On Divine Providence 1 part 4/11

And the tongue, the first instrument of speech, lies idle, while the right hand serves speech, and, wielding the reed-pen, engraves upon the paper the conversation meant for a friend;

and the vehicle of speech becomes no longer the tongue and mouth, but the hand, which has trained itself in this art over time, and has precisely learned the composition of the letters.

For this reason the Maker fashioned for us hands of such a kind, divided into five fingers, and set the thumb opposite the other four.

For it was not possible, with the fingers arranged evenly in a row, for every kind of activity to be performed.

But now, with the thumb set opposite the others, we hold quite easily a stylus, a mattock, a two-pronged hoe, a saw, an adze, a hammer, fire-tongs, and every instrument belonging to any craft.

Having thus considered, through this discourse, how great a providence you have enjoyed in your creation, how many arts and sciences he has bestowed on you not only for living, but also for living well, employing great generosity in caring for you, how great an abundance of good things he has granted you, so that he might, through the benefits arising from the arts, make your life pleasant to you, and that he has contrived that not only what is needful, but even what exceeds need, should flow to you from every side—cast off the ingratitude of your tongue, teach it to speak words of praise, submit yourself to the Lord, and entreat him.

Learn to cry out with the Prophet:

"Your knowledge has become wonderful beyond me; it has grown too strong for me, I shall not be able to attain it. To him be the glory, now and always, and unto the ages."

A Demonstration from the Subjection of the Irrational Animals

How great is the care of the Maker of all things for our nature, you indeed know clearly, O friends and companions, and you have no need of instruction in words.

For, continually receiving from thence the fountains of his benefactions, you offer, to the utmost of your power, the hymn to your Provider.

But since some, afflicted with great insensibility, do not perceive the divine gifts, but, luxuriating in god-given blessings, belch forth ungrateful words against their Maker, our discourse has of necessity, having traversed creation with great swiftness, and having brought human nature into the midst, shown in each part, both of creation and of our nature, the providence of God shining forth most plainly.

and it has made plain the wisdom, together with the usefulness, of a few arts of which the human mind became the discoverer.

But those arts discovered for the sake of ambition and luxury—I mean painting, and modeling, statuary and goldsmithing, cookery, and the inventions of countless kinds of pastries—it has willingly passed over;

and besides these, also the meddlesome pursuits that exceed due measure—I mean astronomy, and geometry, arithmetic, and music, whose function is to charm the hearing and to carry the soul away, and to change the dispositions of the soul to whatever it wishes, relaxing the despondent soul into good cheer, and rendering the relaxed soul taut and courageous;

these and such as these our discourse has willingly omitted, both avoiding excessive length, and taking care for brevity, and leaving the examination of each craft to the understanding of the hearers.

For it is easy, from what has been said, to draw the starting-points for understanding what has been omitted.

But perhaps those who do not know how to praise the Benefactor, but have learned instead to slander him, might say that the Maker did not bestow the discovery of the arts on human nature alone;

for one can see even the smallest race of winged creatures, the bees, choosing a political and communal life, and, on account of their weakness, armed with a sting, departing from the hives by turns and in order, traversing the air, flying about groves and meadows and cornfields, settling upon flowers, and leaves, and fruits, gathering what is downy and useful, loading themselves, and placing their loads upon their bent limbs and upon their neck, and thus returning to the hives;

then building the honeycombs, needing neither ruler nor plumb-line, and forming angles equal to one another surpassing all skill in geometry, and constructing the fabric of the walls, and the partitions of the honey, exceedingly fine, like fine linen and membrane, and containing the moist substance of the honey very securely with these thin and numerous partitions, and then thus filling the cells with the sweet streams of honey.

"What such thing," they say, "has human nature contrived—divided as it is into pupils and teachers, and achieving its craft only with much labor and time—as the industrious and beauty-loving race of bees, which is not divided into teachers and pupils, nor taught its craft by straps and rods, but possesses by nature, self-taught, this astonishing workmanship; it weaves the honeycombs, and fills the cells, needing neither measures, nor compasses, nor angles? And it fills the cells, not by pressing out grapes, nor by damaging any other fruit, but by drawing up the fine essence of the dew, and skillfully fashioning the substance of honey."

Come, then, let us weave our defense out of the very accusation itself;

for it will indeed be resolved most readily by itself.

