MINUCIUS FELIX. 489 present to his mind with what instrumentsand with what machinery every image is formed,he would blush that he had fearedmatter,treatedafterhisfancy by the artificerto make a god.1 For a god of wood, a portionperhaps of a pile, or of an unlucky log,ishung up, is cut,ishewn, isplaned; and a god of brassor of silver,oftenfrom an impure vessel, as was done by the Egyptian king, isfused,is beaten with hammers and forgedon anvils; and the god of stoneiscut, is sculptured,and is polishedby some abandoned man, nor feelsthe injurydone to him in his nativity,any more than afterwardsitfeelsthe worshipflowingfrom your veneration; unless perhaps the stone,or the wood, or the silveris not yet a god. When, therefore,does the god begin his exist ence ? Lo, it ismelted,itiswrought, it issculptured— itis not yet a god ; lo,itissoldered,itisbuilttogether— itisset up, and even yet itisnot a god ; lo,itisadorned,itiscon secrated,itis prayed to— then at length it is a god, when man has chosen it to be so,and has dedicatedit [forthe purpose]. CHAPTER XXIV. Argument. — He brieflyshows, moreover,what ridiculous, obscene,and cruelriteswere observedin celebratingthe mysteriesof certaingods, " How much more trulydo dumb animals naturallyjudge concerning your gods? Mice, swallows,kites,know that they have no feeling: they gnaw them, they trample on them, they situpon them; and unlessyou drive them off, they build their nests in the very mouth of your god. Spiders,indeed,weave theirwebs over hisface,and suspend theirthreadsfrom hisvery head. You wipe,cleanse,scrape, and you protectand fearthosewhom you make ; whilenotone of you th.nksthathe ought to know God beforehe worships 1 Otherwise," thathe hadrashlybeen sodeceivedby theartificeriu thematerial,astomake a god."