[35]
Why so?
“Because they now affirm what they then denied.” What of
that? Is this the way in which we are to regard witnesses,—to
refuse them belief when they deny a thing, but to believe the very same men
when they affirm a thing? But if they told the truth then, when they spoke
with every appearance of truth, they are telling lies now. If they told lies
then, they must give us good proof that they are now speaking the truth. Why
need I say more. Let them hold their tongues. We have heard men speak of
Alexandria before. Now we know it from our own experience. Thence it is,
that every sort of chicanery comes. Thence, I say, comes every sort of
deceit. It is from that people that all the plots of the three writers are
derived. And, indeed, there is nothing which I wish for more, O judges, than
to see the witnesses face to face.
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