[13] So we find that when the Mind begins to know itself and to hold converse with the things of mind, it will thrust away from it that part of the soul which inclines to the province of sense-perception, the inclining which among the Hebrews is entitled “Lot.” Hence the wise man is represented as saying outright, “Separate thyself from me” (Gen. 13:9). For it is impossible for one who is possessed by love for all that is incorporeal and incorruptible to dwell together with one who leans towards the objects of sense-perception doomed to die.
[14] Right well, then, did the Sacred Guide inscribe one entire sacred book of the Law-giving “Exagoge” or “Leading out,” for the name thus found was appropriate to the oracles contained in it. For being well qualified to train men and fully furnished for the admonition and correction of those who were capable of admonition and correction, he contemplates the task of taking out all the population of the soul right away from Egypt, the body, and away from its inhabitants; deeming it a most sore and heavy burden that an understanding endowed with vision should be under the pressure of the pleasures of the flesh, and should submit to such injunctions as its merciless cravings may lay upon it.
[15] These, indeed, groaned over and greatly bewailed their bodily well-being, and the lavish abundance of things outside the body, which was theirs, for we read that “the children of Israel groaned by reason of their works” (Ex. 2:23). When they do this, the gracious God instructs His prophet regarding their coming out, and His prophet delivers them.
[16] But some make a truce with the body and maintain it till their death, and are buried in it as in a coffin or shell or whatever else you like to call it. All the body-loving and passion-loving portions of these are laid in the grave and consigned to oblivion. But if anywhere by the side of these there grows up a virtue-loving tendency, it is saved from extinction by memories, which are a means of keeping alive the flame of noble qualities.