Book VI.
Book VI.
Chapter I.-Plan.(1)
The sixth and also the seventh Miscellany of gnostic notes, in accordance with the true philosophy, having delineated as well as possible the ethical argument conveyed in them, and having exhibited what the Gnostic is in his life, proceed to show the philosophers that he is by no means impious, as they suppose, but that he alone is truly pious, by a compendious exhibition of the Gnostic's form of religion, as far as it is possible, without danger, to commit it to writing in a book of reference. For the Lord enjoined "to labour for the meat which endureth to eternity."(2) And the prophet says," Blessed is he that soweth into all waters, whose ox and ass tread,"(3) [that is, ] the people, from the Law and from the Gentiles, gathered into one faith.
"Now the weak eateth herbs," according to the noble apostle.(4) The Instructor, divided by us into three books, has already exhibited the training and nurture up from the state of childhood, that is, the course of life which from elementary instruction grows by faith; and in the case of those enrolled in the number of men, prepares beforehand the soul, endued with virtue, for the reception of gnostic knowledge. The Greeks, then, clearly learning, from what shall be said by us in these pages, that in profanely persecuting the God loving man, they themselves act impiously; then, as the notes advance, in accordance with the style of the Miscellanies, we must solve the difficulties raised both by Greeks and Barbarians with respect to the coming of the Lord.
In a meadow the flowers blooming variously, and in a park the plantations of fruittrees, are not separated according to their species from those of other kinds. If some, culling varieties, have Composed learned collections, Meadows, and Helicons, and Honeycombs, and Robes; then, with the things which come to recollection by haphazard, and are expurgated neither in order nor expression, but purposely scattered, the form of the Miscellaniesis promiscuously variegated like a meadow. And such being the case, my notes shall serve as kindling sparks; and in the case of him, who is fit for knowledge, if he chance to fall in with them, research made with exertion will turn out to his benefit and advantage. For it is fight that labour should precede not only food but also, much more knowledge, in the case of those that are advancing to the eternal and blessed salvation by the "strait and narrow way," which is truly the Lord's.
Our knowledge, and our spiritual garden, is the Saviour Himself; into whom we are planted, being transferred and transplanted, from our old life, into the good land. And transplanting contributes to fruitfulness. The Lord, then, into whom we have been transplanted, is the Light i and the true Knowledge.
Now knowledge is otherwise spoken of in a twofold sense: that, commonly so called, which appears in all men (similarly also comprehension and apprehension), universally, in the knowledge of individual objects; in which not only the rational powers, but equally the irrational, share, which I would never term knowledge, in as much as the apprehension of things through the senses comes naturally. But that which par excellence is termed knowledge, bears the impress of judgment and reason, in the exercise of which there will be rational cognitions alone, applying purely to objects of thought, and resulting from the bare energy of the soul. "He is a good man," says David,(5) "who pities" (those ruined through error), "and lends" (from the communication of the word of truth) not at haphazard, for "he will dispense his words in judgment: "with profound calculation, "he hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor."
Chapter II.-The Subject of Plagiarisms Resumed. The Greeks Plagiarized from One Another.
Before handling the point proposed, we must, by way of preface, add to the close of the fifth book what is wanting. For since we have shown that the symbolical style was ancient, and was employed not only by our prophets, but also by the majority of the ancient Greeks, and by not a few of the rest of the Gentile Barbarians, it was requisite to proceed to the mysteries of the initiated. I postpone the elucidation of these till we advance to the confutation of what is said by the Greeks on first principles; for we shall show that the mysteries belong to the same branch of speculation. And having proved that the declaration of Hellenic thought is illuminated all round by the truth, bestowed on us in the Scriptures, taking it according to the sense, we have proved, not to say what is invidious, that the theft of the truth passed to them.
