On the Confusion of Languages (36-40)

"For," says Moses, "Israel saw the Egyptians," not dead in any other place, but "on the bank (χε̃ιλος) of the river;" [*] meaning here by death, not the separation of the soul from the body, but the impetuous onset of unholy doctrines and assertions, which men utter by the mouth, and tongue, and the other organs of speech.

But the death of speech is silence, not that silence which well-bred people cultivate, making it a symbol of modesty—for this silence is itself a faculty and a sister of that one which is developed in speech, arranging what is to be said with reference to time—but that silence which the sick and the weary against their will endure, on account of the strength of their antagonists, because they cannot find any handle to answer them;

for whatever they touch slips away from them, and whatever thing they seek to take their stand on does not remain, so that they of necessity fall before they stand, like that hydrostatic machine called the helix; for in the middle of that engine there are some steps, which the husbandman when he desires to water his fields mounts up upon, but is rolled round of necessity; and in order to avoid falling he is continually catching at the nearest firm thing that he can lay his hands on, which he takes hold of and so supports his whole body; for instead of his hands he uses his feet, and instead of his feet he uses his hands; for he stands on his hands, by means of which, actions are usually done, and he acts with his feet on which it is natural to stand.

But many, who are not able vigorously to refute the plausible inventions of the sophists, because they have not very much practised discussion by reason of their continued application to action, have taken refuge in the alliance of the only wise Being, and have besought him to become their defender. As one of the friends of Moses, when praying, says in his hymns, "Let the treacherous lips become mute;" [*] and how can they become mute if they are not curbed by the only [*] [*]

We must therefore flee, without ever turning back, from all associations entered into for the purposes of sin; but the alliance made with the companions of wisdom and knowledge must be confirmed.