Against Celsus 5.39

One must therefore inquire what is edible and what is not in a way fitting for a rational and civilized animal that does everything by reasoning, and not revere sheep, or goats, or cows arbitrarily. To abstain from these is moderate, for much benefit comes to human beings from these animals; but to spare even crocodiles, and to hold them sacred to some mythological god or other, how is this not the most foolish thing of all? For it is the mark of people quite thunderstruck to spare animals that do not spare us, and to cherish animals that feast on human beings. But Celsus approves of those who revere and cherish crocodiles according to some ancestral custom, and he has written no word against them; while Christians appear to him blameworthy, who are taught to loathe vice and turn away from the works of vice, and to revere and honour virtue as begotten by God and as being the Son of God. For we must not think that Wisdom and Righteousness, which in our view are the Son of God, are female in substance because their names are feminine, as his genuine disciple showed when he said of him: "who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." So even if we speak of a second God, let them know that by the second God we mean nothing other than the virtue that comprises all virtues, and the Reason (Logos) that comprises every reason of the things that have come into being according to nature and principally, and for the benefit of the universe; which Reason, we say, was joined and united to the soul of Jesus above every other soul, since he alone was able to receive perfectly the highest share in Reason itself, Wisdom itself, and Righteousness itself.