{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"drop-cap p-left\">Since, then, the Greeks are testified to have laid down some true\r\nopinions, we may from this point take a glance at the testimonies.\r\nPaul, in the Acts of the Apostles, is recorded to have said to the\r\nAreopagites, “I perceive that ye are more than ordinarily religious.\r\nFor as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with\r\nthe inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly\r\nworship, Him declare I unto you. God, that made the world and all\r\nthings therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth\r\nnot in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s\r\nhands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and\r\nbreath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men\r\nto dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times\r\nbefore appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should\r\nseek God, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him; though He\r\nbe not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and\r\nhave our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we\r\nalso are His offspring.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_970\" id=\"FNanchor_970\">[970]</a> Whence it is evident that the apostle,\r\nby availing himself of poetical examples from the <i>Phenomena</i>\r\nof Aratus, approves of what had been well spoken by the Greeks; and\r\nintimates that, by the unknown God, God the Creator was in a roundabout\r\nway worshipped by the Greeks; but that it was necessary by positive\r\nknowledge to apprehend and learn Him by the Son.<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_414\">[414]</span> “Wherefore, then, I\r\nsend thee to the Gentiles,” it is said, “to open their eyes, and to\r\nturn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God;\r\nthat they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them\r\nthat are sanctified by faith which is in me.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_971\" id=\"FNanchor_971\">[971]</a> Such, then, are\r\nthe eyes of the blind which are opened. The knowledge of the Father\r\nby the Son is the comprehension of the “Greek circumlocution;”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_972\" id=\"FNanchor_972\">[972]</a>\r\nand to turn from the power of Satan is to change from sin, through\r\nwhich bondage was produced. We do not, indeed, receive absolutely all\r\nphilosophy, but that of which Socrates speaks in Plato. “For there\r\nare (as they say) in the mysteries many bearers of the thyrsus, but\r\nfew bacchanals;” meaning, “that many are called, but few chosen.” He\r\naccordingly plainly adds: “These, in my opinion, are none else than\r\nthose who have philosophized right; to belong to whose number, I\r\nmyself have left nothing undone in life, as far as I could, but have\r\nendeavoured in every way. Whether we have endeavoured rightly and\r\nachieved aught, we shall know when we have gone there, if God will, a\r\nlittle afterwards.” Does he not then seem to declare from the Hebrew\r\nScriptures the righteous man’s hope, through faith, after death? And\r\nin <i>Demodocus</i><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_973\" id=\"FNanchor_973\">[973]</a> (if that is really the work of Plato): “And\r\ndo not imagine that I call it philosophizing to spend life pottering\r\nabout the arts, or learning many things, but something different; since\r\nI, at least, would consider this a disgrace.” For he knew, I reckon,\r\n“that the knowledge of many things does not educate the mind,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_974\" id=\"FNanchor_974\">[974]</a>\r\naccording to Heraclitus. And in the fifth book of the <i>Republic</i>,\r\nhe says, “‘Shall we then call all these, and the others which study\r\nsuch things, and those who apply themselves to the meaner arts,\r\nphilosophers?’<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_415\">[415]</span> ‘By no means,’ I said, ‘but like philosophers.’ ‘And\r\nwhom,’ said he, ‘do you call true?’ ‘Those,’ said I, ‘who delight in\r\nthe contemplation of truth. For philosophy is not in geometry, with\r\nits postulates and hypotheses; nor in music, which is conjectural; nor\r\nin astronomy, crammed full of physical, fluid, and probable causes.\r\nBut the knowledge of the good and truth itself are requisite,—what\r\nis good being one thing, and the ways to the good another.’”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_975\" id=\"FNanchor_975\">[975]</a>\r\nSo that he does not allow that the curriculum of training suffices\r\nfor the good, but co-operates in rousing and training the soul to\r\nintellectual objects. Whether, then, they say that the Greeks gave\r\nforth some utterances of the true philosophy by accident, it is the\r\naccident of a divine administration (for no one will, for the sake of\r\nthe present argument with us, deify chance); or by good fortune, good\r\nfortune is not unforeseen. Or were one, on the other hand, to say that\r\nthe Greeks possessed a natural conception of these things, we know the\r\none Creator of nature; just as we also call righteousness natural; or\r\nthat they had a common intellect, let us reflect who is its father,\r\nand what righteousness is in the mental economy. For were one to name\r\n“prediction,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_976\" id=\"FNanchor_976\">[976]</a> and assign as its cause “combined utterance,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_977\" id=\"FNanchor_977\">[977]</a>\r\nhe specifies forms of prophecy. Further, others will have it that some\r\ntruths were uttered by the philosophers, in appearance.</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","THE MISCELLANIES.","BOOK I.","CHAPTER XIX. THAT THE PHILOSOPHERS HAVE ATTAINED TO SOME PORTION OF TRUTH."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_972","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-746"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"4c8c9be7926fd2842336a1fb45103288761848750e86913a9da6780cc574d5da","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_972","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1867 English translation; translator died 1875. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"Footnote_972","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_972\" id=\"Footnote_972\">[972]</a> Viz., “The Unknown God.”</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_972","text_sha256":"3fdd3a18c995dac2d81b4519ae9d0a80156b13c0fda73f671cfcab04ec8eed51","verified":false,"work_id":null}