488 THE OCTAVIUS OF theirown will,not becauseof theirbeliefin theirdivinity, but in honour of thepower thatthey have exerted:and yet a true God has neitherrisingnor setting.Thence Octaviuscriticisestheimagesand shrinesof thegods. " It isneedlessto go through each individualcase,and to developetheentireseriesof thatrace,sincein itsfirstparents theirmortalityisproved,and must have floweddown intothe restby the very law of theirsuccession,unlessperhaps you fancy thatthey were gods afterdeath; as by the perjury of Proculus,Romulus became a god ; and by the good-willof the Mauritanians,Juba isa god ; and otherkings are divine who are consecrated,not in the faithof theirdivinity,but in honour of the power that they exercised.Moreover, this name isascribedto thosewho are unwillingto bear it. They desireto perseverein theirhuman condition. They fearthat they may be made gods ; althoughthey are alreadyold men, they do not wish it. Thereforeneitherare gods made from dead people,sincea god cannot die; nor of people that are born,sinceeverythingwhich isborn dies. But thatisdivine which has neitherrisingnor setting.For why, ifthey were born, are they not born in the presentday also?— unless, perchance,Jupiterhas alreadygrown old,and child-bearing has failedin J uno, and Minerva has grown grey before she has borne children.Or has thatprocessof generationceased, forthe reasonthat no assentis any longeryieldedto fables of thiskind ? Besides,if the gods couldcreate,1they could not perish: we shouldhave more gods than allmen together; so thatnow, neitherwould the heaven containthem, nor the airreceivethem, nor the earth bear them. Whence it is manifest,that those were men whom we both read of as having been born,and know to have died. Who therefore doubtsthatthe common people pray to and publiclyworship the consecratedimages of thesemen ; in that the beliefand mind of the ignorantis deceivedby the perfectionof art,is blinded by the glitterof gold,isdimmed with the shiningof silverand the whitenessof ivory? But ifany one were to 1 " Be created" isa moreprobablereading.