No More Learning

"They will further say: 'By this means some have been converted, and
brought to embrace the same religious sentiments with themselves. '
Be not deceived by what they say; they only pretend it, but are not
convinced: for they are averse to

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nothing more than this, though they say the contrary. For the truth is,
they have not changed the objects of their worship, but only appear
to have done so. They join themselves with them in appearance, and
outwardly perform the same things that they do: but when they are in a
praying posture, they address to no one, or else they invoke the gods;
not rightly indeed in such a place, but yet they invoke them. Wherefore
as in a tragedy he who acts the part of a king is not a king, but the
same person he was before he assumed the character, so every one of
these keeps himself the same he was, though he seems to them to be
changed. And what advantage have they by this, when the profession only
is the same with theirs, but a real agreement with them is wanting? for
these are things to which men ought to be persuaded, not compelled. And
when a man cannot accomplish that, and yet will practise this, nothing
is effected, and he may perceive the weakness of the attempt. It is said
that this is not permitted by their own laws, which commend persuasion,
and condemn compulsion. Why then do you run mad against the temples?
When you cannot persuade, you use force. In this you evidently
transgress your own laws.

"But they say: 'It is for the good of the world, and the men in it, that
there should be no temples. '

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Here, O Emperor, I need freedom of speech; for I fear lest I should
offend. Let then any of them tell me, who have left the tongs and the
hammer and the anvil, and pretend to talk of the heavens, and of them
that dwell there, what rites the Romans followed, who arose from small
and mean beginnings, and went on prevailing, and grew great; theirs, or
these, whose are the temples and the altars, from whom they knew by
the soothsayers, what they ought to do, or not to do?
[Here Libanius
instanceth in the successes of Agamemnon against Troy; and of Hercules
before, against the same place; and some other things. ] And many other
wars might be mentioned, which have been successfully conducted, and
after that peace obtained, by the favour and under the direction of
the gods. But, what is the most considerable of all, they who seemed to
despise this way of worship, have honoured it against their will. Who
are they? They who have not ventured to forbid sacrifices at Rome. But
if all this affair of sacrifices be a vain thing, why has not this vain
thing been prohibited? And if it be hurtful likewise, why not much more?
But if in the sacrifices there performed consists the stability of the
empire, it ought to be reckoned beneficial to sacrifice every where; and
to be allowed that the dæmonss at Rome confer greater benefits, these in
the country and other cities less. This is

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what may be reasonably granted: for in an army all are not equal; yet in
a battle the help of each one is of use: the like may be said of rowers
in a vessel. So one [dæmons] defends the sceptre of Rome, another
protects a city subject to it, another preserves the country and gives
it felicity. Let there then be temples every where. Or let those men
confess, that you are not well affected to Rome in permitting her to do
things by which she suffers damage. But neither is it at Rome only that
the liberty of sacrificing remains, but also in the city of Serapis*,
that great and populous city, which has a multitude of temples, by which
it renders the plenty of Egypt common to all men. This [plenty] is the
work of the Nile. It therefore celebrates the Nile, and persuades him
to rise and overflow the fields. If those rites were not performed, when
and by whom they ought, he would not do so.