Treating of the regulations respecting idolatry as being peculiar to
Christianity, Celsus establishes their correctness, saying that the
Christians do not consider those to be gods that are made with hands, on
the ground that it is not in conformity with right reason [to suppose]
that images, fashioned by the most worthless and depraved of workmen,
and in many instances also provided by wicked men, can be [regarded as]
gods. In what follows, however, wishing to show that this is a common
opinion, and one not first discovered by Christianity, he quotes a
saying of Heraclitus to this effect: “That those who draw near to
lifeless images, as if they were gods, act in a similar manner to those
who would enter into conversation with houses.” Respecting this, then,
we have to say, that ideas were implanted in the minds of men like the
principles of morality, from which not only Heraclitus, but any other
Greek or barbarian, might by reflection have deduced the same
conclusion; for he states that the Persians also were of the same
opinion, quoting Herodotus as his authority. We also can add to these
Zeno of Citium, who in his _Polity_ says: “And there will be no need to
build temples, for nothing ought to be regarded as sacred, or of much
value, or holy, which is the work of builders and of mean men.” It is
evident, then, with respect to this opinion [as well as others], that
there has been engraven upon the hearts of men by the finger of God a
sense of the duty that is required.