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[176]
And indeed the greatest part of mankind are so far from living according
to their own laws, that they hardly know them; but when they have sinned,
they learn from others that they have transgressed the law. Those also
who are in the highest and principal posts of the government, confess they
are not acquainted with those laws, and are obliged to take such persons
for their assessors in public administrations as profess to have skill
in those laws; but for our people, if any body do but ask any one of them
about our laws, he will more readily tell them all than he will tell his
own name, and this in consequence of our having learned them immediately
as soon as ever we became sensible of any thing, and of our having them
as it were engraven on our souls. Our transgressors of them are but few,
and it is impossible, when any do offend, to escape punishment.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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