Come, then, after you have freed ■♦ yourself from all prejudices possessing your mind, and laid aside what you have been accustomed to, as something apt to deceive s you, and being made, as if from the beginning, a new man, inas- much as, according to your own confession, you are to be the hearer of a new [system of] doc- trine ; come and contemplate, not with your eyes only, but with your understanding, the substance and the form ^ of those whom ye declare and deem to be gods. Is not one of them a stone similar to that on which we tread ? Is ' not a second brass, in no way superior to those vessels which are constructed for our ordinary use ? Is not a third wood, and that already rotten? Is not a fourth silver, which needs a man to watch it, lest it be stolen? Is not a fifth iron, con-