Τί τοίνυν δοκεῖ περὶ τούτων; ἢ καὶ τὰ πονηρὰ καὶ τὰ χρηστὰ λόγος περιείληφεν ὁ πᾶς, οὗ μέρη καὶ ταῦτα· οὐ γὰρ ὁ πᾶς λόγος γεννᾷ ταῦτα, ἀλλ’ ὁ πᾶς ἐστι μετὰ τούτων. ψυχῆς γάρ τινος πάσης ἐνέργεια οἱ λόγοι, τῶν δὲ μερῶν τὰ μέρη· μιᾶς δὲ διάφορα ἐχούσης μέρη ἀνὰ λόγον καὶ οἱ λόγοι, ὥστε καὶ τὰ ἔργα ἔσχατα ὄντα γεννήματα. σύμφωνοι δὲ αἵ τε ψυχαὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλας τά τε ἔργα· σύμφωνα δὲ οὕτως, ὡς ἓν ἐξ αὐτῶν, καὶ εἰ ἐξ ἐναντίων. ἐκ γὰρ ἑνός τινος ὁρμηθέντα πάντα εἰς ἓν συνέρχεται φύσεως ἀνάγκῃ, ὥστε καὶ διάφορα ἐκφύντα καὶ ἐναντία γενόμενα τῷ ἐξ ἑνὸς εἶναι συνέλκεται ὅμως εἰς σύνταξιν μίαν.
What, then, are we to think about these things? Perhaps this: the whole rational principle encompasses both the wicked and the good, and these too are parts of it. It is not that the whole rational principle generates them; rather, the whole is with them. For the rational principles are the activity of a soul, a whole soul, and the parts are the activity of its parts. Since it is one but has different parts, the rational principles correspond, and so do the works, which are the last offspring. The souls are in concord with one another, and so are the works—in concord in such a way that one thing comes from them, even if from opposites. For all things that set out from some one thing come together into one by a necessity of nature, so that even though they grow out different and become opposites, they are nonetheless drawn together into one order by coming from one.
ὥσπερ γὰρ καὶ ἐφ’ ἑκάστων ζῴων· [οἷον] ἓν ἵππων γένος, κἂν μάχωνται κἂν δάκνωσιν ἀλλήλους κἂν φιλονεικῶσι κἂν ζήλῳ θυμῶνται, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα καθ’ ἓν γένη ὡσαύτως· καὶ δὴ οὕτω καὶ ἀνθρώπους θετέον. συναπτέον τοίνυν αὖ πάλιν πάντα τὰ εἴδη ταῦτα εἰς ἓν τὸ ζῴων γένος· εἶτα καὶ τὰ μὴ ζῷα κατ’ εἴδη αὖ· εἶτα εἰς ἓν τὸ μὴ ζῷον· εἶτα ὁμοῦ, εἰ βούλει, εἰς τὸ εἶναι· εἶτα εἰς τὸ παρέχον τὸ εἶναι.
It is just as with each kind of animal: [for example,] the race of horses is one, even if they fight, and bite one another, and compete, and rage in rivalry; and the other kinds, each taken as one, likewise; and that is how we must take human beings too. We must then join all these species together again into one, the genus of animals; then the non-animals too, by species; then into one, the non-animal; then together, if you like, into being; then into what provides being.
καὶ πάλιν ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἐκδήσας κατάβαινε διαιρῶν καὶ σκιδνάμενον τὸ ἓν ὁρῶν τῷ ἐπὶ πάντα φθάνειν καὶ ὁμοῦ περιλαμβάνειν ἐν συντάξει μιᾷ, ὡς διακεκριμένον ἓν εἶναι ζῷον πολὺ ἑκάστου πράττοντος τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ τὸ κατὰ φύσιν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ ὅλῳ ὅμως ὄντος, οἷον πυρὸς μὲν καίοντος, ἵππου [δὲ] τὰ ἵππου ἔργα· ἄνθρωποι δὲ τὰ αὑτῶν ἕκαστοι ᾗ πεφύκασι καὶ διάφορα οἱ διάφοροι. καὶ ἕπεται κατὰ τὰς φύσεις καὶ τὰ ἔργα καὶ τῷ ζῆν τὸ εὖ καὶ τὸ κακῶς.
And having fastened it all to this, come back down, dividing, and see the one scattering as it reaches everything and at the same time encompasses it in one order, so that it is one living being, differentiated and many, each of the things in it doing what accords with its own nature while still being within the whole: fire burning, for instance, [and] a horse doing a horse’s work; and men each doing their own, as each is naturally fitted, and different men different things. And according to their natures follow both their works and, in their life, living well or badly.
αἱ δὲ συντυχίαι οὐ κύριαι τοῦ εὖ, ἀκολουθοῦσι δὲ καὶ αὗται συμφώνως τοῖς πρὸ αὐτῶν καὶ ἴασιν ἀκολουθίᾳ ἐμπλακεῖσαι. συμπλέκει δὲ πάντα τὸ ἡγούμενον συμφερομένων τῶν ἐφ’ ἑκάτερα κατὰ φύσιν, οἷον ἐν στρατηγίαις ἡγουμένου μὲν τοῦ στρατηγοῦ, συμπνεόντων δὲ τῶν συντεταγμένων. ἐτάχθη δὲ τὸ πᾶν προνοίᾳ στρατηγικῇ ὁρώσῃ καὶ τὰς πράξεις καὶ τὰ πάθη καὶ ἃ δεῖ παρεῖναι, σιτία καὶ ποτὰ καὶ δὴ καὶ ὅπλα πάντα καὶ μηχανήματα, καὶ ὅσα ἐξ αὐτῶν συμπλεκομένων προεώραται, ἵνα τὸ ἐκ τούτων συμβαῖνον ἔχῃ χώραν τοῦ τεθῆναι εὖ, καὶ ἐλήλυθε πάντα τρόπον τινὰ εὐμήχανον παρὰ τοῦ στρατηγοῦ, καίτοι ἔξωθεν ἦν ὅσα ἔμελλον δράσειν οἱ ἐναντίοι οὐδὲ οἷόν τε ἦν κἀκείνου ἄρχειν τοῦ στρατοπέδου.
