1   What born fools all men were who lived in ignorance of God, who from the good things before their eyes could not learn to know him who really is, and failed to recognize the artificer though they observed his works! 2   Fire, wind, swift air, the circle of the starry signs, rushing water, or the great lights in heaven that rule the world—these they accounted gods. 3   If it was through delight in the beauty of these things that men supposed them gods, they ought to have understood how much better is the Lord and Master of it all; for it was by the prime author of all beauty that they were created. 4   If it was through astonishment at their power and influence, men should have learnt from these how much more powerful is he who made them. 5   For the greatness and beauty of created things give us a corresponding idea of their Creator. 6   Yet these men are not greatly to be blamed, for when they go astray they may be seeking God and really wishing to find him. 7   Passing their lives among his works and making a close study of them, they are persuaded by appearances because what they see is so beautiful. 8   Yet even so they do not deserve to be excused, 9   for with enough understanding to speculate about the universe, why did they not sooner discover the Lord and Master of it all?

10   The really degraded ones are those whose hopes are set on dead things, who give the name of gods to the work of human hands, to gold and silver fashioned by art into images of living creatures, or to a useless stone carved by a craftsman long ago. 11   Suppose some skilled woodworker fells with his saw a convenient tree and deftly strips off all the bark, then works it up elegantly into some vessel suitable for everyday use; 12   and the pieces left over from his work he uses to cook his food, and eats his fill. 13   But among the waste there is one useless piece, crooked and full of knots, and this he takes and carves to occupy his idle moments, and shapes it with leisurely skill into the image of a human being; 14   or else he gives it the form of some contemptible creature, painting it with vermilion and raddling its surface with red paint, so that every flaw in it is painted over. 15   Then he makes a suitable shrine for it and fixes it on the wall, securing it with iron nails. 16   It is he who has to take the precautions on its behalf to save it

The evils of idolatry from falling, for he knows that it cannot fend for itself: it is only an image, and needs help. 17   Yet he prays to it about his possessions and his wife and children, and feels no shame in addressing this lifeless object; 18   for health he appeals to a thing that is feeble, for life he prays to a dead thing, for aid he implores something utterly incapable, for a prosperous journey something that has not even the use of its legs; 19   in matters of earnings and business and success in handicraft he asks effectual help from a thing whose hands are entirely ineffectual.

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