APPENDIXA N interesting attempt to apply the political philosophy of Philo
f\ in the sixteenth century is represented in the dedication of
/ % Bellier's French translation of Philo.^1 The volume is now so
\. rare that it seems of value to append a translation.To my Lord PHILIPPE HURAUT, knight, Lord of Chiverni, one of the
King's Privy Council, and Chancellor of his order: Pierre Bellier his
humble servant.
Sir, \nowing that from your earliest age you have always borne deep
affection for letters, and even more now when your house is equipped
and embellished with an exceedingly beautiful, rich, and rare library,
where all authors are gathered; I have dedicated to you the fruit of this
my wor\: to the end that the Republic of France should recognize you
always for one who ta\es in his safekeeping virtue, science, and the men
who dedicate themselves to them. Happy the Republic in which such
magistrates flourish, who cherish and love those who wor\ for her. I
present to you, then, this great and divine Philo in French, li\e a secre
tary of Moses; a man of whom they say in a common proverb: "Either
Plato philonizes, or Philo platonizes": to such an extent are the sayings
and the words of these two divine men similar. This is commonly said:
but, as for me, it seems to me that, so much as the body is more excellent
than the shadow which follows it, so much is Philo more excellent than
Plato; for Philo mounts to the pea\ of divinity and gives to it from
within, but Plato approaches only to the extent that he drew up the
larger part of his divine statements from the ancestors and forerunners
of Philo in the voyage he made to Egypt. Philo was Alexandrian by
nationality, and Hebrew by race, one of the first and renowned priests.
He flourished at the time of Caius Caligula, to whom he was, with
others, sent to Rome as an ambassador, to reveal to him the wrongs that
were being done to the Jews in Alexandria; but that was not without
danger to his person, indeed to all his race; for (as he tells in the boo\
entitled: Concerning the Virtues, and Embassy to Gaius) thinking to
i. See the Bibliography, no. 481. This dedication was pointed out to me by Mr. Goodhart. It
is interesting to note also, in view of this dedication, that in Mr. Goodhart's collection is a copy
of the Geneva, 1613, edition of Philo (see the Bibliography, no. 398), bound for Louis XIII and
bearing his rare coat of arms.