4. If man were simple--that is, if he were no more than what he had
been created, and if all his actions and passions derived from the
same principle--we would no more exercise our reason to complain for
his behoof than we have to complain for that of other animals. But
we do have something to blame in the man, and that in the perverted
man. We have good grounds for this blame, because man is not only that
which he was created, but has, besides, another principle which is
free (intelligence, with reason). This free principle, however, is not
outside of Providence, and the Reason of the universe, any more than
it would be reasonable to suppose that the things above depended on
the things here below. On the contrary, it is superior things which
shed their radiance on inferior ones, and this is the cause of the
perfection of Providence. As to the Reason of the universe, it itself
is double also; one produces things, while the other unites generated
things to intelligible ones. Thus are constituted two providences: a
superior one, from above (intellectual Reason, the principal power of
the soul[84]), and an inferior one, the (natural and generative power,
called) reason, which derives from the first; and from both results the
concatenation of things, and universal Providence (or, Providence, and
destiny).
MEN'S BETTER NATURE IS NOT DOMINANT BECAUSE OF THEIR SUB-CONSCIOUS
NATURE.
Men (therefore, not being only what they were made) possess another
principle (free intelligence with reason); but not all make use of
all the principles they possess; some make use of the one principle
(their intelligence), while others make use of the other (principle
of reason), or even of the lower principle (of imagination and
sensation).[85] All these principles are present in the man, even
when they do not react on him; and even in this case, they are not
inert; each fulfils its peculiar office; only they do not all act
simultaneously upon him (or, are not perceived by his consciousness).
It may seem difficult to understand how this may be the case with all
of them present, and it might seem easier to consider them absent;
but they are present in us, in the sense that we lack none of them;
although we might consider them absent in the sense that a principle
that does not react on a man might be considered absent from him. It
might be asked why these principles do not react on all men, since
they are part of them? We might, referring chiefly to this (free,
intelligent, reasonable) principle, say that first, it does not belong
to animals; second, it is not even (practiced) by all men. If it be not
present in all men, so much the more is it not alone in them, because
the being in whom this principle alone is present lives according to
this principle, and lives according to other principles only so far as
he is compelled by necessity. The cause (which hinders intelligence
and reason from dominating us) will have to be sought in the (Stoic)
substrate of the man, either because our corporeal constitution
troubles the superior principle (of reason and intelligence), or
because of the predominance of our passions.
(After all), we have not yet reached any conclusion, because this
substrate of man is composed of two elements: the ("seminal)
reason,"[86] and matter; (and either of them might be the cause). At
first blush, it would seem that the cause (of the predominance of our
lower natures) must be sought in matter, rather than in the ("seminal)
reason"; and that which dominates in us is not ("seminal) reason," but
matter and organized substrate. This, however, is not the case. What
plays the part of substrate in respect of the superior principle (of
free intelligence and reason), is both the ("seminal) reason," and that
which is generated thereby, conforming to that reason; consequently,
the predominant element in us is not matter, any more than our
corporeal constitution.