106. The case stands thus (let me philosophize to thee in a more exalted and refined manner): If there are certain sounds issuing from the vocal organs, diffusing themselves through the air, and penetrating into the ears, superior to our own, and more expressive; for I laugh at your majestic terms, the "Moly," the "Xanthus," and the "Chalces," or whether they (the gods) converse with one another by means of bare thoughts and ideas, it is not our part to determine; but what is our part is this----that a language is not the property of those that invented it, but of those who share in the same; neither is there any art or occupation, of whatsoever sort thou mayest think of, which is not subject to this rule; but just as in a skilfully-composed and musical harmony there is a different sound of each different string, either high or low, yet all belong to one tuner and performer, contributing together to the single beauty of the tune, in the same way, also, the artist and creator, Speech, has appointed a different word for the inventor of each different art or occupation, and has exposed them all alike for public use, coupling together human society by the ties of mutual communication and kindness, and rendering it more gentle.
107. Is speaking Greek thy exclusive right? Pray tell me, are not the letters of the alphabet the invention of the Phoenicians, or, as others say, of the Egyptians, or of those yet wiser than they, the Hebrews----if they believe that the Law was engraved by God upon divinely inscribed tables of stone? Is the Attic language thy right? To calculate sums, and to count, to reckon on the fingers weights and measures, and, before all these, tactics and military rules, to whom do they belong? Do they not to the Euboeans, since Palamedes was an Euboean----that inventor of many things, and thereby becoming an object of jealousy, and having to pay the penalty of his cleverness, condemned to death by those who fought against Troy? What, pray, if Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Hebrews are those whom we employ in common for our own education----supposing the natives of Euboea should make a claim (according to the rule thou hast laid down) for the things specially belonging to themselves, what in the world shall we do? And what defence shall we offer to them when convicted by laws of our own making? Surely there is no help for it, we must be dispossessed of these things, and suffer the fate of the jackdaw, stripped bare, divested of our borrowed plumes, and made objects of ridicule.
108. Are poems thine by right? Do they not rather belong to that old lady who, being bumped on the shoulder by someone that was running violently in the opposite direction, as the story goes, in reviling the vehemence of his haste, gave utterance to an epic verse? And this same verse having greatly taken the young man's fancy, and been more carefully reduced to metre, created thy poetry, so greatly admired. And what of the rest? If thou pridest thyself so much upon arms, from whom dost thou get arms, my noble sir? Is it not from the Cyclops, the inventors of forging metal? And if a great thing in thy estimation----nay, the greatest of all that are----is that imperial purple, in virtue of which thou art a wise man and a lawgiver (of this sort), must not thou take it off and return it to the Tyreans, to whom belongs the sheep-keeping bitch that having fed upon the shell-fish, and stained her lips, thereby made the dye known to the shepherd, and bestowed upon you sovereigns the proud rag so full of woe unto the wicked! And husbandry and shipbuilding----what shall we say if the Athenians debar us from them, when they tell about their Ceres and their Triptolemus, and the Dragons, and Celeus, and Icarius, and the whole stock of legends concerning them, which have turned them into an infamous Mystery, one truly worthy of the night?
109. Dost thou wish me to ascend to the main article in thy madness, or rather infatuation? Whence come the very practice of initiating and being initiated, and religious ceremony? Do not they all proceed from the Thracians? Let the very appellation (qrhskeu&ein) convince thee. As for sacrificing victims, does not that come from the Assyrians, or perhaps the Cyprians; the observation of the stars from the Chaldeans, the art of land-measuring from the Egyptians? Is not the science of magic a Persian invention? The interpretation of dreams, from whom else dost thou hear it but from the Telmessians? And augury, from whom else than the Phrygians, the first men to study the flying of birds and their various motions? And not to draw out the subject too far, whence dost thou get each single part? Is it not one part from each separate source? but out of all coming together into the same, there has grown up a single mystery of superstitious worship. What follows then: must we submit, when everything has thus reverted to the first inventors, to possess nothing of our own but vice and this new-fangled rule as regards the Deity? For thou art the first of the Christians that hast plotted rebellion against thy Master, just as the slaves did against the Scythians, as history tells us; and it had been a very good thing if thy wicked band also had been dispersed according to thy own Scythian rulers and laws, in which case we had been delivered from troubles, and it would have been our lot to view the Roman realm in the enjoyment of its ancient happiness, and exempted from all intestine discord----a thing that is more to be shunned and dreaded than any war of foreigners, by so much as the devouring of one's own flesh is more to be shunned than the consuming that of others.
