Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Since he who hopes, like he who believes, sees with the mind the things that are intelligible and the things that are to come. If, then, we say that something is just, and we say too that something is beautiful, and further we speak of a truth, yet we have never at any time seen any such thing with the eyes but only with the mind alone — and it is the Word of God who declares, "I myself am truth" — so the Word is grasped by mind alone. "And whom do you call the true philosophers?" he said. "Those," I replied, "who are lovers of the vision of truth." And Plato, speaking of truth as an idea in the Phaedrus, will make this plain. Now the idea is a conception of God, which the barbarians have called the Word of God; and the passage runs thus: "One must be bold enough to speak the truth, especially when speaking about truth: for the colorless and shapeless and intangible essence, being real being, is visible to the mind alone, the pilot of the soul." And the Word, having come forth, is the cause of creation; and then he also begets himself, when the Word becomes flesh, so that he might also be seen. The just man, then, will seek that discovery which comes of love, and by hastening toward it he thrives; for so it stands written: "to the one who keeps knocking, the door will be thrown open; keep asking, and you will receive." Those said to seize the kingdom by force are called violent not for contentious wrangling but for their steadfastness of upright living and their tireless prayers, scrubbing away the marks left by earlier sins. Wickedness, to be sure, is chosen readily enough even in crowds. But whoever toils finds God lending assistance too: "since what the Muses give does not come easily — no one stumbles upon that prize lying ready in the open for the taking."
The recognition of one's ignorance is, then, the first lesson for one who walks according to reason. A man, being ignorant, went searching; through that search he comes upon the teacher; upon finding him, he believed; and having believed, he hoped; and having loved, from that point he is made like to the one he loved, striving to be that which, having already loved, he loved. Such a method Socrates points out to Alcibiades when he inquires thus: "Would you not think that I know about just things in some other way?" "Yes, if indeed you had found them out." "But do you not think I would have found them out?" "Very much so, if you had sought." "Then do you not think I would have sought?" "I do, if you had supposed that you did not know." In just this way the lamps of the sensible virgins, kindled amid the deep gloom of unknowing during the nighttime hours — a gloom Scripture pointed to under the figure "night" — are the prudent souls, pure as virgins, who, understanding themselves to stand in worldly ignorance, kindle the light and awaken the mind and illuminate the darkness and drive out ignorance, and seek the truth, and await the appearing of the teacher. "Now a philosophic multitude," I said, "cannot come to be. Many carry the wand, yet the true bacchants are few" — so Plato has it. "Many, indeed, receive the call, yet those chosen are few"; and the apostle tells us that "knowledge is not found in everyone." "Pray that we may be delivered from out-of-place and wicked men"; for faith is not in all. And Cleanthes the Stoic, too, the philosopher-poet, writes something similar to this effect: "Look not to opinion, wishing quickly to become wise, nor fear the undiscerning and shameless opinion of the many; for the multitude possesses no sound judgment either of what is just or of what is noble — this you might find among few men."
More pithily the comic poet says it in brief: "It is shameful to judge noble things by the roar of the crowd." For they have heard, I think, that fair Wisdom saying to us: "In the midst of the senseless, keep watch over the occasion, but in the midst of the thoughtful, dwell continually." And again: "The wise will conceal perception"; for the many, not content with the salvation that comes from faith alone, demand of it the pledge of demonstration as security for the truth. "But it is very much the way of the wicked, when they prevail, to disbelieve; but as our Muse bids for her pledges, know this: the word divided within the entrails." For this, says Empedocles, is customary among the wicked — the wish to master truths by way of disbelief. But that our doctrines are held in honor and worthy to be believed, the Greeks will come to know the more the argument is examined through what follows; for by the like we are taught the like. For Solomon says, "Answer the fool according to his folly." Wherefore also to those who ask for the wisdom current among themselves, one ought to hold out what is proper to them, so that they may most readily, by way of their own things, fittingly arrive at belief in the truth; "for I have become all things to all," he says, "that I might gain all" — since the rain of divine grace too is sent down upon the just and the unjust alike; "or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also," cries the noble apostle, "since God is one."
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