[165] Bulls and rams and goats, which Egypt honours, and all other objects of worship of perishable material as well, are held to be gods on hearsay only, not being really such, all falsely so called. For those who deem life a show got up for foolish dotards make counterfeit impressions in the yet tender souls of the young, employing their ears as their ministers, and filling them with the nonsense of myths. They instil it into their very minds, and force those who never become men in lofty spirit but are always womanish to fashion gods for themselves.
[166] The calf, you observe, is not made out of all the things with which women deck themselves, but only their ear-rings (Exod. 32:2), for the lawgiver is teaching us that no manufactured god is a God for sight and in reality, but for the ear to hear of, and vogue and custom to proclaim, and that too a woman’s ear, not a man’s, for to entertain such trash is the work of an effeminate and sinew-less soul. But the Being that in reality is can be perceived and known, not only through the ears, but with the eyes of the understanding,
[167] from the powers that range the universe, and from the constant and ceaseless motion of His ineffable works. Wherefore in the great Song there come these words as from the lips of God, “See, see that I AM” (Deut. 32:39), showing that He that actually IS is apprehended by clear intuition rather than demonstrated by arguments carried on in words. When we say that the Existent One is visible, we are not using words in their literal sense,
[168] but it is an irregular use of the word by which it is referred to each one of His powers. In the passage just quoted He does not say “See Me,” for it is impossible that the God who is should be perceived at all by created beings. What he says is “See that I AM,” that is “Behold My subsistence.” For it is quite enough for a man’s reasoning faculty to advance as far as to learn that the Cause of the Universe is and subsists. To be anxious to continue his course yet further, and inquire about essence or quality in God, is a folly fit for the world’s childhood.
[169] Not even to Moses, the all-wise, did God accord this, albeit he had made countless requests, but a divine communication was issued to him, “Thou shalt behold that which is behind Me, but My Face thou shalt not see” (Exod. 33:23). This meant, that all that follows in the wake of God is within the good man’s apprehension, while He Himself alone is beyond it, beyond, that is, in the line of straight and direct approach, a mode of approach by which (had it been possible) His quality would have been made known; but brought within ken by the powers that follow and attend Him; for these make evident not His essence but His subsistence from the things which He accomplishes.