110. If the above charges seem to thee to indicate an accusation smoothly clothed, and unsuited to the imperial dignity, let me now advance others yet more to the purpose than these. Perceiving that our cause was strong, both in its doctrines and also in the testimonies from on high, and that it was at once both old and new----old, that is, by the prophecies and the inspiration of the Deity that flashed through it; new by the final manifestation of the Godhead, and the miracles springing out of and during this manifestation, but still stronger and more conspicuous in the types of the Church that have been handed down and observed for this purpose----in order, I say, that not even this side should remain exempt from his mischief, what does he do, and what does he plan? He follows the example of Rabshakeh the Assyrian. This person was a general of Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians. This king having marched into Judaea, and besieging Jerusalem with a great force and army, sitting down before the city, when he found himself unable to reduce it by force, neither was any hope held out to him from traitors within, he attempts to win over the city by means of soft and smooth-tongued words, which design the besieged detecting, begged first of all that the conference should be carried on with them in the Syrian tongue, and not in Hebrew, lest perchance they might be inveigled into slavery through the gentleness of his speech.
111. He (Julian) also, having the same design, was intending to establish schools in every town, with pulpits and higher and lower rows of benches, for lectures and expositions of the heathen doctrines, both of such as give rules of morality and those that treat of abstruse subjects, also a form of prayer alternately pronounced, and penance for those that sinned proportionate to the offence, initiation also, and completion, and other things that evidently belong to our constitution. He was purposing also to build inns and hospices for pilgrims, monasteries for men, convents for virgins, places for meditation, and to establish a system, of charity for the relief of prisoners, and also that which is conducted by means of letters of recommendation by which we forward such as require it from one nation to another----things which he had especially admired in our institutions.
112. Such things was that evil teacher and sophist planning: that they were not completed nor his scheme ever brought into action, I know not whether it was to the advantage of ourselves (who got rid of him and his too soon for it), or of himself, to have proceeded no further than the dreaming of them. For the attempts would have exhibited some of the motions of men, and some of the mimicry of apes: for these animals are said to mimic the actions of men when certain baits are spread before them with treacherous intention. By these baits the animals are taken, because their mimicry is unable to come up to the cleverness of man. For "the Thessalian cavalry, the Lacedaemonian women, and they who drink of Arethusa" (I mean the Sicilians), as their own oracle hath it, have not the superiority over those of the same race in a higher degree than the above-named customs and institutions, which chiefly distinguish the Christians, have over others: being such as can be rivalled by no others of those that try to follow us, seeing that they are established, not through human devising, but by the power of God and the consolidating effect of time.
113. But there is nothing like examining this wonderful copying of theirs, or rather parodying as it were on the stage; and discovering what was the scope of the teaching, and what the object of the congregations: in order that, as Plato says about his projected Republic, "when they move about we may discover their intention." For, as Philosophy is divided into two parts, that is, Theory and Practice, and the former is the more sublime but difficult to investigate; the latter the more humble, yet of greater real utility ---- the two gain credit with us by means of one another: for Theory we take for a travelling-companion into the other world, whilst we make Practice the stepping-stone to Theory: inasmuch as it is impossible for persons not living wisely to have claims to wisdom. But on their side I know not which, of these two branches is the more ridiculous, or the more feeble, since they derive not the strength of their system from divine inspiration, just as those roots that are carried away down a stream have no firm hold. Now, let us have a fling at their happiness, and let us play, as often is done on the stage, with them while they play and tell fables; and let there be an addition made to the text "to rejoice with, those that do rejoice, and to weep with them that weep," namely, "to endure to talk nonsense with them that talk nonsense;" and the poets know of laughter in the midst of tears. Let the theatre be got ready (or by whatever other name they bid us call their new building); let the beadles make proclamation; let the people assemble, and those take the chief seats who either are distinguished by hoary hairs and age, and the excellence of their conduct as citizens; or else those conspicuous by their birth and reputation, and by the wisdom that cleaves to earth, and contains more of what is amusing than of true religion: for this point we will leave to their own discretion. What will they do next? Let them describe their presidents for themselves ---- "A purple robe shall adorn them, also a fillet round the head, and the garland and beauty of flowers," ---- since I have on many occasions observed that a majestic appearance, and something above the common, is greatly affected by them, on the supposition that what is commonplace and prosaic brings with it contempt, but what is exaggerated and difficult to be reached produces credit: or else, perhaps, in this case too, they will descend down to our level, and hold that it is not dignity in outward forms that becomes them, but, like ourselves, superiority in morals. For we make small account of what is visible and pictured to the eye, our chief occupation is with the Inner Man, and to draw the spectator along with us to the object of thought, whereby we the more edify the public.