Chance events are not in control of living well; they too follow in concord with what comes before them, and go along woven into the sequence. The leading principle weaves all things together, while the things on either side move along together according to nature—as in a military campaign, where the general leads and those ranged under him breathe as one with him. The All has been ordered by a generalship of providence that sees the actions and the sufferings and what must be on hand—food and drink, and indeed all the weapons and siege engines—and has foreseen everything that results from their interweaving, so that what comes of these may have room to be well placed. Everything has come from the general in a well-contrived way, even though what the enemy were going to do lay outside, and it was not possible to command that army too.
εἰ δὲ δὴ ὁ μέγας ἡγεμὼν εἴη, ὑφ’ ᾧ πάντα, τί ἂν ἀσύντακτον, τί δὲ οὐκ ἂν συνηρμοσμένον εἴη;
But if it were the great commander, under whom all things are, what could be out of order, what could fail to be fitted together?
καὶ γὰρ εἰ ἐγὼ κύριος τοῦ τάδε ἑλέσθαι ἢ τάδε, ἀλλὰ αἱρέσει συντέτακται, ὅτι μὴ ἐπεισόδιον τὸ σὸν τῷ παντί, ἀλλ’ ἠρίθμησαι ὁ τοιόσδε. ἀλλὰ πόθεν ὁ τοιόσδε; ἔστι δὲ δύο, ἃ ὁ λόγος ζητεῖ, τὸ μέν, εἰ ἐπὶ τὸν ποιήσαντα, εἴ τις ἐστίν, ἀνενεγκεῖν δεῖ τοῦ ποιοῦ τοῦ ἐν τοῖς ἤθεσιν ἑκάστου τὴν αἰτίαν, ἢ ἐπὶ τὸ γενόμενον αὐτό, ἢ ὅλως οὐκ αἰτιατέον, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ἐπὶ φυτῶν γενέσεως, ὅτι μὴ αἰσθάνεται, ἢ ἐπὶ ζῴων τῶν ἄλλων, ὅτι μὴ ὡς ἄνθρωποι ἔχουσι· ταὐτὸν γὰρ τοῦτο τῷ διὰ τί ἄνθρωποι οὐχ ὅπερ θεοί· διὰ τί γὰρ ἐνταῦθα οὔτε αὐτὰ οὔτε τὸν ποιήσαντα εὐλόγως αἰτιώμεθα, ἐπὶ δὲ ἀνθρώπων, ὅτι μὴ κρεῖττον ἢ τοῦτο;
For even if I am in control of choosing this or that, still the choice is ordered in with the rest, because what is yours is not an interpolated episode in the All: you have been counted in as the kind of person you are.—But where does your being this kind of person come from? There are two things the argument is looking for. One is whether we should refer the cause of the quality of each person’s character to the one who made him, if there is such a one, or to what has come to be itself; or whether no blame should be laid at all, any more than in the generation of plants, because they do not perceive, or in the case of the other animals, because they are not as humans are. For this is the same as asking why humans are not what gods are. Why, in these cases, do we reasonably blame neither the things themselves nor their maker, but in the case of humans we blame them for not being better than this?
εἰ μὲν γάρ, ὅτι ἐδύνατο τοῦτο κάλλιον εἶναι, εἰ μὲν παρ’ αὑτοῦ προστιθέντος τι εἰς τὸ κρεῖττον, αὐτὸς αἴτιος ἑαυτῷ ὁ μὴ ποιήσας· εἰ δὲ μὴ παρ’ αὑτοῦ, ἀλλ’ ἔδει ἔξωθεν προσεῖναι παρὰ τοῦ γεννητοῦ, ἄτοπος ὁ τὸ πλέον ἀπαιτῶν τοῦ δοθέντος, ὥσπερ εἰ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων ἀπαιτοῖ καὶ τῶν φυτῶν. δεῖ γὰρ οὐ ζητεῖν, εἰ ἔλαττον ἄλλου, ἀλλ’ εἰ ὡς αὐτὸ αὐτάρκως· οὐ γὰρ πάντα ἴσα ἔδει.
If it is because this could have been more beautiful: if it was up to him to add something toward the better, then he who did not do it is himself responsible for himself. But if it was not from himself, and it had to be added from outside, by the one who begot him, then whoever demands more than what was given is being absurd, as if he were to demand it for the other animals and the plants too. We must ask not whether a thing is less than another, but whether it is sufficient as it is; for not all things had to be equal.