For the bees offer to human nature that great and skillfully-wrought labor, and the best and sweetest fruit of that labor;

and, like certain household servants compelled by the law of servitude, they go out from their dwellings, and gather what is needful, and continue bearing burdens, and build diligently, and, pouring in the streams of honey, set upon them seals and stamps as upon some treasure, and continually supply to men, as to kings, a kind of tribute and tax.

Why then, O wretched man, do you slander—and, while enjoying the tribute, blaspheme the collector of the tribute, and, while luxuriating in the labors of others, shoot down with ungrateful words the one who supplied them? For you not only reap the fruits of their industriousness, but you also harvest from this another benefit.

For first you learn how many good things concord procures, and how great fruits it happens to produce.

For the swarms of bees imitate a civic life;

among them nothing is private property, but wealth is common, possession undivided.

for they do not wrong one another, nor do they desire more than their share, but are steadfastly devoted to labor alone;

wherefore they also drive the drones out beyond the gates, as ones who will not endure labor, but idly consume the labor of others.

They hate the rule of many, and democracy;

they have one ruler, and it is dear to them to obey him.

And each of these things they either do or undergo, not by hearkening to speeches, nor by reading laws, nor by attending upon teachers;

for among them none is wiser than another, nor does the elder know more than the younger;

but all alike pursue each of the things mentioned, not by rational knowledge, but having received in their nature, from the Maker of all things, that industrious and beauty-loving workmanship.

But for you, each of these things is a ground for benefit.

For you, the rational one, learn from the irrational creatures to abhor the idle life as harmful, and eagerly to pursue the labors of virtue, and to gather its possession from every source;

not in the least to seek an authority that does not belong to one, but rightly and justly to manage what one has acquired, to consider possessions common, and to set before those in need the enjoyment of these.

For to those who think rightly, and who preserve the character of nature unimpaired, the innate reason suffices for instruction; but to those who corrupt it, and who have chosen a beastly life—the rapacious and carnivorous one—the well-ordered polity of the irrational creatures stands forth as a true rebuke.

Providing therefore for your benefit, the Creator has adorned the races of the irrational creatures with certain natural advantages, so that you might reap benefit from this source as well.

And Solomon is witness to this, exhorting you and saying:

"Go to the ant, O sluggard, and emulate its ways." Or, "Go to the bee, and learn how it is a worker, and how dignified a work it performs;"

whose labors both kings and private citizens partake of for the sake of health.

And the God of all things Himself also bears witness, saying through the Prophet:

"The turtledove and the cicada and the swallow, sparrows of the field, have known the seasons of their comings;"

"but my people has not known the judgments of the Lord." And again through Isaiah:

"The ox has known its owner, and the donkey its master's manger;

but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me." The natural advantages of the irrational creatures, therefore, stand as an accusation against those who have been honored with reason.

For this reason the Prophet, lamenting and bewailing in tragic tones mankind's fall into irrationality, cried out:

But just as they have imposed the names of wild beasts upon wicked characters, so too have they assigned to simple and guileless souls the names taken from praiseworthy animals.

For it is possible to find them calling a soul adorned with simplicity of faith "dove" and "turtledove";

with this appellation the Bridegroom also addresses the Church in the mystical book of the Song of Songs, and he names "sheep" those souls that are obedient and that love the Shepherd.

"For my sheep," he says, "hear my voice, and I know my own, and I am known by my own." And again:

"I am the good shepherd;

the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." And elsewhere:

"He will set the lambs on the right, but the goats on the left." And again, in the sacred Gospels, he named "eagles" those who fly high, who are released from earthly things, who possess a pure eye of the soul, and who long for the mystical body;

speaking of the time of the resurrection when the saints are caught up into the heavens, he went on to say:

"Wherever the corpse is, there will the eagles be gathered together." It is evident, then, from what has been said, that for our sake the Creator has given and distributed certain natural advantages both to the bees and to all the other irrational creatures, so that we might gather benefit from every side.

At once, then, we reap another gain from the bees as well:

but rather to know the Creator, and to attribute to Him the causes of these good things.

But so that we might not be troubled and vexed, as though sharing the craft with them and differing in nothing from irrational creatures, the Creator has given to us the fruit of the bee's laborious craft;

so that at once He might humble our proud neck by this sharing of the craft, and, having beguiled us by the servitude of our associates, He might remove what causes distress.

Why then, O man, are you pained at seeing the bees practicing their craft? For their labor is your fruit;

and they labor, while you enjoy the luxury that comes from their labors.