Come, and let us adduce the Greeks as witnesses against themselves to the theft. For, in as much as they pilfer from one another, they establish the fact that they are thieves; and although against their will, they are detected, clandestinely appropriating to those of their own race the truth which belongs to us. For if they do not keep their hands from each other, they will hardly do it from our authors. I shall say nothing of philosophic dogmas, since the very persons who are the authors of the divisions into sects, confess in writing, so as not to be convicted of ingratitude, that they have received from Socrates the most important of their dogmas. But after availing myself of a few testimonies of men most talked of, and of repute among the Greeks, and exposing their plagiarizing style, and selecting them from various periods, I shall turn to what follows.
Orpheus, then, having composed the line:-
"Since nothing else is more shameless and wretched
than woman,"
Homer plainly says:-
"Since nothing else is more dreadful and shameless
than a woman."(6)
And Musaeus having written:-
"Since art is greatly superior to strength,"
Homer says:-
"By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly
superior."(7)
Again, Musaeus having composed the lines:-
"And as the fruitful field produceth leaves,
And on the ash trees some fade, others grow,
So whirls the race of man its leaf,"(8)
Homer transcribes:-
"Some of the leaves the wind strews on the ground.
The budding wood bears some; in time of spring,
They come. So springs one race of men, and one
departs."(9)
Again, Homer having said:-
"It is unholy to exult over dead men,"(10)
Archilochus and Cratinus write, the former:-
"It is not noble at dead men to sneer; "
and Cratinus in the Lacones:-
"For men 'tis dreadful to exult
Much o'er the stalwart dead."
Again, Archilochus, transferring that Homeric line:-
"I erred, nor say I nay:-instead of many"(11)
writes thus:-
"I erred, and this mischief hath somehow seized
another."
As certainly also that line:-
"Evenhanded(12) war the slayer slays."(13)
He also, altering, has given forth thus:-
"I will do it.
For Mars to men in truth is evenhanded."(14)
Also, translating the following:-
"The issues of victory among men depend on the
gods,"(15)
he openly encourages youth, in the following iambic:-
"Victory's issues on the gods depend."
Again, Homer having said:-
"With feet unwashed sleeping on the ground,"(16)
Euripides writes in Erechteus: -
"Upon the plain spread with no couch they sleep,
Nor in the streams of water lave their feet."
Archilochus having likewise said:-
"But one with this and one with that His heart delights?
in correspondence with the Homeric line:-
"For one in these deeds, one in those delights,"(17)
Euripides says in Oeneus:-
"But one in these ways, one in those, has more delight."
And I have heard Aeschylus saying:-
"He who is happy ought to stay at home;
There should he also stay, who speeds not well."
And Euripides, too, shouting the like on the stage:-
"Happy the man who, prosperous, stays at home."
Menander, too, on comedy, saying:-
"He ought at home to stay, and free remain,
Or be no longer rightly happy."
Again, Theognis having said:-
"The exile has no comrade dear and true,"
Euripides has written:-
"Far from the poor flies every friend."
And Epicharmus, saying:-
"Daughter, woe worth the day
Thee who art old I marry to a youth; "(18)
and adding:-
"For the young husband takes some other girl,
And for another husband longs the wife,"
Euripides(19) writes:-
"'Tis bad to yoke an old wife to a youth;
For he desires to share another's bed,
And she, by
him deserted, mischief plots."
Euripides having, besides, said in the Medea:-
"For no good do a bad man's gifts,"
Sophocles in Ajax Flagelliferutters this iambic:-
"For foes' gifts are no gifts, nor any boon."(20)
Solon having written:-
"For surfeit insolence begets,
When store of wealth attends."
Theognis writes in the same way:-
"For surfeit insolence begets,
When store of wealth attends the bad."
Whence also Thucydides, in the Histories, says:-"Many men, to whom in a great degree, and in a short time, unlookedfor prosperity comes, are wont to turn to insolence." And Philistus(21) likewise imitates the same sentiment, expressing himself thus:-"And the many things which turn out prosperously to men, in accordance with reason, have an incredibly dangerous(22) tendency to misfortune. For those who meet with unlooked success beyond their expectations, are for the most part wont to turn to insolence." Again, Euripides having written:-
"For children sprung of parents who have led
A hard and toilsome life, superior are; "
Critias writes: "For I begin with a man's origin: how far the best and strongest in body will he be, if his father exercises himself, and eats in a hardy way, anti subjects his body to toilsome labour; and if the mother of the future child be strong in body, and give herself exercise."
