14. The order of the universe conforms to divine Intelligence without
implying that on that account its author needed to go through the
process of reasoning. Nevertheless, this order is so perfect that he
who best knows how to reason would be astonished to see that even with
reasoning one could not discover a plan wiser than that discovered as
realized in particular natures, and that this plan better conforms to
the laws of Intelligence than any that could result from reasoning.
It can never, therefore, be proper to find fault with the Reason
that produces all things because of any (alleged imperfections) of
any natural object, nor to claim, for the beings whose existence has
begun, the perfection of the beings whose existence had no beginning,
and which are eternal, both in the intelligible World, and in this
sense-world. That would amount to wishing that every being should
possess more good than it can carry, and to consider as insufficient
the form it received. It would, for instance, amount to complaining,
that man does not bear horns, and to fail to notice that, if Reason had
to spread abroad everywhere, it was still necessary for something great
to contain something less, that in everything there should be parts,
and that these could not equal the whole without ceasing to be parts.
In the intelligible World every thing is all; but here below each thing
is not all things. The individual man does not have the same properties
as the universal Man. For if the individual beings had something which
was not individual, then they would be universal. We should not expect
an individual being as such to possess the highest perfection; for
then it would no longer be an individual being. Doubtless, the beauty
of the part is not incompatible with that of the whole; for the more
beautiful a part is, the more does it embellish the whole. Now the part
becomes more beautiful on becoming similar to the whole, or imitating
its essence, and in conforming to its order. Thus a ray (of the supreme
Intelligence) descends here below upon man, and shines in him like a
star in the divine sky. To imagine the universe, one should imagine a
colossal statue[79] that were perfectly beautiful, animated or formed
by the art of Vulcan, whose ears, face and breast would be adorned with
shimmering stars disposed with marvelous skill.[62]