[111] So, too, with the song of Moses. He has seen the king of Egypt, the boastful mind with his six hundred chariots (Exod. 14:7), that is the six movements of the organic body, adjusted for the use of the princes who ride upon them (Exod. 15:4) who, though no created object can be stable, think it right to aver that all such are firmly established and unsusceptible of change. He has seen that mind suffer the penalty due to its impiety while the Votary of Practice has escaped the onset of his enemies and been brought with might to unlooked-for safety. So then he hymns God the righteous and true dispenser of events and the song which he raises is most fitting and suited to the occasion. “The horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea” (Exod. 15:1), that is, He has buried out of sight the mind which rode upon the unreasoning impulses of passion, that four-footed beast which knows not the rein, and has shewn Himself the helper and champion of the soul which can see, to bestow on it full salvation.
[112] Again Moses leads the song at the well, and this time his theme is not only the rout of the passions, but the strength invincible which can win that most beautiful of possessions, wisdom, which he likens to a well. For wisdom lies deep below the surface and gives forth a sweet stream of true nobility for thirsty souls, and that draught is at once needful and delicious above all things.
[113] But to none of those who in instruction are but of the common herd is it permitted to dig this well, only to kings, as he says “kings hewed it” (Num. 21:16–18). For it belongs to great leaders to search for and accomplish wisdom, not leaders who have subdued sea and land with arms, but those who through the powers of the soul have conquered the medley and confusion of the multitude which beset it.