Wisdom 13

¹ Yes, naturally stupid are all men who have not known God and who, from the good things that are seen, have not been able to discover Him-who-is, or, by studying the works, have failed to recognise the Artificer.

² Fire however, or wind, or the swift air, the sphere of the stars, impetuous water, heaven’s lamps, are what they have held to be the gods who govern the world.

³ If, charmed by their beauty, they have taken things for gods, let them know how much the Lord of these excels them, since the very Author of beauty has created them.

⁴ And if they have been impressed by their power and energy, let them deduce from these how much mightier is he that has formed them,

⁵ since through the grandeur and beauty of the creatures we may, by analogy, contemplate their Author.

⁶ Small blame, however, attaches to these men, for perhaps they only go astray in their search for God and their eagerness to find him;

⁷ living among his works, they strive to comprehend them and fall victim to appearances, seeing so much beauty.

⁸ Even so, they are not to be excused:

⁹ if they are capable of acquiring enough knowledge to be able to investigate the world, how have they been so slow to find its Master?

¹⁰ But wretched are they – in dead things putting their hopes – who have given to things made by human hands the title of gods, gold and silver, finely worked, likenesses of animals, or some useless stone, carved by some hand long ago.

¹¹ Take a woodcutter. He fells a suitable tree, neatly strips off the bark all over and then with admirable skill works the wood into an object useful in daily life.

¹² The bits left over from his work he uses for cooking his food, then eats his fill.

¹³ There is still a good-for-nothing bit left over, a gnarled and knotted billet: he picks it up, whittles it with the concentration of leisure, he shapes it with the skill of relaxation, he gives it a human shape

¹⁴ or perhaps he makes it into some vile animal, smears it with ochre, paints its surface red, coats over all its blemishes.

¹⁵ He next makes a worthy home for it, lets it into the wall, fixes it with an iron clamp.

¹⁶ Thus he makes sure that it will not fall down – he is well aware it cannot help itself: it is only an image, and it needs to be helped.

¹⁷ And yet, if he wishes to pray for his goods, for marriages, for his children, he does not blush to harangue this lifeless thing – for health he invokes weakness,

¹⁸ for life he pleads with death, for help he goes begging to utter inexperience, for his travels, to something that cannot stir a foot;

¹⁹ for his profits and plans and success in pursuing his craft, he asks skill from something whose hands have no skill whatever.