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| Chapter XIII.—All Sects of Philosophy Contain a Germ of Truth.
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Chapter XIII.—All Sects of Philosophy Contain a Germ of Truth.
Since, therefore, truth is one (for falsehood
has ten thousand by-paths); just as the Bacchantes tore asunder
the limbs of Pentheus, so the sects both of barbarian and Hellenic
philosophy have done with truth, and each vaunts as the whole truth
the portion which has fallen to its lot. But all, in my opinion,1945
| 1945 [Here he expresses merely as
an opinion, his “gnostic” ideas as to philosophy, and the
salvability of the heathen.] | are illuminated by the dawn of
Light.1946
Let all, therefore, both Greeks and barbarians, who
have aspired after the truth,—both those who possess not a little,
and those who have any portion,—produce whatever they have of the
word of truth.
Eternity, for instance, presents in an instant
the future and the present, also the past of time. But truth, much more
powerful than limitless duration, can collect its proper germs, though
they have fallen on foreign soil. For we shall find that very many of the
dogmas that are held by such sects as have not become utterly senseless,
and are not cut out from the order of nature (by cutting off Christ, as
the women of the fable dismembered the man),1947
| 1947 We have adopted the translation of Potter, who supposes
a reference to the fate of Pentheus. Perhaps the translation should be:
“excluding Christ, as the apartments destined for women exclude
the man;” i.e., all males. | though appearing unlike one
another, correspond in their origin and with the truth as a whole. For
they coincide in one, either as a part, or a species, or a genus. For
instance, though the highest note is different from the lowest note, yet
both compose one harmony. And in numbers an even number differs from an
odd number; but both suit in arithmetic; as also is the case with figure,
the circle, and the triangle, and the square, and whatever figures differ
from one another. Also, in the whole universe, all the parts, though
differing one from another, preserve their relation to the whole. So,
then, the barbarian and Hellenic philosophy has torn off a fragment of
eternal truth not from the mythology of Dionysus, but from the theology
of the ever-living Word. And He who brings again together the separate
fragments, and makes them one, will without peril, be assured, contemplate
the perfect Word, the truth. Therefore it is written in Ecclesiastes:
“And I added wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem;
and my heart saw many things; and besides, I knew wisdom and knowledge,
parables and understanding. And this also is the choice of the spirit,
because in abundance of wisdom is abundance of knowledge.”1948
He who is conversant with all kinds of wisdom, will be
pre-eminently a gnostic.1949
| 1949
[His grudging of the term “gnostic” to unworthy pretenders,
illustrates the spirit in which we must refuse to recognise the modern
(Trent) theology of the Latins, as in any sense Catholic.] | Now
it is written, “Abundance of the knowledge of wisdom will give life
to him who is of it.”1950
And again, what is said
is confirmed more clearly by this saying, “All things are in the
sight of those who understand”—all things, both Hellenic
and barbarian; but the one or the other is not all. “They are
right to those who wish to receive understanding. Choose instruction,
and not silver, and knowledge above tested gold,” and prefer also
sense to pure gold; “for wisdom is better than precious stones,
and no precious thing is worth it.”1951
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