Philo Judaeus Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiari Soleat 105

[105] On this account it is that the law-giver has attributed to the just Noah the employment of a farmer; ¹ showing by this that, like a good farmer, the virtuous man eradicates in the wild wood all the mischievous young saplings which have been planted by the passions or by the vices, but leaves untouched all those which bear fruit, and which may act instead of a wall and prove a firm defence for the soul. And, again, among the trees capable of cultivation he manages them in different ways, and not all in the same way: pruning some and adding props to others, training some so as to increase their size, and cutting down others so as to keep them dwarf.