Miscellanies 1.7.37

It appears, then, that Greek preliminary education, together with philosophy itself, came to human beings from God, not primarily, but in the way that showers burst upon the good land, on the dunghill, and on the housetops. Grass and wheat spring up alike; the fig tree grows even on tombs, and any of the more shameless trees, and what grows puts forth a likeness of the true, because it enjoyed the same power of the rain; but it did not have the same grace as what grew in rich soil, being either withered or plucked up. Here too the parable of the sowing, which the Lord interpreted, is useful. For there is one farmer of the soil that is in human beings, who from the foundation of the world sows the nourishing seeds from above, who has rained down the Lord, the Word, at each season; but the times and the receiving places produced the differences. Besides, the farmer does not sow wheat alone (though there are many varieties of it too), but also other seeds: barley, beans, peas, vetch, garden vegetables, and flower seeds. And planting belongs to the same husbandry: working what goes into nurseries, gardens, and orchards, and in general the growing and tending of trees of every kind. Likewise not only shepherding, but also cattle-herding, horse-breeding, dog-breeding, and beekeeping, all the arts, in short herding and animal husbandry, differ from one another in more and less, but all are useful for life. And by philosophy I do not mean the Stoic, or the Platonic, or the Epicurean and Aristotelian, but whatever has been well said by each of these schools, teaching righteousness with pious knowledge: this whole selection I call philosophy. But whatever they have cut off from human reasonings and falsified, I would never call divine.