ἆρ’ οὖν μετρήσαντος αὐτοῦ προαιρέσει τοῦ μὴ δεῖν πάντα ἴσα; οὐδαμῶς· ἀλλ’ οὕτω κατὰ φύσιν εἶχε γενέσθαι. ἀκόλουθος γὰρ οὗτος ὁ λόγος ψυχῇ ἄλλῃ, ἀκόλουθος δὲ ψυχὴ αὕτη νῷ, νοῦς δὲ οὐ τούτων τι ἕν, ἀλλὰ πάντα· τὰ δὲ πάντα πολλά· πολλὰ δὲ ὄντα καὶ οὐ ταὐτὰ τὰ μὲν πρῶτα, τὰ δὲ δεύτερα, τὰ δὲ ἐφεξῆς καὶ τῇ ἀξίᾳ ἔμελλεν εἶναι. καὶ τοίνυν καὶ τὰ γενόμενα ζῷα οὐ ψυχαὶ μόνον, ἀλλὰ ψυχῶν ἐλαττώσεις, οἷον ἐξιτήλων ἤδη προιόντων. ὁ γὰρ τοῦ ζῴου λόγος, κἂν ἔμψυχος ᾖ, ἑτέρα ψυχή, οὐκ ἐκείνη, ἀφ’ ἧς ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ σύμπας οὗτος ἐλάττων δὴ γίνεται σπεύδων εἰς ὕλην καὶ τὸ γενόμενον ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐνδεέστερον. σκόπει δὴ ὅσον ἀφέστηκε τὸ γενόμενον καὶ ὅμως ἐστὶ θαῦμα.
Did he, then, measure it out by a deliberate choice that not all things should be equal? Not at all: this is simply how things were bound to come about, by nature. For this rational principle follows upon another soul, and this soul follows upon Intellect; and Intellect is not some one of these things but all of them, and all things are many. Since they are many and not the same, some were bound to be first, some second, and others next in order, in rank as well. So the living beings that come into existence are not souls only but diminutions of souls, as if they were already fading as they proceed. For the rational principle of a living being, even if it is ensouled, is a different soul, not the one from which the principle comes; and this principle as a whole becomes lesser as it hastens into matter, and what comes from it is more deficient still. Look how far what has come into being stands from its source, and yet it is a marvel.
οὐ τοίνυν, εἰ τοιοῦτον τὸ γενόμενον, καὶ τὸ πρὸ αὐτοῦ τοιοῦτον· ἔστι γὰρ παντὸς κρεῖττον τοῦ γενομένου καὶ ἔξω αἰτίας καὶ μᾶλλον θαυμάσαι, ὅτι ἔδωκέ τι μεθ’ αὑτὸ καὶ τὰ ἴχνη αὐτοῦ τοιαῦτα. εἰ δὲ δὴ καὶ πλέον ἔδωκεν ἢ ὅσον ἔχουσι κτήσασθαι, ἔτι μᾶλλον ἀποδεκτέον· ὥστε κινδυνεύειν τὴν αἰτίαν ἐπὶ τοὺς γενομένους ἰέναι, τὸ δὲ τῆς προνοίας μειζόνως ἔχειν.
So if what has come into being is like this, it does not follow that what comes before it is like this too. That is better than everything that has come into being, and beyond blame. We should rather marvel that it gave something after itself, and that its traces are such as these. And if it gave even more than they are able to take hold of, it deserves all the more to be welcomed. So it looks as if the blame falls on the things that have come into being, while providence’s part is all the greater.
ἁπλοῦ μὲν γὰρ ὄντος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου — λέγω δὲ ἁπλοῦ ὡς τοῦτο ὃ πεποίηται μόνον ὄντος καὶ κατὰ ταὐτὰ ποιοῦντος καὶ πάσχοντος — ἀπῆν [ἂν] αἰτία ἡ κατὰ τὴν ἐπιτίμησιν, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τῶν ζῴων τῶν ἄλλων. νῦν δὲ ἄνθρωπος μόνον ἐν ψόγῳ ὁ κακὸς καὶ τοῦτο ἴσως εὐλόγως. οὐ γὰρ μόνον ὃ πεποίηταί ἐστιν, ἀλλ’ ἔχει ἀρχὴν ἄλλην ἐλευθέραν οὐκ ἔξω τῆς προνοίας οὖσαν οὐδὲ τοῦ λόγου τοῦ ὅλου· οὐ γὰρ ἀπήρτηται ἐκεῖνα τούτων, ἀλλ’ ἐπιλάμπει τὰ κρείττω τοῖς χείροσι καὶ ἡ τελεία πρόνοια τοῦτο· καὶ λόγος ὁ μὲν ποιητικός, ὁ δὲ συνάπτων τὰ κρείττω τοῖς γενομένοις, κἀκεῖνα πρόνοια ἡ ἄνωθεν, ἡ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ἄνω, ὁ ἕτερος λόγος συνημμένος ἐκείνῳ, καὶ γίνεται ἐξ ἀμφοῖν πᾶν πλέγμα καὶ πρόνοια ἡ πᾶσα.
If a human being were simple—by simple I mean being only what he was made, acting and being acted on always in the same way—there would be no room for the blame that goes with reproach, any more than with the other animals. As it is, only a human being, the bad one, is blamed, and perhaps with good reason. For he is not only what he was made: he has another principle, a free one, which is not outside providence or the rational principle of the whole. The higher things are not cut off from these; the better shine upon the worse, and that is what perfect providence is. There is one rational principle that makes, and another that joins the better things to those that have come into being. The higher things are providence from above; the other is the providence that derives from what is above, the second rational principle, joined to the first. From both comes the whole web, the whole of providence.
