12. For the source of wantonness is the devising of idols;and their invention, a corruption of life.
13. For in the beginning they were not,nor can they ever continue;
14. for from human emptiness they came into the world,and therefore a sudden end is devised for them.
15. For a father, afflicted with untimely mourning,made an image of the child so quickly taken from him,And now honored as a god what once was deadand handed down to his household mysteries and sacrifices.
16. Then, in the course of time, the impious practice gained strength and was observed as law,and graven things were worshiped by royal decrees.
17. People who lived so far away that they could not honor him in his presencecopied the appearance of the distant kingAnd made a public image of him they wished to honor,out of zeal to flatter the absent one as though present.
18. And to promote this observance among those to whom it was strange,the artisan’s ambition provided a stimulus.
19. For he, perhaps in his determination to please the ruler,labored over the likeness to the best of his skill;
20. And the masses, drawn by the charm of the workmanship,soon took as an object of worship the one who shortly before was honored as a human being.