De Decalogo

Let us, therefore, fix deeply in ourselves this first commandment as the most sacred of all commandments, to think that there is but one God, the most highest, and to honour him alone; and let not the polytheistical doctrine ever even touch the ears of any man who is accustomed to seek for the truth, with purity and sincerity of heart;

for those who are ministers and servants of the sun, and of the moon, and of all the host of heaven, or of it in all its integrity or of its principal parts, are in grievous error; (how can they fail to be, when they honour the subjects instead of the prince?) but still they sin less grievously than the others, who have fashioned stocks, and stones, and silver, and gold, and similar materials according to their own pleasure, making images, and statues, and all kinds of other things wrought by the hand; the workmanship in which, whether by statuary, or painter, or artisan, has done great injury to the life of man, having filled the whole habitable world.

For they have cut away the most beautiful support of the soul, namely the proper conception of the ever-living God; and therefore, like ships without ballast, they are tossed about in every direction for ever, being borne in every direction, so as never once to reach the haven, and never to be able to anchor firmly in truth, being blind respecting that which is worth seeing, and the only object as to which it is absolutely necessary to be sharp-sighted;

and such men appear to me to have a more miserable life than those who are deprived of their bodily sight; for these latter have either been injured without their own consent, or else have endured some terrible disease of the eyes, or else have been plotted against by their enemies; but those others by their own deliberate intention, have not only dimmed the eye of their soul, but have even chosen utterly to discard it;

on which account pity is bestowed on the one class as unfortunate, but the other class are justly punished as being wicked, who in conjunction with others have not chosen to recognize that fact which even an infant child would understand, namely, that the Creator is better than the creature; for he

He is also superior in power, for the agent is more glorious than the patient.

And though it would be proper, if they had not committed sins, to deify the painters and statuaries themselves with exceeding honours, they have left them in obscurity, giving them no advantage, but have looked upon the figures which have been made, or the pictures which have been painted by them, as gods;

and these artists have often grown old in poverty and obscurity, dying, worn out by incessant misfortunes, while the things which they have fabricated, are made splendid with purple, and gold, and all sorts of costly splendour which wealth can furnish, and are worshipped not only by freemen but even by men of noble birth, and of the greatest personal strength and beauty.

For the race of priests is scrutinised with the greatest rigour and minuteness, to see whether they are without blemish, and to see whether the whole combination of the parts of their bodies is entire and perfect;

and these are not the worst points of all, bad as they are: but this is entirely intolerable, for I have known before now, some of the very men who have made the things, praying and sacrificing to the very things which have been made by them, when it would have been more to their purpose to worship either of their own hands, or, if they feared the reproach of self-conceit, and therefore did not choose to do that, at all events to worship their anvils, and hammers, and graving tools, and compasses, and other instruments, by means of which the materials have been fashioned into shape.

And yet it is well for us, speaking with all proper freedom, to say to those who have shown themselves so devoid of sense; "My good men, the best of all prayers, and the end, and proper object of happiness, is to attain to a likeness to God.

Do you therefore pray to become like those erections of yours, that so you may reap the most supreme happiness, neither seeing with your eyes, nor hearing with your ears, nor respiring, nor smelling with your nostrils, nor speaking, nor tasting with your mouth, nor taking, nor giving, nor doing anything with your hands, nor walking

But I think that when they hear these things, they will be indignant, as if they were listening not to prayers, but to curses, and that they will take refuge in such defence as chance may furnish them with, bringing retaliatory accusations; which may be the greatest proof of the manifest and undesirable impiety of those men, who look upon those beings as gods, to whom they themselves would never wish to have their own natures assimilated.

Let no one therefore of those beings who are endowed with souls, worship any thing that is devoid of a soul; for it would be one of the most absurd things possible for the works of nature to be diverted to the service of those things which are made by hand; and against Egypt, not only is that common accusation brought, to which the whole country is liable, but another charge also, which is of a more special character, and with great fitness; for besides falling down to statues, and images they have also introduced irrational animals, to the honours due to the gods, such as bulls, and rams, and goats, inventing some prodigious fiction with regard to each of them;

and as to these particular animals, they have indeed some reason for what they do, for they are the most domestic, and the most useful to life.

The bull, as a plougher, draws furrows for the reception of the seed, and is again the most powerful of all animals to thresh the corn out when it is necessary to purify it of the chaff; the ram gives us the most beautiful garments for the coverings of our persons; for if our bodies were naked, they would easily be destroyed either through heat, or through intense cold, caused at one time by the blaze of the sun, and at another by the cooling of the air.

But as it is they go beyond these animals, and select the most fierce, and untameable of all wild animals, honouring lions, and crocodiles, and of reptiles the poisonous asp, with temples, and sacred precincts, and sacrifices, and assemblies in their honour, and solemn processions, and things of that kind.

they have also deified many other animals, dogs, ichneumons, wolves, birds, ibises, and hawks, and even fish, taking sometimes the whole, and sometimes only a part; and what can be more ridiculous than this conduct? [*](This was one of the things which especially excited the ridicule of the Romans. Juvenal says, Sat. xv. 1— Quis nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demensAegyptus portenta colat? Crocodilon adoratPars haec: illa pavet saturam serpentibus Ibim,Effigies sacri nitet aurea cercopitheci,Dimidio magice resonant ubi Memnone chorda,Atque vetus Thebe centum jacet obruta portis.Illic coeruleow, hic piscem fluminis, illic Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam. Or, as it is translated by Gifford, Who knows not to what monstrous gods, my friend,The mad inhabitants of Egypt bend?The snake devouring ibis, these enshrineThose think the crocodile alone divine;Others, where Thebes’ vast ruins strew the groundAnd shattered Memnon yields a magic sound,Set up a glittering brute of uncouth shape,And bow before the image of an ape!Thousands regard the hound with holy fear,Not one Diana,)

And, accordingly, the first foreigners who arrived in Egypt were quite worn out with laughing at and ridiculing these superstitions, till their minds had become impregnated with the conceit of the natives; but all those who have tasted of right instruction, are amazed and struck with consternation, at their system of ennobling things which are not noble, and pity those who give into it, thinking the men, as is natural, more miserable than even the objects which they honour, since they in their souls are changed into those very animals, so as to appear to be merely brutes in human form, now returning to their original nature. [*]( This was one of the things which especially excited the ridicule of the Romans. Juvenal says, Sat. xv. 1— Quis nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens Aegyptus portenta colat? Crocodilon adorat Pars haec: illa pavet saturam serpentibus Ibim, Effigies sacri nitet aurea cercopitheci, Dimidio magice resonant ubi Memnone chorda, Atque vetus Thebe centum jacet obruta portis. Illic coeruleow, hic piscem fluminis, illic Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam. Or, as it is translated by Gifford, "Who knows not to what monstrous gods, my friend,The mad inhabitants of Egypt bend?The snake devouring ibis, these enshrineThose think the crocodile alone divine;Others, where Thebes’ vast ruins strew the groundAnd shattered Memnon yields a magic sound,Set up a glittering brute of uncouth shape,And bow before the image of an ape!Thousands regard the hound with holy fear,Not one Diana,")