Again, Homer having said of the Hephaestus made shield:-
"Upon it earth and heaven and sea he made,
And Ocean's rivers' mighty strength portrayed,"
Pherecydes of Syros says:-"Zas makes a cloak large and beautiful, and works on it earth and Ogenus, and the palace of Ogenus."And Homer having said:-
"Shame, which greatly hurts a man or helps,"(23) -
Euripides writes in Erechtheus:-
"Of shame I find it hard to judge;
'Tis needed. 'Tis at times a great mischief."
Take, by way of parallel, such plagiarisms as the following, from those who flourished together, and were rivals of each other. From the Orestes of Euripides:-
"Dear charm of sleep, aid in disease."
From the Eriphyle of Sophocles:-
"Hie thee to sleep, healer of that disease."
And from the Antigone of Sophocles:-
"Bastardy is opprobrious in name; but the nature is equal; "(24)
And from the Aleuadesof Sophocles:-
"Each good thing has its nature equal."
Again, in the Ctimenus(25) of Euripides:-
"For him who toils, God helps; "
And in the Minos of Sophocles;
"To those who act not, fortune is no ally; "
And from the Alexanderof Euripides:-
"But time will show; and learning, by that test,
I shall know whether thou art good or bad; "
And from the Hipponos of Sophocles:-
"Besides, conceal thou nought; since Time,
That sees all, hears all, all things will unfold."
But let us similarly run over the following; forEumelus having composed the line,
"Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the daughters nine,"
Solon thus begins the elegy:-
"Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the children bright."
Again, Euripides, paraphrasing the Homeric line:-
"What, whence art thou? Thy city and thy parents,
where? "(26)
employs the following iambics in Aegeus:-
"What country shall we say that thou hast left
To roam in exile, what thy land-the bound
Of thine own native soil? Who thee begat?
And of what father dost thou call thyself the son? "
And what? Theognis(27) having said:-
"Wine largely drunk is bad; but if one use
It with discretion, 'tis not bad, but good,"-
does not Panyasis write?
"Above the gods' best gift to men ranks wine,
In measure drunk; but in excess the worst."
Hesiod, too, saying:-
"But for the fire to thee I'll give a plague,(28)
For all men to delight themselves withal,"-
Euripides writes:-
"And for the fire
Another fire greater and unconquerable,
Sprung up in the shape of women"(29)
And in addition, Homer, saying:-
"There is no satiating the greedy paunch,
Baneful, which many plagues has caused to men."(30)
Euripides says :-
"Dire need and baneful paunch me overcome;
From which all evils come."
Besides, Callias the comic poet having written:-
"With madmen, all men must be mad, they say,"-
Menander, in the Poloumenoi, expresses himself similarly, saying:-
"The presence of wisdom is not always suitable:
One sometimes must with others play(31) the fool."
And Antimachus of Teos having said:-
"From gifts, to mortals many ills arise,"-
Augias composed the line:-
"For gifts men's mind and acts deceive."
And Hesiod having said:-
"Than a good wife, no man a better thing
Ere gained; than a bad wife, a worse,"-
Simonides said:-
"A better prize than a good wife no man
Ere gained, than a bad one nought worse."
Again, Epicharmas having said :-
"As destined Ion to live, and yet not long,
Think of thyself."-
Euripides writes:-
"Why? seeing the wealth we have uncertain is,
Why don't we live as free from care, as pleasant
As we may? "
Similarly also, the comic poet Diphilus having said:-
"The life of men is prone to change,"-
Posidippus says:-
"No man of mortal mould his life has passed
From suffering free. Nor to the end again
Has continued prosperous."
Similarly(32) speaks to thee Plato, writing of man as a creature subject to change. Again, Euripides having said:-
"Oh life to mortal men of trouble full,
How slippery in everything art thou I
Now grow'st thou, and thou now decay'st away.
