who only just knew that he knows nothing.