No source of instruction can be overlooked in the preparation for the great battle of life, § 2. and there is a certain advantage to be derived from the right use of heathen writers.  The illustrious Moses is described as training his intellect in the science of the Egyptians, and so arriving at the contemplation of Him Who is.τοῦ ὄντος.  The highest heathen philosophy strove to reach the neuter τὸ ὄν.  The revelation of Jehovah is of the masculine ὁ ὤν, who communicates with his creatures, and says ἐγὼ εἰμί.  So in later days Daniel at Babylon was wise in the Chaldean philosophy, and ultimately apprehended the divine instruction.  But granted that such heathen learning is not useless, the question remains how you are to participate in it.  To begin with the poets.  Their utterances are of very various kinds, and it will not be well to give attention to all without exception.  When they narrate to you the deeds and the words of good men, admire and copy them, and strive diligently to be like them.  When they come to bad men, shut your ears, and avoid imitating them, like Ulysses fleeing from the sirens’ songs. Hom., Od. xii. 158.  cf. Letter i. p. 109.  Familiarity with evil words is a sure road to evil deeds, wherefore every possible precaution must be taken to prevent our souls from unconsciously imbibing evil influences through literary gratification, like men who take poison in honey.  We shall not therefore praise the poets when they revile and mock, or when they describe licentious, intoxicated characters, when they define happiness as consisting in a laden table and dissolute ditties.  Least of all shall we attend to the poets when they are talking about the gods, specially when their talk is of many gods, and those in mutual disagreement.  For among them brother is at variance with brother, parent against children, and children wage a truceless war against parents.  The gods’ adulteries and amours and unabashed embraces, and specially those of Zeus, whom they describe as the chief and highest of them all,—things which could not be told without a blush of brutes,—all this let us leave to actors on the stage. This shews that the shameless and cruel exhibitions of earlier days had not died out even in the fourth century.  cf. Suetonius, Nero xi., xii., Tertullian, Apol. 15.  On the whole subject, see Bp. Lightfoot’s note on St. Clem. Rom., Ep. ad Cor. vi., where Δαναΐδες καὶ Δίρκαι is probably a misreading for νεάνιδες παιδισκαι.  He refers for illustrations to Friedländer, Sittengeschichte Roms, ii. 234.