And into the spider, too, the Creator has instilled the craft of those fine and invisible threads, in order to teach you how one must hunt the races of birds.

For that creature weaves its snares, not having been taught the craft by reason, but having nature as its teacher.

But you, having reason dwelling within, and beholding the example set before you, have devised countless kinds of nets.

And that tiniest little creature checks your conceit and arrogance, having furnished you the use of the example, though itself without reason.

And again the variety of your snares delights you;

for the archetype is one, but the imitations are countless.

For birds you have devised certain cloud-like and airy snares, and fixing these in wide-spreading regions, by the resemblance of the snares to the air you steal away the perception of the birds.

And you take as a helper for the hunt the fear caused by pursuit;

for the hunted birds, being driven out and pressed from here and there into the snares, being terrified of their pursuers, are unable to see clearly what lies ahead;

then, flying into the nets that are invisibly stretched, they fall into the snares.

And by suspending these nets in the air, you hunt the birds.

Other devices, again more concealed than these, have been contrived by you for the same hunting of these creatures: you spread nets upon the ground, and digging a pit, you fill it with water, and you set tame birds by the nets, so that by sight and by voice they may draw in their kindred.

Then, since the water is visible, and the bird is calling out and visible, the wild birds fly down, and you, employing your craft, put them within the nets.

Yet another device has again been discovered by you for the hunting of four-footed animals.

For cords, and foot-traps, and leg-snares hunt deer;

and nets hunt wild boars, and gazelles, and hares;

and pits, and such devices, hunt the fiercest of wild beasts.

The nature of birds and land-animals was not enough for your hunting, but you have already dared even against the creatures of the sea; and having constructed weels, and universal nets, and casting-nets, and drag-nets, and all such things, you catch the swimming nature, and by your craft you bring what dwells beneath the water up into the air, and you hunt the nurslings of the waters, and being a land-dweller, you bring up to yourself those whose dwelling is in the deep;

and the countless races of fish lie before you for your enjoyment, the art of fishing providing you their use.

Do not, then, be vexed at seeing the spider weaving its fine threads;

having prevailed by wisdom, and having compelled the swimming and submerged nature to yield to your devices, and the races of land-creatures to obey your laws.

Do not, then, be vexed as one deprived of wings;

for you have received a wisdom that makes the winged nature subject to your hand.

And you also have a mind swifter than all winged creatures—or rather, swifter even than the winds themselves;

for wherever it inclines, there it comes to be at once;

and though confined in the body, and bound to the earth, it roams around the heaven and the beauties in heaven, and it transcends the heaven, and imagines the things above it, and it travels around the inhabited world, and it associates with countless nations, and it converses with friends who are far away.

Why then does the lack of visible wings pain and vex you, when you possess such intelligible wings, which so easily surpass those of winged creatures? You do not have a winged body, but you hunt the air-traveling birds by wisdom;

and using this as a helper, you lead under the yoke the bull, armed with strength and horns, and you compel it to serve, and you subject it to unceasing labors: to cut the field, to drag the wagon, to transport what is impossible for the pack-bearing animals to carry, to convey materials for builders.

And you command, and it submits to the yoke, and endures the yoke-strap, and forgets the use of its horns, and fears your voice, and does not recognize the difference in strength, but consents to serve a far weaker creature.

So much better than bodily strength is reason.

This reason commands the donkey, the mule, and the camel to bear burdens; and each of the aforementioned sits down when permitted, and rises when commanded, even while burdened with loads;

and worn out by long journeys, it endures what causes it pain, and obeys those who burden it, and it accepts the fodder that is offered, and though pressed by hunger, it does not cry out against its owners.

For it has learned from nature what the boundary of servitude is.

But you leap about, and play the tyrant, and flee the yoke like an unbroken calf, and you do not endure the reins, but breaking them, you run away, and are carried down over the cliffs, and you drag down with you your innate charioteer.

But as many as have loved this good servitude, and have been wounded warmly and nobly by love for the Master, have drawn much benefit even from the irrational creatures.

"I became like a beast before you, yet I am continually with you." For, he says, like a beast of burden I follow you as you lead, not being curious about what road you are leading me on, nor inquiring closely whether it be short or long or laborious, nor am I vexed at its narrowness, its steepness, or its being surrounded by cliffs;

for I have persuaded myself that, since you are good, you will guide me well.

