19. The gods dwell in
images—each wholly in one, or divided into parts, and into
members? For neither is it possible that there can be at one time
one god in several images, nor, again, divided into parts by his being
cut up.4718
| 4718
Lit., “a cutting taking place.” |
For
let us suppose that there are ten
thousand images of Vulcan in the
whole
world: is it possible at all, as I said, that at one time
one
deity can be in all the ten
thousand? I do not think
so.
Do you ask wherefore? Because things
which are naturally single and unique, cannot become many while the
integrity of their simplicity
4719
| 4719
i.e., of their character as independent and not compounded. This
is precisely such an expression as that which closes the fourth book,
and its occurrence is therefore an additional ground for regarding the
earlier passage as genuine. |
is maintained. And this they are
further unable
to
become if the gods have the forms of men, as your belief
declares; for either a
hand separated from the head, or a
foot divided
from the body, cannot manifest the
perfection of the whole, or it must
be said that parts can be the same as the whole, while the whole cannot
exist unless it has been made by gathering together its parts.
Moreover, if the same
deity shall be said to be in all
the
statues, all reasonableness and soundness is lost to the
truth, if
this is assumed that at one time one can remain in
them all; or
each of the gods must be said to divide himself from himself, so that
he is both himself and another, not separated by any distinction, but
himself the same as another. But as nature rejects and spurns and
scorns this, it must either be said and confessed that there are
Vulcans without number, if we decide that he exists and is in all the
images; or he will be in none, because he is prevented by nature from
being divided among several.
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