for, in good truth, the soul of the man who remembers does bear as fruit the things which he has learned, losing nothing of them; but the soul of the man who exerts recollection, is only escaping from forgetfulness, by which it was detained before it recollected; therefore a citizen wife, memory, lives with the man who is endowed with remembrance. But the concubine recollection, a Syrian by birth, insolent and overbearing, lives with the man who forgets: for the meaning of the name Syria, is "sublimity;"

and the son of the concubine recollection is Machir, as the Hebrews call him; but the Greeks interpret the name to mean "of the father." For those who recollect a thing think that the mind is the father and cause of their recollecting, and do not consider that this same endowment of the mind did also before contain "forgetfulness," though it never would have received it if it had had memory in its power.

For it is said in the scripture, "And the sons of Manasseh were Ashriel whom she bare, but his concubine, the Aramitess, bare Machir; and Machir was the father of Gilead." 1 Chronicles vii. 14. And Nachor, also, the brother of Abraham, had two wives, one a citizen and the other a concubine. And the name of the citizen was Milcah; and the name of the concubine was Rumah.

But let no one who is in his senses suspect that the wise legislator recorded this as a historical genealogy, but it is rather an explanation of things which are able to benefit the soul by means of symbols. And when we have translated the names into our own language, we shall understand the real meanings intended to be conveyed by them. Come, then, let us now investigate each of them.