{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>From all slavish habits<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_450\" id=\"FNanchor_450\">[450]</a> and excess we must abstain, and touch\r\nwhat is set before us in a decorous way; keeping the<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_195\">[195]</span> hand and couch\r\nand chin free of stains; preserving the grace of the countenance\r\nundisturbed, and committing no indecorum in the act of swallowing; but\r\nstretching out the hand at intervals in an orderly manner. We must\r\nguard against speaking anything while eating: for the voice becomes\r\ndisagreeable and inarticulate when it is confined by full jaws; and the\r\ntongue, pressed by the food and impeded in its natural energy, gives\r\nforth a compressed utterance. Nor is it suitable to eat and to drink\r\nsimultaneously. For it is the very extreme of intemperance to confound\r\nthe times whose uses are discordant. And “whether ye eat or drink, do\r\nall to the glory of God,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_451\" id=\"FNanchor_451\">[451]</a> aiming after true frugality, which the\r\nLord also seems to me to have hinted at when He blessed the loaves and\r\nthe cooked fishes with which He feasted the disciples, introducing a\r\nbeautiful example of simple food. That fish then which, at the command\r\nof the Lord, Peter caught, points to digestible and God-given and\r\nmoderate food. And by those who rise from the water to the bait of\r\nrighteousness, He admonishes us to take away luxury and avarice, as\r\nthe coin from the fish; in order that He might displace vainglory; and\r\nby giving the stater to the tax-gatherers, and “rendering to Cæsar the\r\nthings which are Cæsar’s,” might preserve “to God the things which are\r\nGod’s.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_452\" id=\"FNanchor_452\">[452]</a> The stater is capable of other explanations not unknown\r\nto us, but the present is not a suitable occasion for their treatment.\r\nLet the mention we make for our present purpose suffice, as it is\r\nnot unsuitable to the flowers of the Word; and we have often done\r\nthis, drawing to the urgent point of the question the most beneficial\r\nfountain, in order to water those who have been planted by the Word.\r\n“For if it is lawful for me to partake of all things, yet all things\r\nare not expedient.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_453\" id=\"FNanchor_453\">[453]</a> For those that do all that is lawful, quickly\r\nfall into doing what is unlawful. And just as righteousness is not\r\nattained by avarice, nor temperance by excess; so neither is the\r\nregimen of a Christian formed by indulgence; for the table of truth\r\nis far from lascivious dainties. For though it was chiefly for men’s\r\nsake that all things were made, yet it is not good to use all things,\r\nnor<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_196\">[196]</span> at all times. For the occasion, and the time, and the mode, and\r\nthe intention, materially turn the balance with reference to what is\r\nuseful, in the view of one who is rightly instructed; and this is\r\nsuitable, and has influence in putting a stop to a life of gluttony,\r\nwhich wealth is prone to choose, not that wealth which sees clearly,\r\nbut that abundance which makes a man blind with reference to gluttony.\r\nNo one is poor as regards necessaries, and a man is never overlooked.\r\nFor there is one God who feeds the fowls and the fishes, and, in a\r\nword, the irrational creatures; and not one thing whatever is wanting\r\nto them, though “they take no thought for their food.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_454\" id=\"FNanchor_454\">[454]</a> And we\r\nare better than they, being their lords, and more closely allied to\r\nGod, as being wiser; and we were made, not that we might eat and\r\ndrink, but that we might devote ourselves to the knowledge of God.\r\n“For the just man who eats is satisfied in his soul, but the belly of\r\nthe wicked shall want,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_455\" id=\"FNanchor_455\">[455]</a> filled with the appetites of insatiable\r\ngluttony. Now lavish expense is adapted not for enjoyment alone, but\r\nalso for social communication. Wherefore we must guard against those\r\narticles of food which persuade us to eat when we are not hungry,\r\nbewitching the appetite. For is there not within a temperate simplicity\r\na wholesome variety of eatables? Bulbs,<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_456\" id=\"FNanchor_456\">[456]</a> olives, certain herbs,\r\nmilk, cheese, fruits, all kinds of cooked food without sauces; and if\r\nflesh is wanted, let roast rather than boiled be set down. Have you\r\nanything to eat here? said the Lord<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_457\" id=\"FNanchor_457\">[457]</a> to the disciples after the\r\nresurrection; and they, as taught by Him to practise frugality, “gave\r\nHim a piece of broiled fish;” and having eaten before them, says Luke,\r\nHe spoke to them what He spoke. And in addition to these, it is not\r\nto be overlooked that those who feed according to the Word are not\r\ndebarred from dainties in the shape of honey-combs. For of articles\r\nof food, those are the most suitable which are fit for immediate use\r\nwithout fire, since they are readiest; and second to these are those\r\nwhich are simplest, as we said before. But those who bend around\r\ninflammatory tables, nourishing<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_197\">[197]</span> their own diseases, are ruled by a\r\nmost lickerish demon, whom I