Education for Life. George Turnbull
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to it.5 If that law were changed, the whole wonderful union of things would come crashing down as well as the cementing force of nature, so to speak, which favours the preservation of the world. All the planets below and above our world, so far as their structure is known to us,
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have been admirably constructed and located for essential purposes. We think too much of ourselves if we imagine that we deserve such great things to be set in motion for us. It looks as if the fabric of the world could have been organized far more economically if it had only been necessary to create things that served human purposes. But although a greater purpose than the preservation of mortal things is intended for the Sun, the Moon and the other heavenly phenomena, and although there is a greater benefit from their activities than this, even so a design for our benefit was also laid down from the beginning of things, and it appears from the order imposed upon the world that concern for us was not the least consideration.6
IV
As for the earth itself, its figure, firstly, seems to have been selected with excellent sense. Situated in the most favourable position in the world, it is seen to be solid and spherical and drawn in upon itself all around by its own inclinations.7 We also see that it is clothed and adorned with an infinite variety of things, for all of which nature has made excellent provision, and at the same time everything is organized for the maximum utility and benefit of the human race. No one who has had even a taste of Physics fails to see that all the arguments drawn from the unequal distribution of heat, eclipses of Moon and Sun, earthquakes and the sterility of waste lands, with which Ancient Atheists laboured to crush the belief about divine providence that is so deeply implanted by nature <6> in human minds, are trifling and ridiculous.8 It is also clear from many considerations that the seas too are essential to the composition of this earth, and that a smaller amount of water would not be adequate for essential purposes. But in truth how great is the beauty of the Sea! How pleasant are her shores and coasts! Nor will anyone still find fault with9 towering mountains and their terrifying
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ruggedness, once he has followed in his rambles, under the guidance of Physics, the cold and ever-flowing springs and the clear waters of the streams, and knows also how to appreciate the hidden veins of gold and silver and the infinite amount of usable rock. Who can enumerate all the useful properties of air? At one time, extended and thinned, it rises; at another time it thickens and gathers into clouds, and collecting moisture it fertilizes the earth with showers; and at another time again it spills out in all directions and gives rise to winds. It is also responsible for the annual alternations of cold and warmth; it sustains the flight of birds; and drawn in as Breath it nourishes and sustains living creatures. It is reasonable to put up with the disadvantages of a thing from which so many advantages come.
V
The lower animals belong to the class of natural things since they lack reason and all of their actions are done by instinct.10
If we look at them more closely (for it would be an endless task to speak of every thing on earth individually) how great is the variety of animals! And what a drive in each of them to persist in its kind; and the incredible multitude of them all is marked by inexhaustible variety. For all of them nature has provided, largely and plentifully, the food that is suitable for each. All those whose pleasure it is to make curious investigations into these things, as well as professional Anatomists, know well what a cunning and subtle division of parts there is in the bodies of each of them for capturing and consuming this food, and how cunning and subtle it is, and how admirable is the structure of their limbs. They are all formed and placed in such a way that none is redundant, none not essential for the maintenance of life. The pains that torment their lives arise either from Elements which it is normal for them to be subject to by nature, or from a natural concatenation of elements, the absence of which would empty the world of a great part of its riches and <7> beauty.
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VI
But no intelligence can devise laws that are to be perpetual and universal and yet do not involve some disadvantages. Therefore if anyone should prefer that nature operate haphazardly and that the world not be governed by a consistent and unchangeable order, let him be aware of what he wishes for. For without the consistency and perpetuity of laws there could assuredly be no charm in nature, no beauty.
What then remains for us but to conclude that the government of the world has nothing in it that can be faulted? For from the natures that were to be created, the best situation that could be brought into being has been brought into being. If anyone thinks otherwise, let him show that it could have been better. But no one ever will. And if anyone tries to amend anything, he will either make it worse or will long vainly for what could not be.11
“You see therefore the material (says Maximus of Tyre)12 with which the Supreme Artificer has to deal. If it receives any improvement, that must be wholly attributed to his art. But if certain things on earth that are not as well ordered as they should be betray anything unworthy of his art, beware of laying the blame on his artistry (for never does the design of an Artificer fail in point of skill any more than the design of a legislator fails in point of Justice), not to mention that the divine mind attains its end much more surely than human art. And in the mechanical arts the art itself produces certain effects directly as it seeks its own end, and certain effects unworthy of the art are unavoidable consequences of the work, and they necessarily arise from the work process but are not produced directly by the Craftsman himself. In the same manner in the case of those earthly ills which we say occur occasionally in human affairs, the art is to be acquitted of all blame, since they are no more than certain unavoidable states that are an integral part of the overall structure of the whole. For what we call evils and corruptions, which we lament, these the Craftsman calls the perfection of the
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whole. For he has 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