What is to be done, then?
Shall I call the sun, the moon, or the sky a Deity?
If so, they are consequently happy.

But what pleasures can they enjoy?
And they are wise too.

But how can wisdom reside in such shapes?
These are your own principles.

Therefore, if they are not of human form, as I have proved, and if you cannot persuade yourself that they are of any other, why are you cautious of denying absolutely the being of any Gods?
You dare not deny it--which is very prudent in you, though here you are not afraid of the people, but of the Gods themselves.

I have known Epicureans who reverence[92] even the least images of the Gods, though I perceive it to be the opinion of some that Epicurus, through fear of offending against the Athenian laws, has allowed a Deity in words and destroyed him in fact; so in those his select and short sentences, which are called by you [Greek: kyriai doxai],[93] this, I think, is the first: "That being which is happy and immortal is not burdened with any labor, and does not impose any on any one else." XXXI.