Chapter XII.
Seven clean animals of both sexes and two unclean animals are to be brought into the ark, because the number seven is sacred and complete, whereas the second is not. In us, there is a certain feminine sevenfold nature, but it is elevated to a masculine condition by an educated man. Finally, human nature is said to be capable of both opposites.
Now let us consider by what means Noah commanded the clean animals to enter the ark, seven and seven, male and female (Gen. VII, 2): but of the unclean animals, two and two, so that the seed may be nourished in all the earth. And as I think, he asserts that the clean week begins; because the world and the sacred seventh number are clean. For it is not mixed with any other, nor is it generated from another. Therefore it is called virgin, because it does not generate anything from itself; and rightly it is without maternal and immune birth, and although it may be called by a feminine name, it has the grace of masculine sanctification: For every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord (Exod. XXXIV, 19). And in the prophet you have: She has poured out and given birth to a male (Isaiah 66:7), that is, holy. But the second number is not complete, because it is divided. And that which is not complete is considered empty. But the seventh number is complete, because it is a week, like ten; and it is similar to the first, because it is made in the likeness of the One who is eternal, from whom all virtues flow and all things in every kind are moved. These are natural things.
Regarding morals, it is without a doubt that the irrational part of our soul is divided into five senses, including hearing and smell, which seem to be feminine by nature; because our senses are quickly drawn to material and worldly things. Hence, it is clear that they have a more delicate substance. However, for a learned and industrious man, everything is clean; because wisdom and virtue, through their masculine judgment, serve as a foundation. Therefore, the qualities of a weaker sex are transferred into a stronger substance by a wise and purposeful ruler. For the judgment of a wise person is strong and fixed; not mutable, like that of foolish and ignorant individuals who waver with uncertain counsel, or like that of wicked people who do not choose what is true and just, but rather what is convenient for themselves, breaking away from what is true and separating from what is just. Justice is indeed a unique good, and is valued highly for its own sake. But iniquity, like a divisive force, brings forth both hatred and greed, and confuses those things which should be divided. For the fool, like the moon, changes and, being variable, stains his soul with the ugly contagion of a leprous body, often mixing healthy thoughts with harmful ones.
But perhaps because you see that clean and unclean animals are commanded to be brought into the ark, it may rightly move you that I said that they should not be mixed with honest debates. Nor do I deny that there are indeed seeds and, as it were, principles of irrational movements, in our soul and in those who are not of this world. For the nature of man is capable of opposing things, so that both the power of evil and the entrance of virtue may be in it; and deservedly at the beginning of this book, which is Genesis, you read through the image of the tree in the middle of paradise the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. II, 9). Regarding the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it was commanded not to be tasted because our mind, in which there is knowledge and discipline, receives the concept of good and evil. Therefore, just as the creator of nature reserved the propagation and also the preservation of the genus of animals, so that the entire earth would be filled with the seed of living creatures, he also did not consider empty earthly substance of our bodies to be abandoned to such impure animals, which, with pleasures and luxury, are swallowed up like a flood, and fluctuate with the aforementioned passions. But when each person has rid themselves of the flood of passions through sobriety and self-control, and has woven a certain dryness of the soul, they begin to give life to their own body, and wisdom is the guiding principle of the purity of the soul.