regard to the whole, for the sake of which it is sometimes necessary that parts be corrupted.”
VII
If anyone says: Concern for those who use reason is the most important evidence for establishing the Providence of the Great and Good GOD,13 and we would therefore be no more justified in inferring from the beauty of material things viewed in itself, that the mind which is responsible for them <8> is of a beneficent character and furnished with all the virtues, than if we should conclude that any particular man is upright and good, and looks after his family properly, from the fact that his house and gardens have been most exquisitely laid out to please. From the choice and elegant composition of any Work of Art we are justified in inferring nothing but skill and practice in that art, and just as a consummate Painter or Architect is not always a good Father to his family, so perhaps he who constructed and equipped the fabric of the world with such wonderful skill and such a sense of order is not good and perfect in every respect. At any rate, it does not seem to follow necessarily from this single factor, or to be completely evident to us, unless care for intelligent beings accords and goes along with it? There are indeed some people who thus boldly spout this kind of nonsense. But we do not have to look far to find a reply to them. For the Wisdom which is in the Author of nature, necessarily implies full and completely perfect virtue. If we ourselves fall away from the true pattern of life and morals, it is a result either of ignorance or a lack of self-control, or because we are led astray by an opposed appearance of advantage or pleasure. No other cause can be suggested which induces anyone partaking of reason to violate and disturb good order. But such things cannot affect that Mind which the very material structure of the world obviously shows to be infinitely Wise and Powerful. He who in the most immeasurable expanse of material things has so disposed and positioned the individual parts that nothing can be conceived either better or more beautiful, is certainly endowed with an infinite understanding; and he cannot fail to
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know what is best in every circumstance. But it is absurd to say that infinite Mind, which never fails to see what perfect reason requires in every circumstance, should have been motivated in the government of the world by so great a desire for order and beauty together with free choice, and yet not always and everywhere have hit upon that which is most excellent; particularly in the governance of rational creatures, since a superior Species of beauty more properly attaches to this class of things.
VIII
But our argument does not stop even here. For we see not only that the whole structure of matter is so laid out that nothing could be more elegant in appearance, but we also find that all things above and below, as far as we can <9> see into them, are designed for essential uses and benefits with the most cunning skill and foresight. Our earth, in comparison with the other Planets which look towards the same centre, is the best made and the best situated, as also are all of them in their relation to it. And the individual parts of the Earth are so very well mutually adjusted to each other, that it is a habitat fit to nourish and sustain an almost innumerable multitude of animals and especially to make the life of men who far excel the rest by nature, sufficiently convenient and prosperous. Nor is it reasonable to hold a different opinion about the other planets if we consider them and undertake reasoning by analogy. And if we examine the powers and faculties of men and the material available to each individual, as well as the laws by which they can and should be directed, we shall quickly recognize that the human race is no less a regular system than the wonderful assemblage of the Planets. Nor are the falsehoods and fictitious hypotheses of philosophers any more required for exhibiting its beautiful regularity than Cycles and Epicycles are needed to explain the pattern of that assemblage.14 In truth all the factors deployed to disprove the divine care for men either have no force or prove that man ought to be nothing other than an accumulation in one of all the gifts and powers of nature; or rather that nothing should
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exist except that one thing which is most perfect among the innumerable kinds of living creatures which divine power is able to create: than which nothing is more absurd.
IX
Many things can be cited from which it is possible to see how many things GOD has given to men and how extraordinary they are. For men are of the earth not as inhabitants and dwellers, but as spectators of superior and heavenly things, the viewing of which is available to no other species of living creature.15 With the intelligence with which man is endowed, he not only develops many skills, some of which are needed for the purposes of life and some for pleasure, but his special quality is the ability to learn the natures and causes of things. From these he receives his knowledge of GOD, and this is the origin of Piety; united with Piety is justice and the other moral virtues; and these are the source of a happy life for a living being capable of reason. Also man has complete dominion over the good things of the earth. And nature <10> supplies material to the senses with unstinting hand. And nothing could have been made which was more subtle or more adaptable to a great variety of purposes than the whole structure of the senses; with this caveat however that we always get the greatest pleasure from them when reason commands them and allots their tasks so to speak. This in itself proves with sufficient clarity that the divine mind oversees human things with particular care. And although man is mortal, that which the vulgar call death is nothing but the beginning of immortality and the birth day of the life to come. As for the distresses with which human life is beset, they proceed either from its conjunction in our present state with the corporeal world and by the bond by which the mind is united with the body, or from licentiousness of heart and a wicked abuse of the gifts of nature. But these things cannot be blamed unless we want to alter the whole structure of the corporeal world. For these reasons it is fair to blame only ourselves. For the divine care for the human race is only to be judged
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by the purpose and powers of the faculties which nature has kindly bestowed upon us; and by the laws which Reason as the interpreter of the Divine Mind lays upon us, which all conduce by their own force and nature to preserve the most beautiful order among men. The things that wickedness of heart like a mother conceives and brings to fruition are to be retorted squarely upon ourselves. We alone are at fault; and the Great and Good GOD could not have given us a more excellent or noble gift than that liberty which alone renders us capable of law and right. Man is born and as it were charged with the preservation of society; and for this reason it was fitting that men should be vested with diverse powers and natures and established in very different conditions and roles in human life. So too man has been so designed by nature that he does not achieve wisdom without hard work and education. Nor does the innate freedom of our will permit us in the conduct of human affairs to be directed by impetuous instincts beyond the normal order of nature. But nature has intended that our mind should be always its own guide; it moves itself by its own force in accordance with the judgments which it can form for itself by the association and comprehension of events with their consequences. Moreover the needs of human life absolutely require that men should excel in swiftness of memory and acquire for themselves by study and habit a ready ability to perform any tasks whatsoever; and therefore it is essential that repeated associations of thought and inbred moral habits <11> should have great force and be difficult to break. And from these powers and laws of our nature reason may be rendered sufficiently well-adjusted, as it seems to us, to the whole condition of mortal men and to almost all the ills and troubles by which men’s lives are most vexed, particularly if we also add that the Sanctions which fortify the laws to which GOD has willed that men should adapt their conduct, have a special relation to the future life. This is fully proved by many arguments, but it is also quite clear from this, that it exhibits to us a concept of a moral World which is consonant with nature in the most complete way and is consistent with itself in every way. And when the true doctrine of revelation about the origin of men and the future state are brought to its assistance, the whole thing becomes far clearer and richer. This is a great argument for the authority which it claims for itself, and an argument more convincing than any other to persuade a true Philosopher to embrace