114. So far, so good: what comes after? Thou wilt certainly supply them with interpreters of the "inspired Oracles" (as ye will call them), and open books upon theology and morals. But what books, pray, and of what authors? A fine thing, truly, for the books of Hesiod to be chanted by them with their wars and rebellions, their Titans and Giants, with their terrible names and doings: Cotos, Briareus, Gyges, Encelados, those serpent-footed, lightning-armed gods of yours; the islands piled upon them, weapons and tombs at once to whoso encountered them: and the births and dropping from all these, Hydras, Chimaeras, Cerberi, Gorgons----a revelling in everything bad. Let these samples of Hesiod's fine things be set forth to the audience: let Orpheus come forward with his harp and all-attractive song; let him thunder out in honour of Jove the Great, supernatural words and ideas of his theogony:----
"Jove, greatest of the gods, rolled up in dung"----
of sheep, that is, and of horses, as well as of mules, in order that from hence may be exhibited the life-giving and life-maintaining power of the Deity: for in no other way could it be done. Nor should he spare the rest of his magniloquence: ----
"The goddess spoke, and both her thighs exposed:"
----in order to initiate her lovers, a thing she still does by means of figures: and after all, Phanes, and Ericapaeus, and he that swallows up all the other gods, and throws them up again, so that he may become father both of gods and men. Let these things be brought on the stage for the benefit of the wonderful audience of this theology, and over and above all this, let there be contrived allegories and exhibitions of miracles: and let the sermon, running wild from these premises, advance into pits and precipices of speculation that has no solid foundation.
115. And where will thou place Homer, that great comedian in the matter of thy gods, or (if it so please), tragedian; for both these qualifications wilt thou find in his wonderful poems, some deserving of indignation, others of laughter? For really it is a matter of no little anxiety to see how Ocean shall be reconciled to Tethys by the agency of Hera decked out like a courtesan: inasmuch as there would be danger to the whole universe should the two remain continent for any time; whether that it be that the dry Principle be interchanged with the moist, lest, through the excess of the one or the other, the whole be thrown into confusion; or whatever other explanation thou inventest yet more absurd than this. What means that wondrous copulation of the Cloud-compeller with the majestic Juno when she entices him to act indecently at noonday; even though the poets with their fine verses make the best of his conduct, by making him a bed out of dewy lotus, and causing crocus and hyacinth to spring up out of the ground? Whence comes this, and what is the sense of it all? How, pray, is the same Juno, according to you, sister and wife of the supreme Jove, at one time suspended in the air, and amidst the clouds, and pulled down by iron anvils at her feet----though she is complimented with fetters of gold----she, the white-armed and rosy-fingered! so that even the gods who sought to beg for her pardon found their humanity not without danger to themselves: at another time drawing on herself the whole cestus of the Loves, in the midst of her decorations aimed at Jove, so that he confessed that his desires for all his other mistresses collectively fell far short of this single one. What fear, then, is there lest, while the gods are bestirring themselves on account of the Laconian adulteress, and whilst heaven sounds the charge, the foundations of earth should be broken up, the sea be shifted from its bed, the realms of Hades be made public, and things hidden for time out of mind be brought to the light of day? What is the nod with the dark brows, and the accompanying wave of the ambrosial hair, that makes all Olympus tremble? Who is the Mars that is wounded, or else shut up in the brazen pot, that awkward lover of the Golden Yenus, and incautious adulterer, that was caught by the limping god ( who assembled together a whole theatre full of deities to witness his own dishonour), and after all purchased his ransom at a small price?
