Gregory.
Then it is true! Oh, Julian, how could you seek such shameful intercourse?
Julian.
I must live, Gregory,—and this life at the university is no life at all. This Libanius! I shall never forgive him the great love I once bore him! At my first coming, how humbly and with what tremors of joy did I not enter the presence of this man, bowing myself before him, kissing him, and calling him my great brother.[brother.]
Gregory.
Yes, we Christians all thought that you went too far.
Julian.
And yet I came here in exaltation of spirit. I saw, in my fancy, a mighty contest between us two,—the world’s truth in pitched battle against God’s truth.—What has it all come to? Libanius never seriously desired that contest. He never desired any contest whatever; he cares only for his own interest. I tell you, Gregory—Libanius is not a great man.
Gregory.
Yet all enlightened Greece proclaims him great.