{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020353.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020353.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020353.htm","text":"Let these notes of ours, as we have often said for the sake of those that consult them carelessly and unskilfully, be of varied character\u2014and as the name itself indicates, patched together\u2014passing constantly from one thing to another, and in the series of discussions hinting at one thing and demonstrating another. \u201cFor those who seek for gold,\u201d says Heraclitus, \u201cdig much earth and find little gold.\u201d But those who are of the truly golden race, in mining for what is allied to them, will find the much in little. For the word will find one to understand it. The Miscellanies of notes contribute, then, to the recollection and expression of truth in the case of him who is able to investigate with reason. p. 410 And you must prosecute, in addition to these, other labours and researches; since, in the case of people who are setting out on a road with which they are unacquainted, it is sufficient merely to point out the direction. After this they must walk and find out the rest for themselves. As, they say, when a certain slave once asked at the oracle what he should do to please his master, the Pythian priestess replied, \u201cYou will find if you seek.\u201d It is truly a difficult matter, then, as turns out, to find out latent good; since\n \u201cBefore virtue is placed exertion,\nAnd long and steep is the way to it,\nAnd rough at first; but when the summit is reached,\nThen is it easy, though difficult [before].\u201d\n\u201cFor narrow,\u201d in truth, \u201cand strait is the way\u201d of the Lord. And it is to the \u201cviolent that the kingdom of God belongs.\u201d 2680\nWhence, \u201cSeek, and ye shall find,\u201d holding on by the truly royal road, and not deviating. As we might expect, then, the generative power of the seeds of the doctrines comprehended in this treatise is great in small space, as the \u201cuniversal herbage of the field,\u201d 2681 as Scripture saith. Thus the Miscellanies of notes have their proper title, wonderfully like that ancient oblation culled from all sorts of things of which Sophocles writes:\u2014\n \u201cFor there was a sheep\u2019s fleece, and there was a vine,\nAnd a libation, and grapes well stored;\nAnd there was mixed with it fruit of all kinds,\nAnd the fat of the olive, and the most curious\nWax-formed work of the yellow bee.\u201d\nJust so our Stromata, according to the husbandman of the comic poet Timocles, produce \u201cfigs, olives, dried figs, honey, as from an all-fruitful field;\u201d on account of which exuberance he adds:\u2014\n \u201cThou speakest of a harvest-wreath not of husbandry.\u201d\nFor the Athenians were wont to cry:\u2014\n \u201cThe harvest-wreath bears figs and fat loaves,\nAnd honey in a cup, and olive oil to anoint you.\u201d\nWe must then often, as in winnowing sieves, shake and toss up this the great mixture of seeds, in order to separate the wheat.\nMatt. vii. 14, xi. 12, vii. 7.\n410:2681","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Chapter II.\u2014The Meaning of the Name Stromata or Miscellanies.","type":"page"}