shall not blush to call the Belly-demon,\r\nand the worst and most abandoned of demons. He is therefore exactly\r\nlike the one who is called the Ventriloquist-demon. It is far better\r\nto be happy<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_458\" id=\"FNanchor_458\">[458]</a> than to have a demon dwelling with us. And happiness\r\nis found in the practice of virtue. Accordingly, the apostle Matthew\r\npartook of seeds, and nuts,<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_459\" id=\"FNanchor_459\">[459]</a> and vegetables, without flesh. And\r\nJohn, who carried temperance to the extreme, “ate locusts and wild\r\nhoney.” Peter abstained from swine; “but a trance fell on him,” as\r\nis written in the Acts of the Apostles, “and he saw heaven opened,\r\nand a vessel let down on the earth by the four corners, and all the\r\nfour-footed beasts and creeping things of the earth and the fowls of\r\nheaven in it; and there came a voice to him, Rise, and slay, and eat.\r\nAnd Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten what is common or\r\nunclean. And the voice came again to him the second time, What God hath\r\ncleansed, call not thou common.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_460\" id=\"FNanchor_460\">[460]</a> The use of them is accordingly\r\nindifferent to us. “For not what entereth into the mouth defileth the\r\nman,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_461\" id=\"FNanchor_461\">[461]</a> but the vain opinion respecting uncleanness. For God, when\r\nHe created man, said, “All things shall be to you for meat.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_462\" id=\"FNanchor_462\">[462]</a> “And\r\nherbs, with love, are better than a calf with fraud.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_463\" id=\"FNanchor_463\">[463]</a> This well\r\nreminds us of what was said above, that herbs are not love, but that\r\nour meals are to be taken with love;<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_464\" id=\"FNanchor_464\">[464]</a> and in these the medium state\r\nis good. In all things, indeed, this is the case, and not least in\r\nthe preparation made for feasting, since the extremes are dangerous,\r\nand middle courses good. And to be in no want of necessaries is the\r\nmedium. For the desires which are in accordance with nature are bounded\r\nby sufficiency. The Jews had frugality enjoined on them by the law in\r\nthe most systematic manner. For the Instructor, by Moses, deprived\r\nthem of the use of innumerable things, adding reasons—the spiritual\r\nones hidden; the carnal ones<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_198\">[198]</span> apparent, to which indeed they have\r\ntrusted; in the case of some animals, because they did not part the\r\nhoof, and others because they did not ruminate their food, and others\r\nbecause alone of aquatic animals they were devoid of scales; so that\r\naltogether but a few were left appropriate for their food. And of\r\nthose that he permitted them to touch, he prohibited such as had died,\r\nor were offered to idols, or had been strangled; for to touch these\r\nwas unlawful. For since it is impossible for those who use dainties\r\nto abstain from partaking of them, he appointed the opposite mode of\r\nlife, till he should break down the propensity to indulgence arising\r\nfrom habit. Pleasure has often produced in men harm and pain; and\r\nfull feeding begets in the soul uneasiness, and forgetfulness, and\r\nfoolishness. And they say that the bodies of children, when shooting up\r\nto their height, are made to grow right by deficiency in nourishment.\r\nFor then the spirit, which pervades the body in order to its growth,\r\nis not checked by abundance of food obstructing the freedom of its\r\ncourse. Whence that truthseeking philosopher Plato, fanning the spark\r\nof the Hebrew philosophy when condemning a life of luxury, says: “On\r\nmy coming hither, the life which is here called happy, full of Italian\r\nand Syracusan tables, pleased me not by any means, [consisting as it\r\ndid] in being filled twice a day, and never sleeping by night alone,\r\nand whatever other accessories attend the mode of life. For not one man\r\nunder heaven, if brought up from his youth in such practices, will ever\r\nturn out a wise man, with however admirable a natural genius he may be\r\nendowed.” For Plato was not unacquainted with David, who “placed the\r\nsacred ark in his city in the midst of the tabernacle;” and bidding all\r\nhis subjects rejoice “before the Lord, divided to the whole host of\r\nIsrael, man and woman, to each a loaf of bread, and baked bread, and a\r\ncake from the frying-pan.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_465\" id=\"FNanchor_465\">[465]</a></p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","THE INSTRUCTOR.","BOOK II.","CHAPTER I. ON EATING."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_453","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-341"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"134ad369e385602b53386afedadf76835962ca5f56d5b07b6ab927ab0fb81afc","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"1CO","chapter":10,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"1 Cor. x. 23","verse":23,"verse_end":23}],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_453","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_453","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_453\" id=\"Footnote_453\">[453]</a> 1 Cor. x. 23.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_453","text_sha256":"b35872c3ddd84eb26b2fa575e6f67bd168ce5927374ba5d28292a83742afe4ae","verified":false,"work_id":null}