Before good fathers we speak freely
But the people Celsus describes, who resemble the wool-workers in houses and are like the cobblers and fullers and the most uneducated rustics, “while the father and teachers are present,” he says, “will be neither willing to say anything nor able to explain anything good to the children.” To this too we shall reply: What sort of father do you mean, sir, and what sort of teacher? If one who welcomes virtue, turns away from vice and embraces what is better, then hear this: we shall speak our teaching to the children with great confidence, as men who stand well with such a judge. But if, in front of a father notorious for his opposition to virtue and nobility of character, and in front of those who teach things contrary to sound reason, we keep silent, do not blame us for this either, for you have no good reason to blame us.
You yourself, at any rate, when you hand on the sacred rites of philosophy to young men and sons whose fathers consider philosophy an idle and useless thing, will not speak to the boys in front of their worthless fathers; rather, wishing to separate from their wicked fathers the sons who have been drawn toward philosophy, you will watch for opportunities so that the words of philosophy may reach the young.
We shall say the same about the teachers as well. If we turn the young away from teachers who teach the indecencies of comedy, and licentious iambic verse, and whatever else neither reforms the speaker nor benefits hearers who do not know how to listen to poems as philosophers do and to pick out from each what tends to the benefit of the young, then in doing this we are not ashamed to admit what we do. But if you show me teachers who train the young beforehand for philosophy and exercise them in philosophy, I shall not turn the young away from them. Rather, once they have been trained beforehand, as it were, in the general course of studies and in philosophical reasoning, I shall try to lead them up to the majestic and lofty eloquence of Christians, hidden from the many, who discuss the greatest and most necessary matters, and who demonstrate and show that these were treated philosophically by the prophets of God and the apostles of Jesus.
Greek
Οἱ δὲ παρὰ τῷ Κέλσῳ παραπλήσιοι τοῖς ἐν ταῖς οἰκίαις ἐριουργοῖς ὅμοιοι δὲ καὶ τοῖς σκυτοτόμοις καὶ κναφεῦσι καὶ ἀπαιδευτοτάτοις ἀγροίκοις παρόντος μὲν πατρὸς καὶ διδασκάλων οὐδέν φησι λέγειν ἐθελήσουσιν οὐδὲ δυνήσονται τοῖς παισὶν ἑρμηνεύειν ἀγαθόν. καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο δ᾿ ἐροῦμεν· ποίου φῂς. ὦ οὗτος, πατρὸς καὶ ποίου διδασκάλου; εἰ μὲν τοῦ ἀρετὴν ἀποδεχομένου καὶ κακίαν ἀποστρεφομένου καὶ ἀσπαζομένου τὰ κρείττονα, ἄκουε ὅτι καὶ μάλα θαῤῥοῦντες ὡς εὐδοκιμοῦντες παρὰ τῷ τοιούτῳ κριτῇ ἐροῦμεν τοῖς παισὶ τὰ ἡμέτερα. εἰ δ᾿ ἐνώπιον πατρὸς διαβεβοημένου πρὸς ἀρετὴν καὶ καλοκἀγαθίαν σιωπῶμεν καὶ τῶν τὰ ἐναντία τῷ ὑγιεῖ λόγῳ διδασκόντων, τοῦτο μηδ᾿ ἡμῖν ἐγκάλει, οὐ γὰρ εὐλόγως ἐγκαλεῖς, καὶ σὺ γοῦν τὰ φιλοσοφίας ὄργια τοῖς νέοις καὶ υἱοῖς, πατέρων ἀργὸν πρᾶγμα καὶ ἀνωφελὲς νομιζόντων φιλοσοφίαν, παραδιδοὺς τοῖς παισὶν οὐκ ἐπὶ τῶν φαύλων πατέρων ἐρεῖς· ἀλλὰ βουλόμενος χωρίζεσθαι τοὺς προτραπέντας ἐπὶ φιλοσοφίαν υἱοὺς τῶν μοχθηρῶν πατέρων ἐπιτηρήσεις καιροὺς, ἵνα καθίκωνται οἱ φιλοσοφίας λόγοι τῶν νέων, καὶ περὶ τῶν διδασκάλων δὲ τὰ αὐτὰ φήσομεν, εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἀποτρέπομεν διδασκάλων διδασκόντων τὰ ἄσεμνα τῆς κωμῳδίας καὶ τοὺς ἀκολάστους τῶν ἰάμβων καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα, ἃ μήτε τὸν λέγοντα ἐπιστρέφει μήτε τοὺς ἀκούοντας ὠφελεῖ, καὶ μὴ εἰδότας φιλοσόφως ἀκούειν ποιημάτων καὶ ἐπιλέγειν ἑκάστοις τὰ συντείνοντα εἰς ὠφέλειαν τῶν νέων, τοῦτο ποιοῦντες οὐκ αἰσχυνόμεθα ὁμολογεῖν τὸ πραττόμενον· εἰ δὲ παραστήσεις μοι διδασκάλους πρὸς φιλοσοφίαν προπαιδεύοντας καὶ ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ γυμνάζοντας, οὐκ ἀποτρέψω μὲν ἀπὸ τούτων τοὺς νέους πειράσομαι δὲ προγυμνασαμένους αὐτοὺς ὡς ἐν ἐγκυκλίοις μαθήμασι καὶ τοῖς φιλοσοφουμένοις ἀναβιβάσαι ἐπὶ τὸ σεμνὸν καὶ ὑψηλὸν τῆς λεληθυίας τοὺς πολλοὺς Χριστιανῶν μεγαλοφωνίας, περὶ τῶν μεγίστων καὶ ἀναγκαιοτάτων διαλαμβανόντων καὶ ἀποδεικνύντων καὶ παριστάντων αὐτὰ πεφιλοσοφῆσθαι παρὰ τοῖς τοῦ θεοῦ προφήταις καὶ τοῖς τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἀποστόλοις.