Then, in worshiping stones and wood, they do not see that they tread on and burn things of the same kind, while calling portions of them gods. Things they used for ordinary purposes a short time before, they carve and worship in their madness. They neither see nor consider at all that they are worshiping not gods but the skill of the carver.
For as long as the stone is unhewn and the material is raw, they tread on them and often use them for their own purposes, even for dishonorable ones. But when the craftsman applies to them the proportions of his own skill and impresses on the material the shape of a man or woman, then, after thanking the craftsman, they proceed to worship them as gods, having bought them from the carver for a price.
Often the statue-maker himself, as though forgetting what he himself has made, prays to his own works; and the things he had just been carving and cutting he calls gods once his craft is finished.
If these things deserved admiration, they ought rather to praise the skill of the craftsman and not prefer what he fashioned to the one who made it. For the material did not adorn the art; the art adorned and deified the material.
It would therefore be far more just for them to worship the craftsman rather than the things he made, both because he existed before the gods produced by art and because they came into being just as he wished. But as it is, they set justice aside and dishonor skill and art, while worshiping things made by skill and art. And when the human being who made them dies, they honor what he made as immortal, though if these things did not receive daily care, they would certainly disappear with time because of their nature.
How could one fail to pity them in this as well? They themselves can see, yet they worship things that cannot see; they can hear, yet they pray to things that cannot hear. Human beings are by nature living and rational, yet they call gods things that do not move at all but are lifeless. And strangest of all, they serve as masters those whom they themselves guard and keep under their own power.
Do not suppose that I am simply asserting these things or lying against them. The evidence of them meets our very eyes, and anyone who wishes can see such things.
Then, in worshiping stones and wood, they do not see that they tread on and burn things of the same kind, while calling portions of them gods. Things they used for ordinary purposes a short time before, they carve and worship in their madness. They neither see nor consider at all that they are worshiping not gods but the skill of the carver.
For as long as the stone is unhewn and the material is raw, they tread on them and often use them for their own purposes, even for dishonorable ones. But when the craftsman applies to them the proportions of his own skill and impresses on the material the shape of a man or woman, then, after thanking the craftsman, they proceed to worship them as gods, having bought them from the carver for a price.
Often the statue-maker himself, as though forgetting what he himself has made, prays to his own works; and the things he had just been carving and cutting he calls gods once his craft is finished.
If these things deserved admiration, they ought rather to praise the skill of the craftsman and not prefer what he fashioned to the one who made it. For the material did not adorn the art; the art adorned and deified the material.
It would therefore be far more just for them to worship the craftsman rather than the things he made, both because he existed before the gods produced by art and because they came into being just as he wished. But as it is, they set justice aside and dishonor skill and art, while worshiping things made by skill and art. And when the human being who made them dies, they honor what he made as immortal, though if these things did not receive daily care, they would certainly disappear with time because of their nature.
How could one fail to pity them in this as well? They themselves can see, yet they worship things that cannot see; they can hear, yet they pray to things that cannot hear. Human beings are by nature living and rational, yet they call gods things that do not move at all but are lifeless. And strangest of all, they serve as masters those whom they themselves guard and keep under their own power.
Do not suppose that I am simply asserting these things or lying against them. The evidence of them meets our very eyes, and anyone who wishes can see such things.