ἀρχὴν μὲν οὖν ἔχουσιν ἄλλην ἄνθρωποι, οὐ πάντες δὲ πᾶσιν οἷς ἔχουσι χρῶνται, ἀλλ’ οἱ μὲν τῇ ἑτέρᾳ, οἱ δὲ τῇ ἑτέρᾳ ἢ ταῖς ἑτέραις ταῖς χείροσι χρῶνται. πάρεισι δὲ κἀκεῖναι οὐκ ἐνεργοῦσαι εἰς αὐτούς, οὔτοι γε αὐταὶ ἀργοῦσαι· πράττει γὰρ ἕκαστον τὸ ἑαυτοῦ. ἀλλ’ εἰς τούτους οὐκ ἐνεργοῦσιν αἰτίᾳ τίνος, εἴποι τις ἄν, παροῦσαι; ἢ οὐ πάρεισι. καίτοι πάντη φαμὲν παρεῖναι καὶ οὐδὲν ἔρημον. ἢ οὐ τούτοις, ἐν οἷς μὴ εἰς αὐτοὺς ἐνεργεῖ. διὰ τί οὖν οὐκ ἐνεργεῖ εἰς πάντας, εἴπερ μέρη καὶ ταῦτα αὐτῶν; λέγω δὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν τὴν τοιαύτην. ἐπὶ μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων οὐκ αὐτῶν ἡ ἀρχὴ αὕτη, ἐπὶ δὲ ἀνθρώπων οὐκ ἐπὶ πάντων. ἆρ’ οὖν οὐκ ἐπὶ πάντων οὐ μόνον ἥδε; ἀλλὰ διὰ τί οὐ μόνη;
Human beings, then, have another principle, but not all of them use everything they have: some use the one, some the other, or the others, the worse ones. The higher principles are present too, even though they are not active upon these people—not that they are idle in themselves, for each does its own work. “But why,” someone might say, “are they present and yet not active upon these people?” Perhaps they are not present. Yet we say they are present everywhere, and nothing is without them. Or rather: they are not present to those in whom they are not active upon them. Why, then, are they not active upon everyone, if these too are parts of them—I mean principles of this kind? In the other animals this principle does not belong to them at all; and among humans it does not belong to all. Is it, then, that not in all of them is this the only principle? But why is it not the only one?
ἐφ’ ὧν δὲ μόνη καὶ κατὰ ταύτην τὸ ζῆν, τὰ δ’ ἄλλα ὅσον ἀνάγκη. εἴτε γὰρ ἡ σύστασις τοιαύτη, ὡς οἷον εἰς θολερὸν ἐμβάλλειν, εἴτε ἐπιθυμίαι κρατοῦσιν, ὅμως ἀνάγκη λέγειν ἐν τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ τὸ αἴτιον εἶναι.
Those in whom it is the only one live by it, and by the other things only so far as necessity requires. For whether it is the bodily constitution that is such as to plunge one, as it were, into murky water, or whether desires dominate, we still have to say that the cause lies in the substrate.
ἀλλὰ πρῶτον μὲν δόξει οὐκέτι ἐν τῷ λόγῳ, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἐν τῇ ὕλῃ, καὶ ἡ ὕλη, οὐχ ὁ λόγος κρατήσει, εἶτα τὸ ὑποκείμενον ὡς πέπλασται. ἢ τὸ ὑποκείμενον τῇ ἀρχῇ ὁ λόγος ἐστὶ καὶ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ λόγου γενόμενον καὶ ὂν κατὰ τὸν λόγον· ὥστε οὐχ ἡ ὕλη κρατήσει, εἶτα ἡ πλάσις. καὶ τὸ τοιόνδε εἶναι ἐπὶ τὴν προτέραν βιοτὴν [ἂν] ἀνάγοι τις, οἷον γινομένου ἐκ τῶν προτέρων ἀμυδροῦ ὡς πρὸς τὸν πρὸ αὐτοῦ τοῦ λόγου· οἷον ψυχῆς ἀσθενεστέρας γενομένης, ὕστερον δὲ καὶ ἐκλάμψει. καὶ ὁ λόγος δὲ λεγέσθω ἔχειν καὶ τὸν λόγον αὖ ἐν αὑτῷ τῆς ὕλης, ἣν αὑτῷ ἐργάσεται ποιώσας καθ’ αὑτὸν τὴν ὕλην ἢ σύμφωνον εὑρών.
But, first, it will then seem that the cause lies no longer in the rational principle but rather in matter, and that matter, not the rational principle, will dominate; and, second, that the substrate is as it has been molded. Or rather: the substrate for this principle is the rational principle, and what has come from the rational principle and exists in accordance with it; so it is not matter that will dominate, nor, then, the molding. And one could trace someone’s being of this kind back to a previous life—as if the rational principle had become dim, as a result of what went before, compared with the one before it; as when a soul has become weaker, but later it will shine out too. And let the rational principle be said to hold within itself, in turn, the rational principle of matter, which it will work up for itself, either qualifying matter according to itself or finding it in harmony with itself.
οὐ γὰρ ὁ τοῦ βοὸς λόγος ἐπ’ ἄλλης ἢ βοὸς ὕλης· ὅθεν καὶ εἰς τὰ ἄλλα ζῷά φησιν εἰσκρίνεσθαι οἷον ἄλλης τῆς ψυχῆς γενομένης καὶ ἑτεροιωθέντος τοῦ λόγου, ἵνα γένηται ψυχὴ βοός, ἣ πρότερον ἦν ἄνθρωπος· ὥστε κατὰ δίκην ὁ χείρων. ἀλλ’ ἐξ ἀρχῆς διὰ τί ὁ χείρων ἐγένετο καὶ πῶς ἐσφάλη; [ἢ] πολλάκις εἴρηται ὡς οὐ πρῶτα πάντα, ἀλλ’ ὅσα δεύτερα καὶ τρίτα ἐλάττω τὴν φύσιν τῶν πρὸ αὐτῶν ἔχει, καὶ σμικρὰ ῥοπὴ ἀρκεῖ εἰς ἔκβασιν τοῦ ὀρθοῦ. καὶ ἡ συμπλοκὴ δὲ ἡ πρὸς ἄλλο ἄλλου ὥσπερ τις σύγκρασίς ἐστιν ἑτέρου ἐξ ἀμφοῖν γενομένου, καὶ οὐκ ὄντος ἠλάττωσεν, ἀλλὰ ἐγένετο ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἔλαττον τὸ ἔλαττον, καὶ ἔστιν ὃ ἐγένετο κατὰ φύσιν τὴν αὑτοῦ ἔλαττον, καί, εἰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον πάσχει, πάσχει τὸ κατ’ ἀξίαν.
