Page:Guideperplexed v1.djvu/108

18 his life. Hearken unto me now therefore, 0 ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thins heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yes, many strong men have been slain by her." The general principle expounded in all these verses is to abstain from excessive indulgence in bodily pleasurea The author compares the body, which is the soume of all sensual pleasures, to a married woman who at the same time is a harlot. And this figure he has taken as the basis o󿽣 his entire book. We shah hereafter show the wisdom o󿽣 Solomon in comparing sensual pleasures to an adulterous harlot. We shall explain how he concludes that work with the praises of a faithful wife who devotes hemeli to the welfare of her husband and of her household. All obstacles which prevent man from attaining his highest aim in life, all the deficiencies in the character of man, all his eil propensities, are to be traced to the body alone. This will be explained later on. The predominant idea running throughout the figure is, that man shah not be entirelr guided by his animal, i.e., his material nature; for the material substance of man is identical with that of the brute creation.  An adequate explanation of the figure having been given, and its meaning having been shown,  Lit., "The substance that is near," next to us. The diffmmxce bstwe the near and the remote substance of a thing is illustratsd in Milloth Higgayou IX. as follows: "The near substance (l' 'D?) of, e.f., Reuben, is formed by the limbs of the body; the remote substance eonsist in the humour and the four elements of which the limbs are formed; the k, which is com- mon to all the elements, is the first substance." The "near substance" of nn is identical with that of animals, since the formation of the limbs and the nature of the body are the same in both. From another point of view their identity as regards the "near substance" is explained thus (comp. Shemtob): Life is the substance (gnus) of man as well as of all animals; the form (specific dif- ference) of man (defined as '1 ,. "a living being gifted with speech"), differs from that of other animals. (Comp. Mill. Higg., IX.) If, instead of defining man as a living being with the capacity of thinking, we said, "Manism created being," etc., the term "created being" would be more comprehensive "living being." The former is called by Maimonides the remote substance; the ]tter, the Gear substance, because t aypes . tlxe iudividuality of man.