13 They were not in the beginning, and they will never be.

14 They entered the world through human vanity, and therefore the end is destined for them to be near.

15 The father, tormented by bitter grief for his son who died early, made an image of him as already a dead man, then began to worship him as a god, and handed over to those subject the mysteries and sacrifices.

16 Then this impious custom, which had been established by time, was observed as a law, and by the commands of the rulers the image was worshipped as a deity.

17 Whom people could not honor in person, because of the remoteness of their residence, they depicted a distant person: they made a visible image of the revered king, so that by this zeal they might flatter the absent, as if he were present.

18 And the diligence of the artist encouraged to increase reverence even from those who did not know,

19 for he, perhaps desiring to please the ruler, endeavoured by art to make the likeness more beautiful;

20 And the people, carried away by the beauty of the decoration, who had recently been revered as a man, now recognized him as a divinity.

21 And this was a stumbling block to men, because they, submitting either to misfortune or to tyranny, applied the incommunicable Name to stones and trees.

22 Then it was not enough for them to err in the knowledge of God, but they, living in the great struggle of ignorance, call such a great evil peace.

23 Performing either infanticidal sacrifices, or hidden secrets, or furious feasts borrowed from foreign customs,

24 They do not preserve life, nor pure marriages, but one either kills another with deceit, or offends with adultery.

25 And blood and murder, embeticle and deceit, corruption, treachery, rebellion, perjury, plundering of goods, possess all without distinction,

26 Forgetfulness of gratitude, defilement of souls, transformation of sexes, disorder of marriages, adultery, and lasciviousness.