For the rational principle of an ox is not found in any matter but an ox’s. That is why he says that souls enter into the other animals too, as if the soul had become different and the rational principle altered, so that what was formerly a human being becomes the soul of an ox; so the worse one is worse with justice. But why did it become worse to begin with, and how did it slip? [Or rather,] it has often been said that not all things are first: those that are second and third have a nature lesser than what comes before them, and a small tilt is enough to leave the right path. And the interweaving of one thing with another is a kind of blending, in which something different comes from both. It did not diminish something that already existed: the lesser was lesser from the beginning, and what came to be is lesser by its own nature; and if it suffers what follows from this, it suffers what it deserves.
καὶ εἰς τὰ προβεβιωμένα δὲ ἀναπέμπειν δεῖ τὸν λογισμὸν ὡς κἀκεῖθεν ἠρτημένων τῶν ἐφεξῆς.
We must also carry our reasoning back to lives lived before, since what follows depends on them as well.
γίνεται τοίνυν ἡ πρόνοια ἐξ ἀρχῆς εἰς τέλος κατιοῦσα ἄνωθεν οὐκ ἴση οἷον κατ’ ἀριθμόν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ ἀναλογίαν ἄλλη ἐν ἄλλῳ τόπῳ, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ ζῴου ἑνὸς εἰς ἔσχατον ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἠρτημένου ἑκάστου τὸ οἰκεῖον ἔχοντος, τοῦ μὲν βελτίονος τὸ βέλτιον τῆς ἐνεργείας, τοῦ δὲ πρὸς τὸ κάτω ἤδη, ἐνεργοῦντός τε αὐτοῦ καὶ πάσχοντος τὰ ὅσα αὐτῷ οἰκεῖα παθήματα πρὸς αὐτό τε καὶ πρὸς τὴν σύνταξιν τὴν πρὸς ἄλλο. καὶ δὴ καὶ οὑτωσὶ πληγέντα οὕτως ἐφθέγξατο τὰ φωνήεντα, τὰ δὲ σιωπῇ πάσχει καὶ κινεῖται τὰ ἀκόλουθα, καὶ ἐκ τῶν φθόγγων ἁπάντων καὶ ἐκ τῶν παθημάτων καὶ ἐνεργημάτων μία τοῦ ζῴου οἷον φωνὴ καὶ ζωὴ καὶ βίος.
Providence, then, coming down from above, from beginning to end, is not equal in the way of number but proportionate, different in different places. It is as in a single living being, where each part depends on the beginning, down to the last, and each has what is proper to it: the better part has the better share of activity, while the part already further down has a lower one, acting and being affected with whatever affections are proper to it, both in relation to itself and in its ordering with something else. So, when struck in this way, the parts that have voice cry out in this way, while others are affected in silence and move accordingly; and from all the sounds, affections and activities comes a single voice, as it were, of the living being, a single life and way of life.
καὶ γὰρ καὶ τὰ μόρια διάφορα ὄντα καὶ διάφορον τὴν ἐνέργειαν ἔχοντα· ἄλλο γὰρ ποιοῦσι πόδες, ὀφθαλμοὶ δ’ ἄλλο, διάνοια δὲ ἄλλο καὶ νοῦς ἄλλο. ἓν δὲ ἐκ πάντων καὶ πρόνοια μία· εἱμαρμένη δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ χείρονος ἀρξαμένη, τὸ δὲ ὑπεράνω πρόνοια μόνον. τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τῷ νοητῷ πάντα λόγος καὶ ὑπὲρ λόγον· νοῦς γὰρ καὶ ψυχὴ καθαρά· τὸ δὲ ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη ὅσον μὲν ἔρχεται ἐκεῖθεν πρόνοια καὶ ὅσον ἐν ψυχῇ καθαρᾷ καὶ ὅσον ἐντεῦθεν εἰς τὰ ζῷα. ἔρχεται δὲ μεριζόμενος ὁ λόγος οὐκ ἴσα ὅθεν οὐδὲ ἴσα ποιεῖ, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐν ζῴῳ ἑκάστῳ.
For its parts too are different and have different activities: feet do one thing, eyes another, discursive thought another, intellect another. But one thing comes from them all, and there is one providence. Fate begins from the worse; what is above is providence alone. Everything in the intelligible world is rational principle and beyond rational principle, since it is Intellect and pure soul. And what comes from there, so far as it comes from there, is providence—so far as it is in pure soul, and so far as it passes from there into living beings. But the rational principle comes divided into unequal portions, and so it does not make equal things either, as in each living being too.
τὸ δὲ ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη ἀκόλουθα μὲν τὰ δρώμενα καὶ προνοίᾳ ἑπόμενα, εἴ τις δρῴη θεοῖς φίλα· ἦν γὰρ θεοφιλὴς ὁ λόγος ὁ προνοίας. συνείρεται μὲν οὖν καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν ἔργων, πεποίηται δὲ οὐ προνοίᾳ, ἀλλὰ γενόμενα ἢ παρὰ ἀνθρώπων ἢ παρὰ ὁτουοῦν ἢ ζῴου ἢ ἀψύχου (τὰ γενόμενα), εἴ τι ἐφεξῆς τούτοις χρηστόν, πάλιν κατείληπται προνοίᾳ, ὡς πανταχοῦ ἀρετὴν κρατεῖν καὶ μετατιθεμένων καὶ διορθώσεως τυγχανόντων τῶν ἡμαρτημένων, οἷον [εἰ] ἐν ἑνὶ σώματι ὑγιείας δοθείσης κατὰ πρόνοιαν τοῦ ζῴου γενομένης τομῆς ἢ ὅλως τραύματος πάλιν ἐφεξῆς ὁ λόγος ὁ διοικῶν συνάπτοι καὶ συνάγοι καὶ ἰῷτο καὶ διορθοῖτο τὸ πονῆσαν.
