Introduction to the History of Hebrew Philosophy

...[from the philosophers of other] nations, is sought in vain. For all knowledge of all things divine and human proceeds from a twofold source: reason and tradition. In those things which can be known by the power of the human intellect through reason, there is no reason for us to look to the Hebrews more than to the Greeks; since a more accurate knowledge of the things themselves immediately makes it manifest on which side the truth stood. And just as all philosophers of all nations can wander from the right path in their reasoning, so too there exist people everywhere among the nations who observe these laws, although this is done more accurately by some than by others.

But there are others, again, into whose innermost recesses the power of human reason cannot penetrate, unless their first origin, or other things that depend on tradition and the monuments of history, become known to us. Concerning the principles of natural things, the existence of spirits original: spirituum, the origin and nature of man, and other most weighty chapters of all philosophy, you will dispute in vain, and you will merely set out inexplicable windings and turnings for yourself, unless tradition is called to your aid—that is, the most ancient history concerning the beginnings of all things, which was preserved in the Hebrew nation alone and thus propagated to other nations.

And so there are many other chapters of philosophy that consist of tradition alone, some of which perhaps have even been entirely lost, such as the science of judging the character and virtues of things from their external appearance original: scientia ex rerum externa figura, de illarum indole & virtutibus, iudicandi. This refers to the "doctrine of signatures" or physiognomy, the belief that the outward shape of a plant or object reveals its inner medicinal or spiritual properties.. Of these things, also in the records of other na-