Then going farther, as if his object were thus far attained, he takes up other charges against us, more difficult, as he thinks, to deal with than the former, and with many preliminary groans and attempts to prejudice his hearers against us, and to whet their appetite for his address, accusing us withal of seeking to establish doctrines savouring of blasphemy, and of ascribing to our own conception names assigned by God (though he nowhere mentions what assignment he refers to, nor when and where it took place), and, further, of throwing everything into confusion, and identifying the essence of the Only-begotten with his operation, without arguing the matter, or showing how we prove the identity of the essence and the operation, he winds up with the same list of charges, as follows: “And now, passing beyond this, he (Basil) asperses even the Most High with the vilest blasphemies, using at the same time broken language, and illustrations wide of the mark.” Now prior to inquiry, I should like to be told what our language is “broken” from, and what mark it is “wide of”; not that I want to know, except to show the confusion and obscurity of his address, which he dins into the ears of the old wives among our men, pluming himself on his nice phrases, which he mouths out to the admirers of such things, ignorant, as it would seem, that in the judgment of educated men this address of his will serve only as a memorial of his own infamy.

Εἶτα προϊὼν ὡς δὴ κατὰ σκοπὸν αὐτῷ συμπερανθέντος τοῦ λόγου ἕτερα προχειρίζεται καθ' ἡμῶν χαλεπώτερα τῶν εἰρημένων ὥς φησι τὰ ἐγκλήματα καὶ πολλὰ προσχετλιάσας καὶ προδιαβαλὼν τὸν λόγον καὶ σφοδρῶς τὸν ἀκροατὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς μέλλουσι ῥηθήσεσθαι παροξύνας, ἐν οἷς δυσσεβέστερά τινα παρ' ἡμῶν αἰτιᾶται κατασκευάζεσθαι, ὡς μὴ μόνον τὰς ἀποκληρωθείσας παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ προσηγορίας ταῖς ἐπινοίαις ἡμῶν προσαπτόντων, οὐκ εἰπὼν τίς ἡ τῶν προσηγοριῶν ἀποκλήρωσις καὶ πότε καὶ πῶς γεγενημένη, « ἀλλὰ » καὶ ὡς πάντα φυρόντων τὰ πράγματα καὶ εἰς ταὐτὸν ἀγόντων τοῦ μονογενοῦς τήν τε οὐσίαν καὶ τὴν ἐνέργειαν, οὐδὲν περὶ αὐτοῦ τούτου διαλεχθεὶς οὐδὲ ἀποδείξας, πῶς ταὐτὸν εἶναι τῇ οὐσίᾳ κατασκευάζεται παρ' ἡμῶν ἡ ἐνέργεια, τέλος ἐπάγει καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν κολοφῶνα τῶν ἐγκλημάτων, οὑτωσὶ λέγων τοῖς ῥήμασιν. « ἤδη δέ », φησί, « μεταβαίνων ἀπὸ τούτων καὶ τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸν ταῖς ἐσχάταις περιβάλλει βλασφημίαις καὶ λόγοις ἀπερρωγόσι καὶ παραδείγμασι παντελῶς ἀποστατοῦσι χρώμενος ». ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο πρὸ τῶν ἐξητασμένων ἠξίουν μαθεῖν, τίνων « ἀπερρώγασιν » οἱ ἡμέτεροι « λόγοι » καὶ τίνος « ἀποστατεῖ » τὰ παρ' ἡμῶν « παραδείγματα », οὐ πάντως τοῦ μαθεῖν ταῦτα δεόμενος ἀλλ' ἢ δεῖξαι τὸ συρφετῶδες τῶν ῥημάτων τοῦ λογογράφου καὶ ἀκριτόμυθον, οἷς περικτυπῶν τὰ ἐν ἀνδράσι γραΐδια καὶ τῷ στόμφῳ τῶν λεξειδίων ἐν ταῖς ἀκοαῖς τῶν ταῦτα θαυμαζόντων καλλωπιζόμενος στήλην καθ' ἑαυτοῦ τὸν λόγον τοῦτον τοῖς πεπαιδευμένοις προτιθεὶς οὐ συνίησιν.