This teaching may be easily matched by parallels from heathen literature, but we have room only for two or three examples:--Maximus Tyrius says, "There is nothing (essentially) decorous in truth, yea, truth is sometimes hurtful and lying profitable." Darius is represented by Herodotus (Book iii., p. 191) as saying, "When telling falsehood is profitable, let it be told." Menander says, "A lie is better than an annoying truth." God utters a curse against those who remain single after they are twenty years of age; and those who marry at sixteen please him, and those who do so at fourteen still more. _Kiddushin_, fol. 29, col. 2. Elijah binds and God flogs the man who marries an unsuitable wife. Ibid., fol. 70, col. 1. God acknowledges His weakness in argument, "My children have vanquished me! my children have vanquished me!" He exclaims. "They have defeated me in argument." _Bava Metzia_, fol. 59, col. 2. God's decision was controverted by the Academy in heaven, and the matter in debate was finally settled by a Rabbi, who had to be summoned from earth to heaven expressly to adjudicate in the case. _Bava Metzia_, fol. 86, col. 1. The classical student will recognize in this a parallel to the Greek myth in which the Olympian divinities refer their debate in the matter of the apple of discord to the judgment of Paris. May there not in both fables lie a dim forefeeling of the time when Justice shall transfer her seat from the skies, so that whatever her ministers bind on earth may be bound in heaven? God will bear testimony before all the nations of the earth that His people Israel have kept the whole of the law. _Avodah Zarah_, fol. 3, col. 1. God is occupied for twelve hours every day in study, at work, or at play. Ibid., fol. 3, col. 2. God does not act without first consulting the assembly above; as it is said (Dan. iv. 17), "This matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand of the word of the Holy One," etc. _Sanhedrin_, fol. 38, col. 2. God Himself is described as exacting an atonement for His own miscreations; as, for instance, His diminishing the size of the moon. _Shevuoth_, fol. 9, col. 1. The general height of the Levites was ten ells. _Shabbath_, fol. 92, col. 1. Ten things cause hemorrhoids:--Eating cane leaves, the foliage and tendrils of the vine, the palate of cattle, the backbones of fish, half-cooked salt fish, wine lees, etc. _Berachoth_, fol. 55, col. 1. Ten things provoke a desperate relapse in a convalescent:--Eating beef, fat meat, broiled meat, fowl, or roasted eggs, shaving, eating cress, taking milk or cheese, or indulging in a bath. Some say also eating walnuts, others say eating cucumbers, which are as dangerous to the body as swords. Ibid., fol. 57, col. 2.