Whatever philosophers , therefore, thought concerning the supreme God , that He is both the maker of all created things, the light by which things are known , and the good in reference to which things are to be done; that we have in Him the first principle of nature, the truth of doctrine, and the happiness of life — whether these philosophers may be more suitably called Platonists, or whether they may give some other name to their sect ; whether, we say, that only the chief men of the Ionic school, such as Plato himself, and they who have well understood him, have thought thus; or whether we also include the Italic school, on account of Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, and all who may have held like opinions; and, lastly, whether also we include all who have been held wise men and philosophers among all nations who are discovered to have seen and taught this, be they Atlantics, Libyans, Egyptians , Indians, Persians , Chaldeans, Scythians, Gauls, Spaniards, or of other nations — we prefer these to all other philosophers , and confess that they approach nearest to us.
TheoFons