For this reason, in all other matters I am one who examines and reasons, and I know how to judge what is fitting, and I know clearly how to flee what causes pain;

but when you are leading, having bidden farewell to that reasoning faculty, I imitate the obedience of the beast of burden, and though rational in other matters, I become like a beast before you,

since I follow your footsteps, and obey the rein, and am led as you lead, whether you guide me through smooth ground or through rough, through narrow ways or through broad.

For I have confidence in your wisdom, I trust in your goodness.

For I know that whatever you yourself should will is in truth good and beautiful.

Those who know how to profit gain such great benefit even from irrational nature.

these creatures He has made slaves to you.

He himself subjected to you the herds of horses; and taking the horse that is proud and spirited, and does not yet know how to bear a rider, you reshape it by your art, freeing it of its boldness, and stopping its friskings, and bending into a curve the neck stretched up on high, and making its face incline downward, and teaching it the rhythm of its gait, and the orderly change of its hooves, and swift running when needed, and you make the herd-animal tame to the hand, and persuade it to endure your voice and your hand.

He who is far superior to you in both strength and speed endures even your whips.

He bears your threats, and is afraid, and by what he does confesses his servitude.

This animal hunts together with you when you hunt, and fights alongside you when you make war, and charges against your adversaries with impetuous force.

And should you wish to flee, growing afraid he exchanges his boldness, and turns, and flees, and being borne along with speed, frees you from your pursuers.

And neither, when bidden to charge against the front of the battle-line, does he disobey, nor, when ordered to retreat, does he object;

but he knows one rule of safety, the law of his rider.

And why do I speak of the horse, the ass, and the camel? For already even the elephant, the greatest of land animals, is willing to obey you — he who is able with his trunk to tear up by the roots even the greatest of trees — and he does not reckon his strength, does not consider his might, does not regard the bulk of his body, which by its size resembles certain hills;

but he submits to your mastery.

And you, seated, give the command (for by "you" I mean human nature), and he does what is commanded;

and even should he receive the fee for the spectacle from the onlookers, he holds it out to you, using his trunk as a kind of forceps.

This animal fights alongside you also in war, and receiving many archers on his back, provides them, as it were from a tower, a place from which to shoot the enemy; and advancing against the battle-lines, he terrifies them and easily breaks them, and scatters the hoplites.

Do not, then, be aggrieved at having a small body, but consider how great the animals are that endure to be enslaved to it, and eagerly praise the One who subjected them, and for this very reason confess your gratitude to the Maker.

For, providing for the salvation of your soul, He has not clothed you with an exceedingly great body, lest, having the advantage in both respects, you fall into diabolical arrogance.

For if, though your body is small, you rage and rave madly against your Creator, what would you not have done, had you also received that great size? But as it is, your smallness teaches you to be sober-minded, and to acknowledge your Maker;

while the gift of reason consoles you for the smallness of your body;

for through this you lead and drive the nature of irrational animals — the flocks of sheep, the herds of goats, the droves of swine, the herds of horses, the wandering camels bearing burdens, the mixed nature of birds and mules.

And some of these are set before you for feasting, and make your table sumptuous, and procure for you luxury of every kind, and supply you with materials for garments of all sorts;

while others carry grain, and transport wood, and convey the necessities of other needs.

Of dogs, some hunt together with you, others help to shepherd, and others become guardians of the house;

and the shepherds, trusting in their watchfulness, obtain their share of sleep;

having these as fellow-workers, a few shepherds are able to tend many sheep;

for they endure to face danger first, not only for their masters, but also for the sheep, and they fight on behalf of the shepherds, and contend eagerly against wolves, and even when wounded do not consent to flee ignobly, but by their barking call the shepherds to their aid.

And the dog does these things, not having reason as his teacher, but being endowed with a certain natural superiority.

This dog, when bidden by the huntsman to track the game, takes hold of the scents, and following these accurately as though certain tracks, does not desist before he finds the quarry;

but keeps it unharmed for the one who sent him, and, though enslaved to irrationality, he recognizes his master's ownership, and does not presume to share the quarry with the one who owns it.

And should he come upon a larger beast, one exceeding his own strength, such as a wild boar, or a bear, or something of that kind, he guards against the assault of its tusks, but fights vigorously;

and continually shifting to its flanks, he tries to hold the quarry securely, and by his violent struggle does not allow it to flee;

for by his continual assault, forcing the beast continually to turn about, he makes it stay in place, and wait for the hunter.

