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.