Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Wealth, then, must be acquired in a respectable manner and shared in a generous, humane way, not sordidly nor boastfully, and one's love of what is fine must not be twisted into self-love and vulgar ostentation, lest someone say of us too: his horse is worth fifteen talents, or his estate, or his slave, or his gold plate, while he himself is worth three coppers. At once, indeed, strip the ornament from women and the masters from their household slaves, and you will find them no different from purchased chattel. Strip the masters — not in gait, not in glance, not in speech — and thus they too resemble the bought slaves. But they are distinguished from their household servants only in being feebler and having been reared more delicately. This, then, is the finest of doctrines, and it must be sung out at every turn: that a man who is both self-controlled and upright lays up his riches above; such a one, having disposed of what he owned on earth and handed it over to the destitute, finds the treasure that decay cannot touch, unreachable by moth or robber — that man is genuinely fortunate, even should he count for little, seem feeble, and lack any fame, and his riches, being the greatest there are, make him truly wealthy; whereas a man wealthier still than Cinyras or Midas, if he is dishonest and haughty — like the figure who dressed himself daily in fine purple garments and scorned the beggar Lazarus at his gate — that man is pitiable, passes his days in wretchedness, and will never taste real life. Wealth, it seems to me, resembles a snake: if one does not know how to take hold of it without harm, but rashly grasps the creature by the tip of its tail from a distance, it will coil about the hand and bite; and wealth too is a fearsome thing, writhing about whether one grips it with skill or without, ready to fasten on and bite, unless one handles it with a mastery that looks down upon it, so that by the charm-song of reason the beast may be tamed while the handler himself remains unharmed. But, it seems, the man who has acquired things of greater worth, and is rich in this alone, has gone unnoticed as truly rich; for of great worth is not stone, not silver, not clothing, not bodily beauty, but virtue, which is reason handed down through the tutor for training — this reason that renounces luxury and calls upon labor with one's own hands as a servant, and praises frugality as the offspring of self-control, saying: 'Take hold of discipline rather than money, and choose learning above gold that has been proven; for wisdom outweighs precious stones, and no valuable thing can equal it.' And again: 'That you may enjoy me rather than gold and precious stone and silver; for my fruits are better than choice silver.' And if a distinction must be drawn, let the man of many possessions be called wealthy, stuffed with gold like a filthy money-bag, while the just man be called well-ordered, since good order is a disposition, measured in due proportion, concerning one's management and giving; 'for there are those who sow and gather in more,' concerning whom it is written: 'He has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.' So it is not the one who has and hoards, but the one who shares, who is rich, and it is the sharing, not the possessing, that shows the blessed man; the fruit of the soul is generosity in giving; therefore wealth lies in the soul. And indeed, let good things be possessable only by the good, and the good are the Christians; but a foolish or dissolute man could neither perceive the good nor come to possess it; therefore good things are possessable only by Christians. And of these good things nothing is richer; therefore these alone are rich. For true wealth is righteousness, and reason, more precious than every treasure, which grows not from flocks and lands but is bestowed by God — riches no one can seize from him (only the soul serves as its storehouse), a possession most excellent for the one who holds it, truly rendering the man blessed. For whoever it belongs to, to desire nothing of what is not in our power, but to obtain the things he does desire, and moreover, whatever he rightly longs for, to ask and receive these from God — how is such a man not one of many possessions, indeed of all possessions, having God as his eternal treasure? 'To him who asks,' it says, 'it shall be given, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.' If God refuses nothing, all things belong to the God-fearing man.
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