{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Let us then receive knowledge, not desiring its results, but embracing\r\nitself for the sake of knowing. For the first advantage is the habit of\r\nknowledge (γνωστική), which furnishes harmless pleasures and exultation\r\nboth for the present and the future. And exultation is said to be\r\ngladness, being a reflection of the virtue which is according to truth,\r\nthrough a kind of exhilaration and relaxation of soul. And the acts\r\nwhich partake of knowledge are good and fair actions. For abundance\r\nin the actions that are according to virtue, is the true riches, and\r\ndestitution in decorous<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1068\" id=\"FNanchor_1068\">[1068]</a> desires is poverty. For the use and\r\nenjoyment of necessaries are not injurious in quality, but in quantity,\r\nwhen in excess. Wherefore the Gnostic circumscribes his desires in\r\nreference both to possession<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_362\">[362]</span> and to enjoyment, not exceeding the limit\r\nof necessity. Therefore, regarding life in this world as necessary for\r\nthe increase of science (ἐπιστήμη) and the acquisition of knowledge\r\n(γνώσις), he will value highest, not living, but living well. He will\r\ntherefore prefer neither children, nor marriage, nor parents, to love\r\nfor God, and righteousness in life. To such an one, his wife, after\r\nconception, is as a sister, and is judged as if of the same father;\r\nthen only recollecting her husband, when she looks on the children;\r\nas being destined to become a sister in reality after putting off\r\nthe flesh, which separates and limits the knowledge of those who are\r\nspiritual by the peculiar characteristics of the sexes. For souls,\r\nthemselves by themselves, are equal. Souls are neither male nor female,\r\nwhen they no longer marry nor are given in marriage. And is not woman\r\ntranslated into man, when she is become equally unfeminine, and manly,\r\nand perfect? Such, then, was the laughter of Sarah<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1069\" id=\"FNanchor_1069\">[1069]</a> when she\r\nreceived the good news of the birth of a son; not, in my opinion, that\r\nshe disbelieved the angel, but that she felt ashamed of the intercourse\r\nby means of which she was destined to become the mother of a son.</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","BOOK VI.","CHAPTER XII. HUMAN NATURE POSSESSES AN ADAPTATION FOR PERFECTION; THE GNOSTIC ALONE ATTAINS IT."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_1069","paragraph_id":"pg73020-paragraph-784"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"e40993914113645ef2db6e1c4a37beb9702621a4dad0d5450087f0687d6acda6","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"GEN","chapter":18,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Gen. xviii. 12","verse":12,"verse_end":12}],"headings":[],"id":"pg73020-Footnote_1069","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 1869 English translation; translator died 1875. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"Footnote_1069","source_ebook":73020,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1069\" id=\"Footnote_1069\">[1069]</a> Gen. xviii. 12.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"c35077683d75abe553cc6ef5d3ef5a1a978f07dfbcf4bad5c3d56302ad03dc19","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/73020/pg73020-images.html#Footnote_1069","text_sha256":"7013ea40e003d52dbd6b654b291f683e2cc3116b53345889414eab8ffe954ec3","verified":false,"work_id":null}