Poor Images

Ὅν τρόπον εἴ τις βασιλέως εἰκόνος καλῶς κατασκευασμένης ἐπιμελέστερον ἐκ ψηφίδων ἐπισήμων ὑπὸ σοφοῦ τεχνίτου, λύσας τὴν ὑποκειμένην τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἰδέαν, μετενέγκοι τὰς ψηφίδας ἐκείνας, καὶ μεθαρμόσοι, καὶ ποιήσειεν ἐξ αὐτῶν μορφὴν κυνὸς ἤ ἀλώπεκος, ἔπειτα διορίζοιτο, καὶ λέγει ταύτην εἴναι τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως ἐκείνην τὴν καλὴν, ἤν ὁ σοφὸς τεχνίτης κατεσκεύασεν, δεικνὺς τὰς ψηφίδας τὰς καλῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ πρώτου τεχνίτου εἰς τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως εἰκόνα συντεθείσας, κακῶς δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ ὑστέρου εἰς κυνὸς μορφὴν μετενεχθείσας, καὶ διὰ τῆς τῶν ψηφίδων φαντασίας μεθοδεύοι τοὺς ἀπειροτέρους, τοὺς κατάληψιν βασιλικὴν ἐκ μορφῆς οὐκ ἔχοντας, καὶ πείθοι, ὅτι αὓτη ἡ σαπρα τῆς ἀλώπεκος ἰδέα ἐκείνη ἐστιν ἡ καλὴ τοῦ βασιλέως εἰκών· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ οἱ αἱρεσιάρχαι, γραῶν τρόπον συγκαττύσαντες ῥήματα, καὶ λέξεις τινὰς, καὶ παραβολὰς θείας Γραφῆς ἀποσπάσαντες, ἐφαρμόζειν βιάζονται τοῖς ἑαυτῶν μύθοις τὰ λόγια τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἀλλὰ μὴ ἀγνοεῖτε τοὺς τοιούτους. Ἅγιος Νειλος, Βιβλίον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολή ΣΜΖ' Ευφρασιῳ Ἐπισκοπῳ Source: Migne PG 79.173b-c

As if someone, having destroyed an image of a king, which figure was lovingly made from precious stones by a wise artist, those same stones transferred and arranged to make the form a dog or fox, and after he stated and asserted that the beautiful image of the king, which the wise artist had fashioned in that fair placing of stones of the first creator to make the royal image, was represented by the later poor transference to the image of a dog, and he persuaded those ignorant of the ways of stones' appearances and having no understanding of the royal image that this ugly figure of the fox was that beauty of the king's image, so is the way of heseriarchs, who cobbling together words and speeches of old, and refusing the parables of Divine Scripture, would fit the speech of God to their own tales. Do not be ignorant of such things. Saint Nilus of Sinai, Book 1, Letter 247, To Euphrasius the Bishop