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, are illuminated by the dawn of
Light.[920] 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),[921] 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.”[922] He who is conversant with all kinds of
wisdom, will be pre-eminently a gnostic. Now it is written, “Abundance
of the knowledge of wisdom will give life to him who is of it.”[923]
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.”[924]