And there is set no limit, no, not one,
For mortals of their course to make an end,
Except when Death's remorseless final end
Comes, sent from Zeus,"-
Diphilus writes:-
"There is no life which has not its own ills,
Pains, cares, thefts, and anxieties, disease;
And Death, as a physician, coming, gives
Rest to their victims in his quiet sleep."(33)
Furthermore, Euripides having said:-
"Many are fortune's shapes,
And many things contrary to expectation the gods
perform,"-
The tragic poet Theodectes similarly writes:-
"The instability of mortals' fates."
And Bacchylides having said :-
"To few(34) alone of mortals is it given
To reach hoary age, being prosperous all the while,
And not meet with calamities,"-
Moschion, the comic poet, writes:-
"But he of all men is most blest,
Who leads throughout an equal life."
And you will find that, Theognis having said:-
"For no advantage to a mall grown old
A young wife is, who will not, as a ship
The helm, obey,"-
Aristophanes, the comic poet, writes:-
"An old man to a young wife suits but ill."
For Anacreon, having written:-
"Luxurious love I sing,
With flowery garlands graced,
He is of gods the king,
He mortal men subdues,-
Euripides writes :-
"For love not only men attacks,
And women; but disturbs
The souls of gods above, and to the sea
Descends."
But not to protract the discourse further, in our anxiety to show the propensity of the Greeks to plagiarism in expressions and dogmas, allow us to adduce the express testimony of Hippias, the sophist of Elea, who discourses on the point in hand, and speaks thus: "Of these things some perchance are said by Orpheus, some briefly by Musaeus; some in one place, others in other places; some by Hesiod, some by Homer, some by the rest of the poets; and some in prose compositions, some by Greeks, some by Barbarians. And I from all these, placing together the things of most importance and of kindred character, will make the present discourse new and varied."
And in order that we may see that philosophy and history, and even rhetoric, are not free of a like reproach, it is right to adduce a few instances from them. For Alcmaeon of Crotona having said, "It is easier to guard against a man who is an enemy than a friend," Sophocles wrote in the Antigone:-
"For what sore more grievous than a bad friend? "
And Xenophon said: "No man can injure enemies in any way other than by appearing to be a friend."
And Euripides having said in Telephus:-
"Shall we Greeks be slaves to Barbarians? "-
Thrasymachus, in the oration for the Larissaeans, says: "Shall we be slaves to Archelaus-Greeks to a Barbarian? "
And Orpheus having said:-
"Water is the change for soul, and death for water;
From water is earth, and what comes from earth is
again water,
And from that, soul, which changes the whole
ether; "
and Heraclitus, putting together the expressions from these lines, writes thus:-
"It is death for souls to become water, and death for
water to become earth; and from earth comes water,
and from water soul."
And Athamas the Pythagorean having said, "Thus was produced the beginning of the universe; and there are four roots-fire, water, air, earth: for from these is the origination of what is produced,"-Empedocles of Agrigentum wrote :-
"The four roots of all things first do thou hear-
Fire, water, earth, and ether's boundless height:
For of these all that was, is, shall be, comes."
And Plato having said, "Wherefore also the gods, knowing men, release sooner from life those they value most,"Menander wrote:-
"Whom the gods love, dies young."
And Euripides having written in the Oenomaus:-
"We judge of things obscure from what we see; "
and in the Phoenix:-
"By signs the obscure is fairly grasped?-
Hyperides says, "But we must investigate things unseen by learning from signs and probabilities." And Isocrates having said, "We must conjecture the future by the past," Andocides does not shrink from saying, "For we must make use of what has happened previously as signs in reference to what is to be." Besides, Theognis having said :-
"The evil of counterfeit silver and gold is not intolerable,
O Cyrnus, and to a wise man is not difficult of detection;
But if the mind of a friend is hidden in his breast,
If he is false,(35) and has a treacherous heart within,
This is the basest thing for mortals, caused by God,
And of all things the hardest to detect,"-
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