Julian.
Ah, those times, Maximus! ’Twas easy to choose then. What were we really working at? A philosophic system; neither more nor less.
Maximus.
Is it not written somewhere in your Scriptures! “Either[“Either] with us or against us”?
Julian.
Did not Libanius remain the man he was, whether he took the affirmative in a disputation, or the negative? This lies deeper. Here it is action that must be faced. “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” In Athens I once made a game of that;—but it is no game. You cannot grasp it, you, who have never been under the power of the god-man. It is more than a doctrine he has spread over the world; it is an enchantment, that binds the soul in chains. He who has once been under it,—I believe he can never quite shake it off.
Maximus.
Because you do not wholly will.
Julian.
How can I will the impossible?