power of comprehending it is denied to the human
intellect. This assumption, a concession which Greek speculation was
compelled to make to positive religion for the supremacy which was
yielded to it, was to have far-reaching consequences in the future. _A
place was now for the first time provided in philosophy for a mythology
to be regarded as revelation._ The highest truths which could not
otherwise be reached, might be sought for in the oracles of the Deity;
for knowledge resting on itself had learnt by experience its inability
to attain to the truth in which blessedness consists. _In this very
experience the intellectualism of Greek Ethics was, not indeed
cancelled, but surmounted._ The injunction to free oneself from sense
and strive upwards by means of knowledge, remained; but the wings of the
thinking mind bore it only to the entrance of the sanctuary. Only
ecstasy produced by God himself was able to lead to the reality above
reason. The great novelties in the system of Philo, though in a certain
sense the way had already been prepared for them, are the introduction
of the idea of a philosophy of revelation and the advance beyond the
absolute intellectualism of Greek philosophy, an advance based on
scepticism, but also on the deep-felt needs of life. Only the germs of
these are found in Philo, but they are already operative. They are
innovations of world-wide importance: for in them the covenant between
the thoughts of reason on the one hand, and the belief in revelation and
mysticism on the other, is already so completed that neither by itself
could permanently maintain the supremacy. Thought about the world was
henceforth dependent, not only on practical motives, it is always that,
but on the need of a blessedness and peace which is higher than all
reason. It might, perhaps, be allowable to say that Philo was the first
who, as a philosopher, plainly expressed that need, just because he was
not only a Greek, but also a Jew.[114]

Apart from the extremes into which the ethical counsels of Philo run,
they contain nothing that had not been demanded by philosophers before
him. The purifying of the affections, the renunciation of sensuality,
the acquisition of the four cardinal virtues, the greatest possible
simplicity of life, as well as a cosmopolitan disposition are
enjoined.[115] But the attainment of the highest morality by our own
strength is despaired of, and man is directed beyond himself to God's
assistance.