only put it on for a show, under a present state of
prosperity.

2. For when his master's wife was fallen in love with him, both on
account of his beauty of body, and his dexterous management of affairs;
and supposed, that if she should make it known to him, she could easily
persuade him to come and lie with her, and that he would look upon it
as a piece of happy fortune that his mistress should entreat him, as
regarding that state of slavery he was in, and not his moral character,
which continued after his condition was changed. So she made known her
naughty inclinations, and spake to him about lying with her. However, he
rejected her entreaties, not thinking it agreeable to religion to yield
so far to her, as to do what would tend to the affront and injury of him
that purchased him, and had vouchsafed him so great honors. He, on the
contrary, exhorted her to govern that passion; and laid before her the
impossibility of her obtaining her desires, which he thought might be
conquered, if she had no hope of succeeding; and he said, that as to
himself, he would endure any thing whatever before he would be persuaded
to it; for although it was fit for a slave, as he was, to do nothing
contrary to his mistress, he might well be excused in a case where the
contradiction was to such sort of commands only. But this opposition of
Joseph, when she did not expect it, made her still more violent in her
love to him; and as she was sorely beset with this naughty passion, so
she resolved to compass her design by a second attempt.

3. When, therefore, there was a public festival coming on, in which it
was the custom for women to come to the public solemnity; she pretended
to her husband that she was sick, as contriving an opportunity for
solitude and leisure, that she might entreat Joseph again. Which
opportunity being obtained, she used more kind words to him than before;
and said that it had been good for him to have yielded to her first
solicitation, and to have given her no repulse, both because of the
reverence he ought to bear to her dignity who solicited him, and because
of the vehemence of her passion, by which she was forced though she were
his mistress to condescend beneath her dignity; but that he may now, by
taking more prudent advice, wipe off the imputation of his former folly;
for whether it were that he expected the repetition of her solicitations
she had now made, and that with greater earnestness than before, for
tha