De Decalogo

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,")

Therefore, God, removing out of his sacred legislation all such impious deification of undeserving objects, has invited men to the honour of the one true and living God; not indeed that he has any need himself to be honoured; for being all-sufficient for himself, he has no need of any one else; but he has done so, because he wished to lead the race of mankind, hitherto wandering about in trackless deserts, into a road from which they should not stray, that so by following nature it might find the best end of all things, namely, the knowledge of the true and living God, who is the first and most perfect of all good things; from whom, as from a fountain, all particular blessings are showered upon the world, and upon the things are people in it.

Having now spoken of the second commandment to the best of our ability, let us proceed to investigate the one which follows with accuracy, as is pointed out by the order in which they come.

The next commandment is, "not to take the name of God in vain." Now the principle on which this order or arrangement proceeds is very plain to those who are gifted with acute mental vision; for the name is always subsequent in order to the subject of which it is the name; being like the shadow which follows the body.

Having, therefore, previously spoken of the existence of God, and also of the honour to be paid to the everlasting God; he then, following the natural order of connection proceeds to command what is becoming in respect of his name; for the errors of men with respect to this point are manifold and various, and assume many different characters.

That being which is the most beautiful, and the most beneficial to human life, and suitable to rational nature, swears not itself, because truth on every point is so innate within him that his bare word is accounted an oath. Next to not swearing at all, the second best thing is to keep one’s oath; for by the mere fact of swearing at all, the swearer shows that there is some suspicion of his not being trustworthy.

Let a man, therefore, be dilatory, and slow if there is any chance that by delay he may be able to avoid the necessity of taking an oath at all; but if necessity compels him to swear, then he must consider with no superficial

For an oath is the calling of God to give his testimony concerning the matters which are in doubt; and it is a most impious thing to invoke God to be witness to a lie.

Come now, if you please, and with your reason look into the mind of the man who is about to swear to a falsehood; and you will see that it is not tranquil, but full of disorder and confusion, accusing itself, and enduring all kinds of insolence and evil speaking;

for the conscience which dwells in, and never leaves the soul of each individual, not being accustomed to admit into itself any wicked thing, preserves its own nature always such as to hate evil, and to love virtue, being itself at the same time an accuser and a judge; being roused as an accuser it blames, impeaches, and is hostile; and again as a judge it teaches, admonishes, and recommends the accused to change his ways, and if he be able to persuade him, he is with joy reconciled to him, but if he be not able to do so, then he wages an endless and implacable war against him, never quitting him neither by day, nor by night, but pricking him, and inflicting incurable wounds on him, until he destroys his miserable and accursed life.

"What sayest thou?" I should say to the perjured man, "will you dare to go to any one of your own acquaintances and say, My friend, come and bear witness for me that you have seen and heard, and been present at a whole catalogue of things which you have neither seen, nor heard? I think not; for that would be an act of incurable insanity;