From this point on, the things that are done are consequences, and they follow providence if someone does what is dear to the gods; for the rational principle of providence was dear to the gods. Deeds of this kind, then, are linked into the chain, but they have not been done by providence. Rather, things that come about—whether from human beings or from anything at all, a living being or a lifeless thing—(the things that come about), if anything good follows upon them, have again been taken in hand by providence, so that virtue prevails everywhere, and mistakes are transposed and set right. It is as when a single body has been given health in accordance with providence for the living being, and a cut or any wound occurs: the rational principle that governs it, in turn, joins it up, draws it together, heals it and sets right what has suffered.
ὥστε τὰ κακὰ ἑπόμενα εἶναι, ἐξ ἀνάγκης δέ· καὶ γὰρ παρ’ ἡμῶν κατ’ αἰτίας οὐχ ὑπὸ τῆς προνοίας ἠναγκασμένων, ἀλλ’ ἐξ αὐτῶν συναψάντων μὲν τοῖς τῆς προνοίας καὶ ἀπὸ προνοίας ἔργοις, τὸ δὲ ἐφεξῆς συνεῖραι κατὰ βούλησιν ἐκείνης οὐ δυνηθέντων, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν τῶν πραξάντων ἢ κατὰ ἄλλο τι τῶν ἐν τῷ παντὶ μηδ’ αὐτοῦ κατὰ πρόνοιαν πεπραχότος ἢ πεποιηκότος τι ἐν ἡμῖν πάθος.
So evils are consequences, but consequences of necessity. They come from us, through causes that are not compelled by providence but come from ourselves. We have linked our acts to the works of providence and those that derive from providence, but we have been unable to carry the sequence on according to its will; we carry it on according to the will of those who acted, or according to something else in the All which itself did not act, or produce some affection in us, according to providence.
οὐ γὰρ τὸ αὐτὸ ποιεῖ πᾶν προσελθὸν παντί, ἀλλὰ τὸ αὐτὸ πρὸς ἄλλο καὶ ἄλλο πρὸς ἄλλο· οἷον καὶ τὸ τῆς Ἑλένης κάλλος πρὸς μὲν τὸν Πάριν ἄλλο εἰργάζετο, Ἰδομενεὺς δὲ ἔπαθεν οὐ τὸ αὐτό· καὶ ἀκόλαστος ἀκολάστῳ, καλὸς καλῷ συμπεσὼν ἄλλο, ὁ δὲ σώφρων καλὸς ἄλλο πρὸς σώφρονα τοιοῦτον καὶ πρὸς ἀκόλαστον ἄλλο ὁ αὐτός, ὁ δ’ ἀκόλαστος πρὸς αὐτὸν ἄλλο. καὶ παρὰ μὲν τοῦ ἀκολάστου τὸ πραχθὲν οὔτε ὑπὸ προνοίας οὔτε κατὰ πρόνοιαν, τὸ δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ σώφρονος ἔργον οὐχ ὑπὸ προνοίας μέν, ὅτι ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ, κατὰ πρόνοιαν δέ· σύμφωνον γὰρ τῷ λόγῳ, ὥσπερ καὶ ὃ ὑγιεινῶς πράξειεν ἄν τις αὐτὸς πράξας κατὰ λόγον τὸν τοῦ ἰατροῦ.
For the same thing does not have the same effect on everything it encounters; it has one effect on one thing and another on another. Helen’s beauty, for example, worked one effect on Paris, while Idomeneus was not affected in the same way. A dissolute man meeting a dissolute man, a handsome man meeting a handsome one, produces one effect; a moderate handsome man produces another on a moderate man like himself, and the same man another on a dissolute one, while the dissolute man produces yet another on him. What the dissolute man does is neither done by providence nor in accordance with providence; what the moderate man does is not done by providence, since he does it himself, but it is in accordance with providence, since it is in harmony with the rational principle—just as when someone does something healthy on his own, he has done it in accordance with the doctor’s principle.
τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ ὁ ἰατρὸς παρὰ τῆς τέχνης ἐδίδου εἴς τε τὸ ὑγιαῖνον εἴς τε τὸ κάμνον. ὃ δ’ ἄν τις μὴ ὑγιεινῶς ποιῇ, αὐτός τε ποιεῖ καὶ παρὰ τὴν πρόνοιαν τοῦ ἰατροῦ εἰργάσατο.
For this is what the doctor too provided from his art, both for the healthy and for the sick. But whatever someone does that is unhealthy, he does himself, and he has acted against the doctor’s providence.
