7. They have hands, but they handle not. They cannot receive that which is handed to them, they cannot grasp the scepter of power of the sword of vengeance, they can neither distribute benefits nor dispense judgments, and the most trifling act they are utterly unable to perform. An infant’s hand excels them in power. Feet have they, but they walk not. They must be lifted into their places or they would never reach their shrines; they must be fastened in their shrines or they would fall; they must be carried or they could never move; they cannot come to the rescue of their friends, nor escape the iconoclasm of their foes. The meanest insect has more power of locomotion than the greatest heathen god. Neither speak they through their throat. They cannot even reach so far as the guttural noise of the lowest order of beasts. Their priests asserted that the images of the gods upon special occasions uttered hollow sounds, but it was a mere pretense, or a crafty artifice.
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