e Early Church.

The _Stromata_, or Miscellanies, of S. Clement are our source of
information about the Mysteries in his time. He himself speaks of these
writings as a "miscellany of Gnostic notes, according to the true
philosophy,"[103] and also describes them as memoranda of the teachings
he had himself received from Pantaenus. The passage is instructive: "The
Lord ... allowed us to communicate of those divine Mysteries, and of
that holy light, to those who are able to receive them. He did not
certainly disclose to the many what did not belong to the many; but to
the few to whom He knew that they belonged, who were capable of
receiving and being moulded according to them. But secret things are
entrusted to speech, not to writing, as is the case with God. And if
one say[104] that it is written, 'There is nothing secret which shall
not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not be disclosed,' let him also
hear from us, that to him who hears secretly, even what is secret shall
be manifested. This is what was predicted by this oracle. And to him who
is able secretly to observe what is delivered to him, that which is
veiled shall be disclosed as truth; and what is hidden to the many shall
appear manifest to the few.... The Mysteries are delivered mystically,
that what is spoken may be in the mouth of the speaker; rather not in
his voice, but in his understanding.... The writing of these memoranda
of mine, I well know, is weak when compared with that spirit, full of
grace, which I was privileged to hear. But it will be an image to recall
the archetype to him who was struck with the Thyrsus." The Thyrsus, we
may here interject, was the wand borne by Initiates, and candidates were
touched with it during the ceremony of Initiation. It had a mystic
significance, symbolising the spinal cord and the pineal gland in the
Lesser Mysteries, and a Rod, known to Occultists, in the Greater. To
say, therefore, "to him who was struck with the Thyrsus" was exactly the
same as to say, "to him who was initiated in the Mysteries." Clement
proceeds: "We profess not to explain secret things sufficiently--far
from it--but only to recall them to memory, whether we have forgot
aught, or whether for the purpose of not forgetting. Many things, I well
know, 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." A
freq