19. Much therefore, on account of all these things, was God the Saviour and (only) helper, needed by mankind. Had some societies only been led to this state of error, the evil would indeed have been (but) small. But now, the Princes of cities, the Leaders of the nations, the Kings of countries, the Heads of territories, and the Honourable of the nations, had at once become fully, and completely, diseased in this same error of Demons, and of a plurality of Gods. And behold ! again, even those,— who boasted themselves among the Greeks of (their) philosophy, and made the profession, that in them was knowledge superior to any that was in the many ; were pompous in the streets, swelling with pride, and casting their mantles loosely about them ; had wandered in the great and wide earth; had freely taken from other nations this magnificence of doctrine about things; from this place, geometry; from another quarter, arithmetic; and again from another place, music, the art of healing, and those other things, which have their being in rational experiment³³: for, these things, and others like them, they

got together from every place:—these fell (nevertheless), into a deadly and ungodly state of mind ! By the mere discovery of persuasive words moreover, some of these set it up,—as if they would make no experiments even after the truth,—that indivisible³⁴ bodies (atoms), having no extent, or having projecting parts, and infinite, were, forsooth, the origin of all things ! These same too, determined ³⁵ Rest to be the extreme good : that which is, and

evidently (so), a greater corruption than all the (other) vices. For, What could be more worthy of honour than Rest, with those who laid it down, that there is in this something which exists, neither Providence, nor God, nor soul that is immortal, nor intelligent essence, nor WORD OF GOD which is above all, nor (yet) beginning, nor end ? and, that the things alone that are irrational and inanimate, which are indivisible and subtile bodies (atoms), and fall not, on account of their excessive smallness, under the (observation of the) senses;—that they should predetermine these very things, which are inanimate, irrational, as being without beginning, ungenerated, and in their multitude infinite, and as having, from times not to be comprehended, been dispersed just as it has happened?— still, things being thus, have affirmed, that these were the cause of this universal order; and, that there was neither God, nor Providence, nor Reason which viewed, or which governed, the whole? But, even if there were, that He would not possess the being of any one thing; neither would He give it to others³⁶! And, as my judgment is, the "Rest" which was (so) lovely to them, and which they also attributed to God Himself³⁷,—just as the doings

of those were who arose as Philosophers of the school of Epicurus and Democritus, and as was the whole traditionary (doctrine) of those amongst the Greeks,—was that of (this) life. And, being thus eminent, they approached the multitudes; at one time, walking to the temples with the inhabitants (generally) ; at another, shewing themselves to be those who feared the Gods; because of the fear of punishment (otherwise to be expected) from the law³⁸. But such were these, who contended for Rest (as the extreme good).