ow, have escaped us, through length of
time, that have dropped away unwritten. There are then some
things of which we have no recollection; for the power that
was in the blessed men was great."

"There are also some things which remain unnoted long, which have now
escaped; and others which are effaced, having faded away in the mind
itself, since such a task is not easy to those not experienced; these
I revive in my commentaries. Some things I purposely omit, in the
exercise of a wise selection, afraid to write what I guarded against
speaking; not grudging--for that were wrong--but fearing for my
readers lest they should stumble by taking them in a wrong sense; and,
as the proverb says, we should be found 'reaching a sword to a child.'
For it is impossible that what has been written should not escape,
although remaining published by me. But being always revolved, using
the one only voice, that of writing, they answer nothing to him that
makes inquiries beyond what is written; for they require of necessity
the aid of someone, either of him who wrote or of someone else, who
walked in his footsteps. Some things my treatise will hint; on some it
will linger; some it will merely mention. It will try to speak
imperceptibly, to exhibit secretly, and to demonstrate silently."
(_The Stromata of St. Clement._)

St. Clement, in the same work from which the above quotation was
taken, has a chapter entitled "The Mysteries of the Faith, not to be
Divulged to all." In it he states that inasmuch as his writings might
be seen by all men, the unwise as well as the wise, "it is requisite,
therefore, to hide in a Mystery the wisdom spoken, in which the Son of
God is taught." He then adds, "For it is difficult to exhibit the
really pure and transparent words to swinish and untrained hearers.
For scarcely could anything which they could bear be more ludicrous
than these to the multitude; nor any subjects on the other hand more
admirable or more inspiring to those of noble nature. But the wise do
not utter with their mouths what they reason in council. 'But what ye
hear in the ear,' said the Lord, 'proclaim upon the houses; bidding
them receive the _secret traditions of the true knowledge_, and
expound them aloft and conspicuously; and as we have said in the ear,
so to deliver them to whom it is requisite; but _not enjoining us to
communicate to all without distinction_ what is said to them in
parables. But there is only a del