is one and only begotten world would not
be perfect if the image of its Creator were not to be found amongst
the images it contains. This image can only be engendered in the human
soul. Not the Father Himself, but the Son, God's offspring, living in
the soul, and being like unto the Father, him man can bring forth.

Philo, of whom it was said that he was the resurrected Plato,
characterised as the "Son of God" the wisdom born out of man, which
lives in the soul and contains the reason existing in the world. This
cosmic reason, or Logos, appears as the book in which "everything in
the world is recorded and delineated." It also appears as the Son of
God, "following in the paths of the Father, and creating forms,
looking at their archetypes." The platonising Philo addresses this
Logos as Christ, "As God is the first and only king of the universe,
the way to Him is rightly called the 'Royal Road.' Consider this road
to be philosophy ... the road which the company of the ancient
ascetics took, who turned away from the entangling fascination of
pleasure and devoted themselves to the noble and earnest cultivation
of the beautiful. The law names this Royal Road, which we call true
philosophy, God's word and spirit."

It is like an initiation to Philo when he enters upon this path, in
order to meet the Logos who, to him, is the Son of God. "I do not
shrink from relating what has happened to me innumerable times. Often
when I wished to put my philosophical thoughts in writing, in my
accustomed way, and saw quite clearly what was to be set down, I
nevertheless found my mind barren and rigid, so that I was obliged to
desist without having accomplished anything, and seemed to be hampered
with idle fancies. At the same time I could not but marvel at the
power of the reality of thought, with which it rests to open and to
close the womb of the human soul. Another time, however, I would begin
empty and arrive, without any trouble, at fulness. Thoughts came
flying like snowflakes or grains of corn invisibly from above, and it
was as though divine power took hold of me and inspired me, so that I
did not know where I was, who was with me, who I was, or what I was
saying or writing; for just then the flow of ideas was given me, a
delightful clearness, keen insight, and lucid mastery of material, as
if the inner eye were able to see everything with the greatest
distinctness."

This is a description of a path to knowledge so expressed that