{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But it is my purpose, as I reckon, and not without reason, to live\r\naccording to the Word, and to understand what is revealed; but never\r\naffecting eloquence, to be content merely with indicating my meaning.\r\nAnd by what term that which I wish to present is shown, I care not. For\r\nI well know that to be saved, and to aid those who desire to be saved,\r\nis the best thing, and not to compose paltry sentences like gewgaws.\r\n“And if,” says the Pythagorean in the <i>Politicus</i> of Plato, “you\r\nguard against solicitude about terms, you will be richer in wisdom\r\nagainst old age.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_890\" id=\"FNanchor_890\">[890]</a> And in the <i>Theætetus</i> you will find again,\r\n“And carelessness about names, and expressions, and the want of nice\r\nscrutiny, is not vulgar and illiberal for the most part, but rather the\r\nreverse of this, and is sometimes necessary.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_891\" id=\"FNanchor_891\">[891]</a> This the Scripture\r\nhas expressed with the greatest possible brevity, when it said, “Be\r\nnot occupied much about words.” For expression is like the dress on\r\nthe body. The matter is the flesh and sinews. We must not therefore\r\ncare more for the dress than the safety of the body. For not only a\r\nsimple mode of life, but also a style of speech devoid of superfluity\r\nand nicety, must be cultivated by him who has adopted the true life, if\r\nwe are to abandon luxury as treacherous and profligate, as the ancient\r\nLacedæmonians abjured<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_383\">[383]</span> ointment and purple, deeming and calling them\r\nrightly treacherous garments and treacherous unguents; since neither\r\nis that mode of preparing food right where there is more of seasoning\r\nthan of nutriment; nor is that style of speech elegant which can please\r\nrather than benefit the hearers. Pythagoras exhorts us to consider the\r\nMuses more pleasant than the Sirens, teaching us to cultivate wisdom\r\napart from pleasure, and exposing the other mode of attracting the\r\nsoul as deceptive. For sailing past the Sirens one man has sufficient\r\nstrength, and for answering the Sphinx another one, or, if you please,\r\nnot even one.<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_892\" id=\"FNanchor_892\">[892]</a> We ought never, then, out of desire for vainglory,\r\nto make broad the phylacteries. It suffices the gnostic<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_893\" id=\"FNanchor_893\">[893]</a> if only\r\none hearer is found for him. You may hear therefore Pindar the Bœotian,\r\nwho writes, “Divulge not before all the ancient speech. The way of\r\nsilence is sometimes the surest. And the mightiest word is a spur to\r\nthe fight.” Accordingly, the blessed apostle very appropriately and\r\nurgently exhorts us “not to strive about words to no profit, but to the\r\nsubverting of the hearers, but to shun profane and vain babblings, for\r\nthey increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a\r\ncanker.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_894\" id=\"FNanchor_894\">[894]</a></p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","THE MISCELLANIES.","BOOK I.","CHAPTER X. TO ACT WELL OF GREATER CONSEQUENCE THAN TO SPEAK WELL."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_894","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-712"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"06f1b1c3148840e92fe2ea9e7e1669fcc9fdac89b8f3fe4f89c6a1ef5f404349","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"2TI","chapter":2,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"2 Tim. ii. 14","verse":14,"verse_end":14}],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_894","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_894","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_894\" id=\"Footnote_894\">[894]</a> 2 Tim. ii. 14, 16, 17.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_894","text_sha256":"49168403033d545a190fa6fbdfe2d1d4ab34d3f7f4e1541f5264500eb0c9a136","verified":false,"work_id":null}