Page:Eight chapters of Maimonides on ethics.djvu/55

Rh that the putting into practice of the teachings of this tractate leads one to prophecy. I shall later expound the truth of this assertion, because upon it depends a number of ethical principles.

Further, I deem it fit to preface the commentary on the respective Halakot proper by some useful chapters, from which the reader may learn certain basic principles which may later serve as a key to what I am going to say in the commentary. Know, however, that the ideas presented in these chapters and in the following commentary are not of my own invention; neither did I think out the explanations contained therein, but I have gleaned them from the words of the wise occurring in the Midrashim, in the Talmud, and in other of their works, as well as from the words of the philosophers, ancient and recent, and also from the works of various authors, as one