The Arguments of the Emperor Julian Against the Christians — page 111: what you’re looking at

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

88 THE EMPEROR fFULIAN’S ARGUMENTS. . therefore, this be true or not, I shall not at pre- sent consider. I commend those who make such specious promises, and should commend them much more if they did not falsify and contradict themselves by thinking one thing, and teaching their scholars another. What then? Were not Homer, Hesiod, Demosthenes, Herodotus, Thu- cydides, Isocrates, and Lysias, the leaders of all erudition? And did not some of them consider themselves sacred to Mercury, but others to the Muses? I think, therefore, it is absurd for those who explain their works to despise the gods whom they honoured. I do not mean (for I think it would be absurd) that they should change their opinions for the sake of instructing youth; but I give them their option, either not to teach what they do not approve, or, if they choose to teach, first to per- Suade their scholars that neither Homer, nor Hesiod, nor any of those whom they expound and charge with impiety, madness, and error con- cerning the gods, are really such as they represent them to be. For as they receive a stipend, and are maintained by their works, if they can act YY Neotel lsooks (CO