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believing it to be divine, and <those> who worship spirits of the belly wage war; and thus likewise all of you, having preferred some one thing, censure the things of others. But with differing opinion concerning the members of the same animal, one worships one part, and another another. Except for <those> among them who still breathe the things of right reason, being ashamed at the manifest disgrace, try to bring them into allegories, wishing by another device to strengthen the deadly things of their deception. Nevertheless, we would have refuted their allegories too, if we had been there, whose so great and foolish passion has prevailed to create the greatest disease in the mind. For one ought not to apply the plaster to the healthy part of the body, but to the suffering part. Since, therefore, by laughing at the practices of the Egyptians, you have shown that you do not suffer from their afflictions, concerning that from which you have suffered, it would have been reasonable for me, being present with you, to provide the cure for the passion within you. He who chooses to worship God ought to know above all what is the unique property of God's nature, which is impossible for another to possess, so that, looking to His unique property and not finding it in another, he may never be deceived into ascribing divinity to another. But it is a unique property of God to be this alone: that as He is the maker of all, so also is He superior to all. Superior is the maker to the thing made in power, the infinite to the finite in magnitude, the most beautiful in form, the most blessed in happiness, the most perfect in mind. And likewise in all other things He incomparably holds pre-eminence. Since therefore (as I said) it is a unique property of God to be superior to all things, and by Him the world which contains all things came into being, it is altogether necessary to say that none of the things that have come into being by Him can have an equal comparison to Him. But that which does not possess the incomparable and unsurpassed and the in every way and from every side self-sufficient cannot be God. And if the whole world cannot be this, inasmuch as it has been made, how much more could its parts not reasonably be called god. And by parts I mean those called gods by you, made from gold and silver and bronze and stone or even from any other material whatsoever, and these created by a mortal hand. Nevertheless, let us consider these things, what poisons the terrible serpent administers through the mouth of man in his mockeries to those who are deceived. For the many say: 'Among our objects of worship, we do not worship the gold nor the silver nor the wood or stone (for we too know that these are nothing but lifeless matter and the art of a mortal man), but the spirit dwelling in them, this we call god.' See the malevolence of those who say these things. For since the visible thing is easily refuted as being nothing, they have taken refuge in the invisible, as being unable to be refuted concerning something unseen. Except that such people partially agree with us that half of the things established among them is not god, but senseless matter. It remains, then, to show them how they believe that it has a divine spirit. But they cannot demonstrate to us that it exists, since it does not exist, and we do not believe that they themselves have seen it. We shall provide them the proofs that it does not have a divine spirit, so that the lovers of truth, having heard the refutation of the mad hypo-

