Chapter V.—The vain pretensions of false gods. But concerning those who think that they shall share the holy and perfect name, which some have received by a vain tradition as if they were gods, Menander in the Auriga says:— “If there exists a god who walketh out With an old woman, or who enters in By stealth to houses through the folding-doors, He ne’er can please me; nay, but only he Who stays at home, a just and righteous God, To give salvation to His worshippers.” The same Menander, in the Sacerdos, says:— “There is no God, O woman, that can save One man by another; if indeed a man, With sound of tinkling cymbals, charm a god Where’er he listeth, then assuredly He who doth so is much the greater god. But these, O Rhode, are but the cunning schemes Which daring men of intrigue, unabashed, Invent to earn themselves a livelihood, And yield a laughing-stock unto the age.” Again, the same Menander, stating his opinion about those who are received as gods, proving rather that they are not so, says:— “Yea, if I this beheld, I then should wish That back to me again my soul returned. For tell me where, O Getas, in the world ’Tis possible to find out righteous gods?” And in the Depositum:— “There’s an unrighteous judgment, as it seems, Even with the gods.” And Euripides the tragedian, in Orestes, says:— “Apollo having caused by his command The murder of the mother, knoweth not What honesty and justice signify. Chapter V.—The vain pretensions of false gods. 785 Chapter V.—The vain pretensions of false gods.