Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Let our notes, then, be, as we have often said, on account of those who rashly and inexpertly read them in all sorts of ways, scattered and interwoven — as the very name suggests — passing continuously from one thing to another, indicating one thing according to the sequence of the discourse while pointing to something else. For those who seek gold, says Heraclitus, dig up much earth and find little; but those who mine the substance akin to the true race of gold will find much in little, for scripture will find the one who understands. The Stromateis of these notes, then, contribute both to recollection and to the manifestation of truth for one able to inquire with reason. But we too must labor further upon these things and discover others besides, since for those going a road they do not know, it is enough merely to point out the road that leads there;
one must then walk on further from that point and find the rest for oneself, just as they say the Pythia, when a certain slave once consulted her as to what he might do to please his master, said: you will find it, if you seek. Hard indeed, it seems, truly, is it to discover a hidden good, since before virtue the gods have set sweat, and long and steep is the path to her, and rough at the first; but when one has reached the summit, then thereafter it is easy, hard though it was. For narrow indeed and compressed is the way of the Lord, and the kingdom of God belongs to those who use violence; wherefore, he says, seek and you shall find, holding fast to the truly royal road and not running off to the side.
Fittingly, then, much is the fruitfulness contained in the small seed of the doctrines gathered in this treatise, like the all-herb of the field, as scripture says. For this reason too the Stromateis of these notes properly bear their title, woven together, plain and simple, after the pattern of that ancient offering concerning which Sophocles writes: there was a fleece of wool, and from the vines a libation and a well-stored grape, and there was mingled in it all manner of fruit with barley-groats, and the fat of olive oil, and the most variegated wax-molded instrument of the tawny bee.
At once, then, our Stromateis, like the farmer of Timocles the comic poet, yield a revenue of figs, oil, dried figs, and honey, as though from a plot of ground that bears every crop. On account of which fruitfulness he adds: you speak of an eiresione, not of husbandry — for the Athenians were accustomed to cry out: the eiresione brings figs and rich loaves and honey in a cup and oil to anoint oneself with. One must, then, often, as in winnowing-baskets, shake and toss up the mingled multitude of seeds and pick out the wheat.
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