[12,27] περὶ δὴ θεῶν τῆς τε καθόλου φύσεως καὶ μάλιστα τοῦ πάντων ἡγεμόνος πρῶτον μὲν καὶ ἐν πρώτοις δόξα καὶ ἐπίνοια κοινὴ τοῦ ξύμπαντος ἀνθρωπίνου γένους, ὁμοίως μὲν Ἑλλήνων, ὁμοίως δὲ βαρβάρων, ἀναγκαία καὶ ἔμφυτος ἐν παντὶ τῷ λογικῷ γιγνομένη κατὰ φύσιν ἄνευ θνητοῦ διδασκάλου καὶ μυσταγωγοῦ χωρὶς ἀπάτης * καὶ χαρᾶς * διά τε τὴν ξυγγένειαν τὴν πρὸς αὐτοὺς καὶ πολλὰ μαρτύρια τἀληθοῦς, οὐκ ἐῶντα κατανυστάξαι καὶ ἀμελῆσαι τοὺς πρεσβυτάτους καὶ παλαιοτάτους·

[12,27] Now concerning the nature of the gods in general, and especially that of the ruler of the universe, first and foremost an idea regarding him and a conception of him common to the whole human race, to the Greeks and to the barbarians alike, a conception that is inevitable and innate in every creature endowed with reason, arising in the course of nature without the aid of human teacher and free from the deceit of any expounding priest, has made its way, and it rendered manifest God's kinship with man and furnished many evidences of the truth, which did not suffer the earliest and most ancient men to doze and grow indifferent to them ;

[12,28] ἅτε γὰρ οὐ μακρὰν οὐδ´ ἔξω τοῦ θείου διῳκισμένοι καθ´ αὑτούς, ἀλλὰ ἐν αὐτῷ μέσῳ πεφυκότες, μᾶλλον δὲ συμπεφυκότες ἐκείνῳ καὶ προσεχόμενοι πάντα τρόπον, οὐκ ἐδύναντο μέχρι πλείονος ἀξύνετοι μένειν, {ἄλλως τε σύνεσιν καὶ λόγον εἰληφότες περὶ αὐτοῦ, ἅτε δὴ} περιλαμπόμενοι πάντοθεν θείοις καὶ μεγάλοις φάσμασιν οὐρανοῦ τε καὶ ἄστρων, ἔτι δὲ ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης, νυκτός τε καὶ ἡμέρας ἐντυγχάνοντες ποικίλοις καὶ ἀνομοίοις εἴδεσιν, ὄψεις τε ἀμηχάνους ὁρῶντες καὶ φωνὰς ἀκούοντες παντοδαπὰς ἀνέμων τε καὶ ὕλης καὶ ποταμῶν καὶ θαλάττης, ἔτι δὲ ζῴων ἡμέρων καὶ ἀγρίων, αὐτοί τε φθόγγον ἥδιστον καὶ σαφέστατον ἱέντες καὶ ἀγαπῶντες τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φωνῆς τὸ γαῦρον καὶ ἐπιστῆμον, ἐπιθέμενοι σύμβολα τοῖς εἰς αἴσθησιν ἀφικνουμένοις, ὡς πᾶν τὸ νοηθὲν ὀνομάζειν καὶ δηλοῦν,

[12,28] for inasmuch as these earlier men were not living dispersed far away from the divine being or beyond his borders apart by themselves, but had grown up in the very centre of things, or rather had grown up in his company and had remained close to him in every way, they could not for any length of time continue to be unintelligent beings, especially since they had received from him intelligence and the capacity for reason, illumined as they were on every side by the divine and magnificent glories of heaven and the stars of sun and, moon, by night and by day encountering varied and dissimiliar experiences, seeing wondrous sights and hearing manifold voices of winds and forest and rivers and sea, of animals tame and wild ; while they themselves uttered a most pleasing and clear sound, and taking delight in the proud and intelligent quality of the human voice, attached symbols to the objects that reached their senses, so as to be able to name and designate everything perceived,