Libanius.
In the strong bluish light, they all saw the statue's face come to life and smile at them.
Julian.
What more?
Libanius.
Terror seized on the minds of most. All rushed towards the doors. Many have lain sick or raving ever since. But he himself—would you believe it, Julian?—in spite of the fate that befell his two brothers in Constantinople, he goes boldly forward on his reckless and scandalous way.
Julian.
Scandalous? Call you that way scandalous? Is not this the end of all wisdom. Communion between spirit and spirit
Basil.
Oh, dear, misguided friend!
Libanius.
More than scandalous, I call it! What is Hecate? What are the gods, as a whole, in the eyes of enlightened humanity? We have happily left far behind us the blind old singer's days. Maximus ought to know better than that. Has not Plato—and we others after him—shed the light of interpretation over the whole? Is it not scandalous now, in our own days, to seek to enshroud afresh in riddles and misty dreams this admirable, palpable, and, let me add, this laboriously constructed edifice of ideas and interpretations which we, as lovers of wisdom, as a school, as