πόθεν οὖν καὶ τὰ χείρω μάντεις προλέγουσι καὶ εἰς τὴν τοῦ παντὸς φορὰν ὁρῶντες πρὸς ταῖς ἄλλαις μαντείαις προλέγουσι [καὶ] ταῦτα; ἢ δῆλον ὅτι τῷ συμπεπλέχθαι πάντα τὰ ἐναντία, οἷον τὴν μορφὴν καὶ τὴν ὕλην· οἷον ἐπὶ ζῴου συνθέτου ὄντος ὁ τὴν μορφὴν καὶ τὸν λόγον θεωρῶν καὶ τὸ μεμορφωμένον θεωρεῖ. οὐ γὰρ ὡσαύτως ζῷον νοητὸν καὶ ζῷον σύνθετον θεωρεῖ, ἀλλὰ λόγον ζῴου ἐν τῷ συνθέτῳ μορφοῦντα τὰ χείρω. ζῴου δὴ ὄντος τοῦ παντὸς ὁ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ γινόμενα θεωρῶν θεωρεῖ ἅμα καὶ ἐξ ὧν ἔστι καὶ τὴν πρόνοιαν τὴν ἐπ’ αὐτῷ· τέταται δὴ ἐπὶ πάντα καὶ τὰ γινόμενα.
How is it, then, that seers foretell bad things too, and foretell them by looking at the revolution of the All as well as by their other forms of divination? Clearly, because all opposites are woven together—shape and matter, for example. In a composite living being, the one who contemplates the shape and the rational principle also contemplates what has been shaped. He does not contemplate an intelligible living being and a composite living being in the same way: he contemplates the rational principle of a living being in the composite, shaping the worse things. Since the All is a living being, the one who contemplates what happens in it contemplates at the same time what it is made of and the providence over it. And providence extends over everything, including the things that come to be.
τὰ δέ ἐστι καὶ ζῷα καὶ πράξεις αὐτῶν καὶ διαθέσεις κρατηθεῖσαι λόγῳ καὶ ἀνάγκῃ μεμιγμέναι· μεμιγμένα οὖν θεωρεῖ καὶ διηνεκῶς μιγνύμενα καὶ διακρίνειν μὲν αὐτὸς οὐ δύναται πρόνοιαν καὶ τὸ κατὰ πρόνοιαν χωρὶς καὶ αὖ τὸ ὑποκείμενον ὅσα δίδωσιν εἰς τὸ γινόμενον παρ’ αὑτοῦ.
These things are living beings, and their actions, and their dispositions, mastered by rational principle and mixed with necessity. So he contemplates things that are mixed and are continually being mixed, and he cannot himself separate out providence and what accords with providence, on the one hand, and on the other the substrate and all that it contributes from itself to what comes to be.
ἀλλ’ οὐδ’ ἀνδρὸς τοῦτο ποιεῖν ἢ σοφοῦ τινος καὶ θείου· ἢ θεὸς ἂν ἔχοι, φαίη τις ἄν, τοῦτο τὸ γέρας. καὶ γὰρ οὐ τοῦ μάντεως τὸ διότι, ἀλλὰ τὸ ὅτι μόνον εἰπεῖν, καὶ ἡ τέχνη ἀνάγνωσις φυσικῶν γραμμάτων καὶ τάξιν δηλούντων καὶ οὐδαμοῦ πρὸς τὸ ἄτακτον ἀποκλινόντων, μᾶλλον δὲ καταμαρτυρούσης τῆς φορᾶς καὶ εἰς φῶς ἀγούσης καὶ πρὶν παρ’ αὐτῶν φανῆναι, οἷος ἕκαστος καὶ ὅσα. συμφέρεται γὰρ καὶ ταῦτα ἐκείνοις κἀκεῖνα τούτοις συντελοῦντα ἅμα πρὸς σύστασιν καὶ ἀιδιότητα κόσμου, ἀναλογίᾳ δὲ σημαίνοντα τὰ ἄλλα τῷ τετηρηκότι· ἐπεὶ καὶ αἱ ἄλλαι μαντικαὶ τῷ ἀναλόγῳ. οὐ γὰρ ἔδει ἀπηρτῆσθαι ἀλλήλων τὰ πάντα, ὡμοιῶσθαι δὲ πρὸς ἄλληλα ἀμηγέπῃ. καὶ τοῦτ’ ἂν ἴσως εἴη τὸ λεγόμενον, ὡς συνέχει τὰ πάντα ἀναλογία.
But this is not something a man can do, not even a wise and divine one; or rather, one might say, a god would have this privilege. For it is not for the seer to tell the why, only the that. His art is a reading of natural letters, letters that reveal order and never swerve toward disorder—or rather, the revolution of the heavens bears witness and brings to light, even before it is apparent from the things themselves, what each is like and how much. For these things here move together with those there, and those with these, contributing together to the coherence and everlastingness of the cosmos; and by analogy they signify the others to one who has observed them—since the other forms of divination too work by analogy. For it was not right that all things should be cut off from one another; they had to be made like one another in some way. And this is perhaps what is meant by the saying that analogy holds all things together.
ἔστι δὲ τοιοῦτον ἡ ἀναλογία, ὥστε καὶ τὸ χεῖρον πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον ὡς τὸ βέλτιον πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον, οἷον ὡς ὄμμα πρὸς ὄμμα καὶ ποῦς πρὸς πόδα, θάτερον πρὸς θάτερον, καί, εἰ βούλει, ὡς ἀρετὴ πρὸς δικαιοσύνην καὶ κακία πρὸς ἀδικίαν· εἰ τοίνυν ἀναλογία ἐν τῷ παντί, καὶ προειπεῖν ἔνι· καὶ εἰ ποιεῖ δὲ ἐκεῖνα εἰς ταῦτα, οὕτω ποιεῖ, ὡς καὶ τὰ ἐν παντὶ ζῴῳ εἰς ἄλληλα, οὐχ ὡς θάτερον γεννᾷ θάτερον· ἅμα γὰρ γεννᾶται· ἀλλ’ ὡς ᾗ πέφυκεν ἕκαστον οὕτω καὶ πάσχει τὸ πρόσφορον εἰς τὴν αὐτοῦ φύσιν, καὶ ὅτι τοῦτο τοιοῦτον, καὶ τὸ τοιοῦτον τοῦτο· οὕτω γὰρ καὶ λόγος εἷς.
