Against Celsus 3.52

See then, after this, whether what Celsus says, “We see, surely, that those in the marketplaces who put on the most disreputable shows and go about collecting money,” is not stated outright falsely and compared unfairly. These people to whom Celsus likens us, those who put on the most disreputable shows in the marketplaces and collect money, he says would never come forward into a gathering of sensible men, nor dare to display their tricks among them, but wherever they see adolescents and a crowd of house-slaves and a throng of foolish people, there they push themselves in and show off. In this he does nothing but revile us, like women at the crossroads whose aim is to speak ill of one another. For we do everything in our power to make our gathering one of sensible men, and we dare to bring forward in our public discourses the most beautiful and divine things among us when we have a good supply of intelligent hearers; but we conceal and pass over in silence the deeper things when we see that those who come together are simpler and need the teachings figuratively called “milk.”