6. If then (the bad things do not conform to Providence), the diviners
and astrologers predict evil things only by the concatenation which
occurs between contraries, between form and matter, for instance, in a
composite being. Thus in contemplating the form and ("seminal) reason"
one is really contemplating the being which receives the form; for one
does not contemplate in the same way the intelligible animal, and the
composite animal; what one contemplates in the composite animal is the
("seminal) reason" which gives form to what is inferior. Therefore,
since the world is an animal, when one contemplates its occurrences,
one is really contemplating the causes that make them arise, the
Providence which presides over them, and whose action extends in an
orderly manner to all beings and events; that is, to all animals, their
actions and dispositions, which are dominated by Reason and mingled
with necessity. We thus contemplate what has been mingled since the
beginning, and what is still continually mingled. In this mixture,
consequently, it is impossible to distinguish Providence from what
conforms thereto, nor what derives from the substrate (that is, from
matter, and which, consequently, is deformed, and evil). This is not
a human task, not even of a man who might be wise or divine; such a
privilege can be ascribed only to God.