Analogy is such that the worse stands to the worse as the better to the better—as eye to eye and foot to foot, one to the other, and, if you like, as virtue to justice, so vice to injustice. If, then, there is analogy in the All, it is possible to foretell. And if those things act on these, they act the way the parts in any living being act on one another: not as though one begets the other, for they are begotten together, but in that each, according to its nature, is affected in the way that suits its own nature, and because this is of this kind, that is of that kind too. For this is how the rational principle, too, is one.
καὶ ὅτι δὲ τὰ βελτίω, καὶ τὰ χείρω. ἐπεὶ πῶς ἂν εἴη τι χεῖρον ἐν πολυειδεῖ μὴ ὄντος βελτίονος, ἢ πῶς τὸ βέλτιον μὴ χείρονος; ὥστε οὐκ αἰτιατέον τὸ χεῖρον ἐν τῷ βελτίονι, ἀλλὰ ἀποδεκτέον τὸ βέλτιον, ὅτι ἔδωκεν ἑαυτοῦ τῷ χείρονι. ὅλως δὲ οἱ ἀναιρεῖν ἀξιοῦντες τὸ χεῖρον ἐν τῷ παντὶ ἀναιροῦσι πρόνοιαν αὐτήν. τίνος γὰρ ἔσται; οὐ γὰρ δὴ αὑτῆς οὐδὲ τοῦ βελτίονος· ἐπεὶ καὶ τὴν ἄνω πρόνοιαν ὀνομάζοντες πρὸς τὸ κάτω λέγομεν. τὸ μὲν γὰρ εἰς ἓν πάντα ἀρχή, ἐν ᾗ ὁμοῦ πάντα καὶ ὅλον πάντα.
And because there are better things, there are worse things too. For how could there be anything worse in a thing of many forms if there were nothing better, or anything better if there were nothing worse? So we should not blame the worse in the better; we should rather welcome the better for giving of itself to the worse. And in general, those who would abolish the worse in the All abolish providence itself. For what will it be providence for? Not for itself, surely, nor for the better: even when we speak of providence above, we speak of it in relation to what is below. For what holds all things in one is the principle, in which all things are together and all things are a whole.
πρόεισι δὲ ἤδη ἐκ ταύτης ἕκαστα μενούσης ἐκείνης ἔνδον οἷον ἐκ ῥίζης μιᾶς ἑστώσης αὐτῆς ἐν αὑτῇ· τὰ δὲ ἐξήνθησεν εἰς πλῆθος μεμερισμένον εἴδωλον ἕκαστον ἐκείνου φέρον, ἄλλο δ’ ἐν ἄλλῳ ἐνταῦθα ἤδη ἐγίγνετο καὶ ἦν τὰ μὲν πλησίον τῆς ῥίζης, τὰ δὲ προιόντα εἰς τὸ πόρρω ἐσχίζετο καὶ μέχρις οἷον κλάδων καὶ ἄκρων καὶ καρπῶν καὶ φύλλων· καὶ τὰ μὲν ἔμενεν ἀεί, τὰ δὲ ἐγίνετο ἀεί, οἱ καρποὶ καὶ τὰ φύλλα, καὶ τὰ γινόμενα ἀεὶ εἶχε τοὺς τῶν ἐπάνω λόγους ἐν αὑτοῖς οἷον μικρὰ δένδρα βουληθέντα εἶναι, καὶ εἰ ἐγέννησε πρὶν φθαρῆναι, τὸ ἐγγὺς ἐγέννα μόνον.
From this principle each thing now proceeds, while the principle remains within, as from a single root that stands firm in itself. They blossomed out into a divided multiplicity, each bearing an image of that; and here, now, one thing came to be in another. Some were close to the root, while others, going further out, branched off, down to what are, as it were, boughs and tips and fruits and leaves. Some remained forever, while others were forever coming to be—the fruits and the leaves—and the things that were always coming to be held within themselves the rational principles of those above them, as if they wanted to be little trees; and if they begot before they perished, they begot only what was near them.
τὰ δὲ διάκενα οἷον τῶν κλάδων ἐπληροῦτο αὖ ἐκ τῆς ῥίζης καὶ αὐτῶν ἄλλον τρόπον πεφυκότων, ἐξ ὧν καὶ ἔπασχε τὰ ἄκρα τῶν κλάδων, ὡς ἐκ τοῦ πλησίον οἴεσθαι τὸ πάθος ἰέναι μόνον· τὸ δὲ κατὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν αὖ τὸ μὲν ἔπασχε, τὸ δὲ ἐποίει, ἡ δ’ ἀρχὴ ἀνήρτητο καὶ αὐτή. πόρρωθεν μὲν γὰρ ἐλθόντα ἄλλα τὰ ποιοῦντα εἰς ἄλληλα, ἐξ ἀρχῆς δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ, οἷον εἰ ἀδελφοὶ δρῷέν τι ἀλλήλους ὅμοιοι γενόμενοι ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν ὁρμηθέντες πεποιηκότων.
The gaps, as it were, between the branches were filled in again from the root, and these too grew in another way; and the tips of the branches were affected by them too, so that one thinks the affection comes only from what is near. But at the level of the principle, again, one part was affected and another acted, and the principle itself was dependent too. For the things that act on one another, coming from far off, are different, but from the beginning they come from the same source—as if brothers, who had grown alike since they started from the same parents, were to do something to one another.