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I should like you, O men of Athens, to join me in examining what 
I conceive to be his inconsistency; and do you, Meletus, answer. 
And I must remind the audience of my request that they would not 
make a disturbance if I speak in my accustomed manner: 

Did ever man, Meletus, believe in the existence of human things, 
and not of human beings?. ..I wish, men of Athens, that he would 
answer, and not be always trying to get up an interruption. Did 
ever any man believe in horsemanship, and not in horses? or in 
flute-playing, and not in flute-players? No, my friend; I will answer 
to you and to the court, as you refuse to answer for yourself. There 
is no man who ever did. But now please to answer the next ques- 
tion: Can a man believe in spiritual and divine agencies, and not in 
spirits or demigods? 

He cannot. 

How lucky I am to have extracted that answer, by the assistance 
of the court! But then you swear in the indictment that I teach and 
believe in divine or spiritual agencies (new or old, no matter for 
that); at any rate, I believe in spiritual agencies,— so you say and 
swear in the affidavit; and yet if I believe in divine beings, how can 
I help believing in spirits or demigods;— must I not? To be sure I 
must; and therefore I may assume that your silence gives consent. 
Now what are spirits or demigods? Are they not either gods or the 
sons of gods? 

Certainly they are. 

But this is what I call the facetious riddle invented by you: the 
demigods or spirits are gods, and you say first that I do not believe 
in gods, and then again that I do believe in gods; that is, if I believe 
in demigods. For if the demigods are the illegitimate sons of gods, 
whether by the nymphs or by any other mothers, of whom they are 
said to be the sons— what human being will ever believe that there