116. All these tales, and yet more than these so cleverly and ingeniously put together, and quite out of the common rule, who is there of your party so sublime, so powerful and truly "comparable to Jove for wisdom," as to be able to bring them into a decent form, by means of the words of cloudy dissertation, soaring far above the limits of our comprehension? And yet these stories, if true, you ought not to be ashamed of, nay, ye ought to glory in them, or at any rate to prove that they are not shameful. And what good is there in taking refuge in "fable" as a veil for shame; for fable is the resource not of persons confident in their cause, but of those giving it up: but if these tales be fictions----in the first place let them produce us their undisguised theologians, in order that we may have to deal with them; and next let them explain how it is not silly to make a boast of the very things of which they feel ashamed: and the very things that it was possible to conceal from the vulgar (for education does not belong to all), to make these public to everybody's eyes, by means of statues and figures, and, worst of all, with how great a waste of money, in temples, and altars, and monuments, and offerings, and sacrifices costing many talents: and, when it was in their power to be pious without cost, to prefer the being impious at a great expense!
117. But if they will argue that these things are only fictions and idle stories of poets employing two instruments to give a charm to their poetry, namely, metre and fable; and sweetening as it were by these means the sound of their works, whereas there is concealed in the same fictions a more secret and transcendental sense, only accessible to a few of the wiser sort: consider in what way I shall learn from the latter plainly and honestly these two things: firstly, how it is that they load with praise the person who make a mock of those whom people worship; and why they esteem worthy of all but divine honours those very persons for whom it were full enough good luck to escape the punishment due to their impiety. For if death be the penalty assigned by law for all such as blaspheme against a single one of their gods----personally and slightly----what ought not they to suffer who let loose their poetry against all in a lump, publicly, and in the most opprobrious terms, and hand down the libel to all time to come! Secondly, this point too is worth considering: there are, I will not deny it, amongst ourselves, also certain doctrines under concealment, but what is the nature of their envelope, and what its effect on the mind? Neither the outward form is indecent, whilst the hidden sense is admirable and exceeding glorious, to such as are introduced into its depth, and like some beauteous and unapproachable body, it is veiled by a robe by no means to be condemned. For it is fitting, at least in my opinion, that neither our expositions nor symbolism of things divine be indecorous and unworthy of the things set forth thereby; nor such as even men would be annoyed at were the same tales related concerning themselves: but should possess the highest beauty, or at any rate not the greatest deformity, in order that the former might charm the wiser sort, the latter not disgust the vulgar.
118. But with you the inner sense is not worthy of credit, whilst what conceals it is full of mischief. What wisdom is there in leading one into the town through the middle of a bog, or to hurry through jutting rocks and shoals into harbour? What good can come from such things, and what the end of these tales? Thou wilt go on. babbling and allegorizing thine own hallucinations and fancies----but there will be nobody to believe them; because what strikes the eye has the stronger power of persuasion. Thou wilt, therefore, not please thy hearer whilst thou wilt ruin thy spectator, because he is always on the side of what strikes the eye. Now their theoretical part is such as I have described, and so foreign to the premises, that one must first bring together and mix up with each other the several portions, before fitting them and uniting them into one whole, and asserting that all belong to the same person----I mean things concealed in the fable, and the fables which conceal them.
119. But what wilt thou sayabout the Moral department of these teachers? Whence and from what principles will they start, and what arguments will they use, in order to incite men unto virtue, and render them honest people by their lessons? A very good thing is Concord, for states to agree together, and nations, and families, and individuals; following the law and disposition of Nature which hath divided and united all; and hath made all this into one single world out of several parts. By what examples will they go about to prove this? Perhaps by quoting the wars of the gods, their tumults, and rebellions, and the whole host of evils which they suffer themselves and occasion to others, publicly and privately; with which pretty nearly all history and poetry is filled! Sooner, from the things mentioned, would they render people quarrelsome and furious instead of sane, than convert the imprudent and rude into orderly and sober men, by means of examples like these! For people whom, even without anything to draw them into wickedness, it is a hard matter to reform from evil ways, and bring over to the better part from the worse----who can possibly make such as these gentle and self-restrained, when they have gods for inciters and patrons of their passions; where the being vicious is an honourable thing, inasmuch as some one of the gods presides over it, to whom the particular passion belongs, being dignified with altars and sacrifices, and invested with legal impunity. For this is the most terrible part of it all----that the very things which are punished by the laws are your objects of worship: so great is the absurdity of unrighteousness!
