The Arguments of the Emperor Julian Against the Christians — page 107: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

84 THE EMPEROR YULIAN’S ARGUMENTS the statues and images of the gods; at the same time venerating and fearing with a holy dread the gods who invisibly behold him. If, therefore, some one should fancy that these ought never to be corrupted, because they were once called the images of the gods, such a one appears to me to be perfectly void of intellect. For if this were admitted, it is also requisite that they should not be made by men. That, however, which is pro- duced by a wise and good man may be corrupted by a depraved and ignorant man. But the gods which circularly revolve about the heavens, and which are living statues, fashioned by the gods themselves as resemblances of their unapparent essence,—these remain for ever. No one, there- anne fore, should disbelieve in the gods, in consequence of seeing and hearing that some persons have be- haved insolently towards statues and temples. For have there not been many who have destroyed good men, such as Socrates and Dion, and the great Empedotimus ? And who, I well know, have, more than statues or temples, been taken care of by the gods. See, however, that the gods know- ing the body of these to be corruptible, have COMME OOKS (CO