Then that man, coming up and using the weapons of his craft as helpers, takes the prey quite readily and easily.

And let none of those quick to raise objections bring forward here rabid dogs, and kicking asses, and biting camels, and butting bulls;

for out of many, few fall into these vices, and that only under great necessity;

for by this you come to know that their nature is not subjected to you by spontaneity, but by obedience to the nods of the Maker.

And those that rebel against your rule bear witness to this — the biting camel, and the goring bull, and all such creatures.

For all would likewise have escaped your mastery, had not the divine law prevented it.

For this reason the Maker also created the wild beasts and the races of reptiles, so that He might train your youthful boldness toward virtue, and, by fear of the beasts, bring you into need of divine assistance.

For dread of them, lying upon you and continually pricking and goading you, rouses you to prayer, and compels you to call your helper to your aid.

And being bidden by need to ask for help, you are eager to attend upon Him who is able to defend you;

you are compelled to wait constantly upon Him, so that you may escape the harm of those who plot against you.

For you look up, and seek your guardian, longing for release from what afflicts you.

And this fear becomes for you a guide leading to God.

But so that you might not, being continually struck by this fear, live a painful life, He has settled these creatures far away from you.

For the nature of venomous creatures He has hidden away in certain holes, and made them dwell in burrows beneath the earth, not permitting them to go boldly against men, but ordaining that they should always hide and appear only seldom, and, when they do appear, that they should flee the sight of men as of their masters, and that they should harm very few, and rarely, not initiating the conflict, but defending themselves.

For indeed we would not have feared them at all, had our nature remained wholly without any experience of them.

And the races of four-footed wild beasts the Guardian of the universe has ordained to dwell in thickets, and rugged places, and cavernous regions, wholly deserted by men;

and He has assigned to them the night as the time for their foraging.

"For you appointed," it says, "darkness, and it became night;"

"in it all the beasts of the forest roam about."

"The young lions roar to seize their prey, and to seek their food from God."

"The sun rose, and they were gathered together, and shall lie down in their dens."

"Man will go forth to his work, and to his labor, until evening." Then the Prophet, marveling at the divine dispensation, cries out:

"How great are your works, O Lord!"

"You made them all in wisdom." And that, after the entrance of sin, these creatures too renounced the mastery of men — though formerly they had been subject to it, and knew servitude — Adam, the forefather of the race, bears witness: he who gave names to all of them, and neither feared, nor fled, nor received any harm from them.

He, having become the shepherd of the most savage creatures in the ark, and for a whole year having pastured these together with those in the same place, compelled the flesh-eaters to feed on plants.

And the number of the clean animals, preserved safe and complete, bears witness to this as well.

For since they saw, in that image, the archetype's likeness preserved wholly pure and intact, they confessed their servitude, and laid aside their savagery, and supposed they were beholding that Adam who, before sin, gave them their names.

Thus also, when the blessed Paul was offering a bundle of sticks as fuel to the fire, and tempering the chill of the air with the fire's help, the viper hidden among the sticks fled the fire as deadly, but fastened upon the apostle's hand, as though defending itself in advance for what it was about to suffer;

but not finding the slackness and yielding of sin, but rather the impenetrable and unbreakable armor of virtue, it sprang off at once, like a dart hurled against a resistant surface and rebounding again toward the one who cast it, and made its way down into the fire, as though exacting from itself the penalty for its rashness, because it had vented its fury against a master's hand.

The races of wild beasts, then, are like straps and rods and the disciplines of a tutor.

These are, to those already made perfect and who have passed beyond childish age, quite easily disregarded;

but to those still infants in mind they are exceedingly necessary and useful.

And just as, according to the divine Apostle, law is not laid down for the righteous, but for the lawless and insubordinate, the impious and sinners, the unholy and profane, those who strike their fathers, and such as these;

so too the nature of wild beasts is set before mankind as a kind of discipline, terrifying and frightening those inclined toward sin, while by those nurtured in virtue it is despised as a mere children's game.

So then, my friend, having from this discovered God's care, and having learned His providence of every kind, cease your slandering, and repay your Benefactor with hymns.

For how is it not absurd to praise the schoolmaster when he whips the boys at the proper time, and drives out laziness with the rod, and by the strap implants a firm memory of their letters, and to acknowledge gratitude to the physician not only when he offers food and drink to the sick man, but when he cuts and cauterizes, and wars against the disease, and restrains its further advance;