24. Here also the advocates
of images are wont to say this also, that the ancients knew well that
images have no divine nature, and that there is no sense in them, but
that they formed them profitably and wisely, for the sake of the
unmanageable and ignorant mob, which is the majority in nations and in
states, in order that a kind of appearance, as it were, of deities
being presented to them, from fear they might shake off their rude
natures, and, supposing that they were acting in the presence of the
gods, put4746
| 4746
Lit., “lop away,” deputarent, the reading of
the ms., Hild., and Oehler; the rest
reading deponerent—“lay
aside.” [The same plausible defences are used to this day
by professed Christians. See Jesuits at Rome, by Hobart
Seymour, p. 38, ed. New York, 1849.] |
away their
impious
deeds, and, changing their manners,
learn to act as
men;
4747
| 4747
Lit., “pass to human offices.” |
and that
august forms of
gold and
silver were sought for them, for no other
reason than that some
power was believed to reside in their splendour,
such as not only to
dazzle the
eyes, but even to strike
terror into the
mind itself at the
majestic beaming lustre. Now this might
perhaps seem to be said with some reason, if, after the
temples of the gods were founded, and their images set up, there were
no
wicked man in the
world, no
villany at all,
if justice,
peace, good
faith,
possessed the
hearts of men, and no one on
earth
were called
guilty and
guiltless, all being ignorant of
wicked
deeds. But now when, on the contrary, all things are full of
wicked men, the name of
innocence has almost
perished,
and every moment, every second,
evil deeds, till now unheard of,
spring to
light in myriads from the
wickedness of wrongdoers, how is it
right to say that images have been set up for the purpose of striking
terror into the mob, while, besides
innumerable forms of
crime and
wickedness,
4748
| 4748
Lit., “crimes and wickednesses.” |
we see
that even the
temples themselves are attacked by tyrants, by kings, by
robbers, and by nocturnal
thieves, and that these very gods whom
antiquity fashioned and
consecrated to cause
terror, are carried
away
4749
into the
caves of robbers, in spite even of the terrible splendour of the
gold?
4750
| 4750
Lit., “with their golden and to-be-feared splendours
themselves.” |
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