ORTHODOXUS: I accept your eagerness, my friend, and I commend your zeal for the discussion. That you have been so disposed concerning things that are — namely, that God fashioned them out of some underlying substance — I do not greatly blame; for in truth the origin of evils disposes most people in this way.
For indeed, before you and me, many capable men made the greatest inquiry concerning this. Some were disposed like you, while others again declared God to be the craftsman of these things, fearing to grant a subsistence contemporaneous with Him; and those, out of fear to call God the maker of evils, thought to grant matter as contemporaneous with Him. And it befell both parties, out of fearing God not according to knowledge of the truth, that they spoke amiss.
Others again refused at the outset even to inquire about such a thing, on the ground that such an inquiry has no end. But the common bond of friendship with you does not allow me to decline what is sought — especially when you declare your own resolve: that you are not held captive by prejudice (even if you do seem to hold matters thus, from what you have surmised), but say that you stand in a desire for the knowledge of the truth. Wherefore I too will eagerly turn to the discussion of the inquiry.
I wish also that this companion here should become a hearer of our discussion; for he too seems somehow in some respect to hold an opinion like yours about these matters. Therefore I wish to make the discussion common to you both; for whatever I say to you, holding things thus, the same I will say likewise to him. If, then, it truly seems good to you to speak fairly about the Higher One, answer each of the things I ask; for from these it will come about both that you learn the truth, and that I do not make my words to you in vain.
VALENTINIANUS: I am ready to do these things which you have said, and therefore with all eagerness inquire those things from which you think I am able to learn the knowledge of the Higher One. For my aim is not to win badly, but to learn the truth well; therefore proceed with the rest of the discussion.