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σαντες εἶναι τὸ θεῖον καὶ <οἱ> γαστρὸς πνεύματα σέβοντες πολεμοῦσιν· καὶ οὕτως ὁμοίως οἱ πάντες ἕν τι προτιμήσαντες τὰ ἄλλων ψέγετε. δια- φόρῳ δὲ γνώμῃ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ζσου μελῶν ὃς μὲν ἄλλο σέβει, ἕτερος δὲ τὸ ἕτερον. πλὴν αὐτῶν <οἱ> ἔτι τὰ τοῦ ὀρθοῦ λογισμοῦ πνέοντες, αἰδούμε- νοι ἐπὶ τῷ προδήλῳ αἰσχρῷ, εἰς ἀλληγορίας αὐτὰ ἄγειν πειρῶνται, δι' ἑτέρας ἐπινοίας τὰ τῆς ἀπάτης αὐτῶν θανάσιμα κρατύνειν βουλόμενοι. ὅμως καὶ τὰς ἀλληγορίας διηλέγξαμεν ἄν, εἴπερ ἐκεῖ ἦμεν, ὧν τὸ το- σοῦτον μωρὸν ἐπεκράτησεν πάθος μεγίστην τῇ ἐπινοίᾳ ἐνποιῆσαι νόσον. οὐ γὰρ χρὴ τὴν ἔμπλαστρον προσφέρειν ἐπὶ τὸ ὑγιεινὸν μέρος τοῦ σώ- ματος, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τὸ πάσχον. ἐπεὶ οὖν ὑμεῖς διὰ τοῦ γελάσαι τὰ Aἰγυ- πτίων ἐφάνητε μὴ παθόντες τὰ ἐκείνων, περὶ οὗ ὑμεῖς πεπόνθατε, εὔλο- γον ἦν παρόντα με ὑμῖν τὴν ἴασιν τοῦ ἐν ὑμῖν πάθους παρέχειν. ὁ θεὸν σέβειν αἱρούμενος πρὸ πάντων εἰδέναι ὀφείλει τί μόνον τῆς θεοῦ φύσεως ἴδιόν ἐστιν, ὃ ἄλλῳ προσεῖναι ἀδύνατον, ἵνα εἰς τὸ ἰδίωμα αὐτοῦ ἀποβλέπων καὶ παρ' ἑτέρῳ αὐτὸ μὴ εὑρίσκων, ἑτέρῳ τὸ θεῷ εἶναι μὴ ἀπατηθῇ δοῦναί ποτε. ἔστιν δὲ ἴδιον θεοῦ τοῦτον μόνον εἶναι, ὡς πάντων ποιητήν, οὕτως καὶ κρείττονα. κρεῖττόν ἐστιν δυνάμει μὲν τὸ ποιοῦν τοῦ ποιουμένου, πρὸς μέγεθος τὸ ἄπειρον τοῦ πεπερασμένου, πρὸς εἶδος τὸ εὐμορφότατον, πρὸς εὐδαιμονίαν τὸ μακαριώτατον, πρὸς νοῦν τὸ τελειότατον. ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις αὐτὸς ἀπαραβλήτως τὴν ὑπεροχὴν ἔχει. ἐπεὶ οὖν (ὡς ἔφην) ἴδιον θεοῦ τὸ αὐτὸν εἶναι τῶν ὅλων κρείττονα, ὑπ' αὐτοῦ δὲ ὁ πάντα περιέχων γέγονε κόσμος, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα λέγειν μηδὲν τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γεγονότων αὐτῷ δύνασθαι τὴν ἴσην ἔχειν σύγκρισιν. ὁ δὲ μὴ ἔχων τὸ ἀπαράβλητον καὶ ἀνυπέρβλητον καὶ πάντη πάντοθεν ἀνενδεὲς θεὸς εἶναι οὐ δύναται. εἰ δὲ ὁ πᾶς κόσμος τοῦτο εἶναι οὐ δύναται, καθὸ γεγένηται, πόσῳ γε μᾶλλον τὰ μόρια αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἂν εὐλόγως κληθείη θεός. μόρια δὲ λέγω τοὺς ὑφ' ὑμῶν λεγομένους θεούς, ἐκ χρυσοῦ καὶ ἀργύρου χαλκοῦ τε καὶ λίθου ἢ καὶ ἐξ ἄλλης ὕλης ἡστινοσοῦν γεγονότα, καὶ ταῦτα ὑπὸ θνητῆς χειρὸς δεδημιουργημένα. ὅμως δὲ πρὸς ταῦτα ἴδωμεν οἷα δι' ἀνθρώπου στόματος ὁ δεινὸς ὄφις φαρμάσσει τοῖς ἐμπαιγμοῖς τοὺς ἐξαπατωμένους. Λέγουσι γὰρ οἱ πολλοί· Τῶν σεβασμάτων ἡμῶν σέβομεν οὐ τὸν χρυσὸν οὐδὲ τὸν ἄργυρον οὐδὲ ξύλον ἢ λίθον (ἴσμεν γὰρ καὶ ἡμεῖς ὅτι ταῦτα οὐδέν ἐστιν ἢ ἄψυχος ὕλη καὶ ἀνθρώπου θνητοῦ τέχνη), ἀλλὰ τὸ κατοικοῦν ἐν αὐτοῖς πνεῦμα, τοῦτο θεὸν λέγομεν. ὅρα τῶν ταῦτα λεγόντων τὴν κακοήθειαν. ἐπεὶ γὰρ τὸ φαινόμενον εὐέλεγκτόν ἐστιν ὅτι οὐδέν ἐστιν, κατέφυγον ἐπὶ τὸ ἀόρατον, ὡς ἐπ' ἀδήλῳ τινὶ ἐλεγχθῆναι μὴ δυνάμενοι. πλὴν συνομολογοῦσιν ἡμῖν οἱ τοιοῦτοι ἐπὶ μέρους ὅτι τὸ ἥμισυ τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς ἱδρυμάτων θεὸς οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀλλ' ἀναίσθητος ὕλη. λοιπὸν δὲ περιλείπεται δεῖξαι αὐτοῖς πῶς πιστεύουσιν ὅτι θεῖον ἔχει πνεῦμα. ἀλλ' ἐπιδεῖξαι ἡμῖν οὐ δύνανται ὅτι ἔστιν, ἐπεὶ μὴ ἔστιν, καὶ αὐτοῖς ἑωρακέναι οὐ πιστεύομεν. ἡμεῖς αὐτοῖς ὅτι θεῖον οὐκ ἔχει πνεῦμα τὰς ἀποδείξεις παρέξομεν, ὅπως τοῦ δοκεῖν αὐτὰ ἔνπνοα εἶναι οἱ φιλαλήθεις τὸν ἔλεγχον ἀκούσαντες τῆς λυσσώδους ὑπο-