Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/68

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caesar's apostasy.
[act i.

deep meaning does not exist for these gentlefolk—your pardon, sir—for most of them it does not exist.

Julian.

For none. You may safely say for none.

The Philosopher.

Yet surely for you; and at any rate for us.——

Yes, he could indeed shine forth over the empire! Are there not legends of his childhood in Cappadocia, when, in disputation with his brother Gallus, he took the part of the gods, and defended them against the Galilean?

Julian.

That was in jest, mere practice in rhetoric——

The Philosopher.

What has not Mardonius recorded of him? And afterwards Hekebolius! What art was there not even in his boyish utterances—what beauty, what grace in the light play of his thoughts!

Julian.

You think so?

The Philosopher.

Yes, in him we might indeed find an adversary to fear and yet to long for. What should hinder him from reaching so honourable an eminence? He lacks nothing but to pass through the same school through which Paul passed, and passed so unscathed that, when he afterwards joined the Galileans, he shed more light than all the other