120. In the second place, let the subject expounded to them be Respect and Honour for parents, and the reverencing the first cause of being next to the First Cause of all. Here let a legend be brought in, and let theology convince. Assuredly Saturn will convince the hearers, when he has castrated Uranus, in order that he may be unable to generate more gods, and give unto the waves to create a goddess, offspring of the foam: and let Jove rebel against Saturn, following his sire's example; that sweet stone and bitter slayer of tyrants, or whatever else of the sort their books afford them, touching honour to parents. Let the third theme be the contempt of riches, and not to seek for gain from every source, and not to take that earnest penny of wickedness, the getting of money by bad means! In what light will the "Patron of gain" be set before them, and his Purse be represented, and the thievish character of the deity be duly honoured, and the saying "Without a copper Phoebus does not prophesy," and "Nothing is more to be honoured than the obolus"----for such are their venerable and respectable maxims.
121. And what next? Let them teach chastity, and bring forward the subject of temperance: and see! the convincing argument is ready for them in him that turned himself into all manner of things for the sake of women. Jupiter, and the Phrygian Boy, and the Eagle ravisher most dear, in order that the gods might feast most pleasantly, being served with wine by Jove's own favourite: also Hercules, the child of three nights, labouring amongst the fifty daughters of Thestias in a single night, and performing this as his thirteenth Labour; although not counted, I know not wherefore, in the list. Let Mars bridle anger; Bacchus, drunkenness; Diana, inhospitality; Deceit, their own "Oblique" giver of oracles: or immoderate Laughter, the deity that limps, whilst the gods are amused, and steadies himself upon his two spider-legs: Gluttony, Jupiter running along with the "blameless" Venus to a splendid banquet, and followed by the rest of the deities; and the "Bull-eater" that robbed the ploughman, and swallowed up his ox, and got his title and honour from this feat; as well as all the others that ran after the fumes of burnt-offerings and libations.
122. And yet how do these maxims come up to ours, whose rule of friendship is "loving as one's own self," and the wishing to our neighbour the same good that we wish to ourselves; amongst whom it is a crime not merely to have acted wickedly, but even to have been on the point of it, the wish being punished as much as the deed; by whom chastity is so studied that even the eye is restrained; with whom the murderous hand is so far removed that even anger is chastised; to whom the swearing a false oath is so terrible and monstrous a thing, that to us alone swearing at all is interdicted; whilst as for money, the most of us have never had any at all, whilst others had gladly possessed more, but only that they might have more to despise, philosophically preferring the having nothing to all wealth; casting away the yoke of the belly as a bitter and abominable tyrant, and the author of every evil. Is it not a great thing to boast that they strive to be not even flesh and blood, expending the mortal upon the immortal part; their single rule of virtue being the not giving way to small vices and such as are thought nothing of by the generality. But the greatest thing of all is, that whereas others punish the ends, as the law directs, we chastise the beginnings, and repress them like some dangerous and unruly torrent.
123. Where else in the world, tell me, wilt thou find, "When reviled do ye bless; when blasphemed at do ye exhort" (inasmuch as it is not the accusation that does the harm but the reality), "when persecuted, submit; when cursed, pray for them that curse you; when stripped, strip yourself to boot"; in one word, to overcome malice by goodness, and make them better who injure us, by enduring the things whereby our patience is tried? And yet even though we should grant that they can repress vice by means of the lessons of their false doctrine, yet how can they ever attain to the full height of our virtue and discipline, when we even regard as vice the not progressing in what is good, and becoming young in place of old, and standing still in the same place, in the condition of whipping-tops, running round, but not going forward at all, but moving in a stationary way, so to speak, by the impulse of the lash; and it behoves us to have already practised one part of the virtues to grasp at another, and to aim at yet another, until the end, and that deification for which we were born, and to which we aspire, inasmuch as we cast a mental glance across the gulf between the two worlds, and have in expectation a reward commensurate with the magnificence of God!
[Footnotes have been renumbered and placed at the end]
"Qui quid sit pulcrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, Planius et Milius Chrysippo et Crantore dixit"
as from the Hebrew legends and institutions.