6. Is it not unreasonable to assert that Mars, or Venus, in a certain
position, should produce adulteries? Such a statement attributes to
them incontinence such as occurs only among man, and human passion
to satisfy unworthy impulses. Or again, how could we believe that
the aspects of planets is favorable when they regard each other in
a certain manner? How can we avoid believing that their nature is
determinate? What sort of an existence would be led by the planets
if they occupied themselves with each single one of the innumerable
ever-arising and passing beings, giving them each glory, wealth,
poverty, or incontinence, and impelling all their actions? How could
the single planets effect so many simultaneous results? Nor is it any
more rational to suppose that the planets' actions await the ascensions
of the signs, nor to say that the ascension of a sign contains as many
years as there are degrees of ascension in it. Absurd also is the
theory that the planets calculate, as it were on their fingers, the
period of time when they are to accomplish something, which before was
forbidden. Besides, it is an error not to trace to a single principle
the government of the universe, attributing everything to the stars,
as if there were not a single Chief from which depends the universe,
and who distributes to every being a part and functions suitable to
its nature. To fail to recognize Him, is to destroy the order of
which we form a part, it is to ignore the nature of the world, which
presupposes a primary cause, a principle by whose activity everything
is interpenetrated.[211]
THE STARS ARE CHANGING SIGNS BETRAYING THE UNIVERSAL CONSPIRACY OF
PURPOSE.
7. In fact, we would still have to ask ourselves for the cause of the
events (in our world) even if the stars, like many other things, really
prognosticated future events. We would still have to wonder at the
maintenance of the order without which no events could be prefigured.
We might, therefore, liken the stars to letters, at every moment flung
along the heavens, and which, after having been displayed, continued
in ceaseless motion, so that, while exercising another function in
the universe, they would still possess significance.[212] Thus in
a being animated by a single principle it is possible to judge one
part by another; as it is possible, by the study of the eyes or some
other organ of an individual, to conclude as to his characters, to the
dangers to which he is exposed, and how he may escape them. Just as
our members are parts of our bodies, so are we ourselves parts of the
universe. Things, therefore, are made for each other. Everything is
significant, and the wise man can conclude from one thing to another.
Indeed many habitual occurrences are foreseen by men generally. In
the universe everything is reduced to a single system.[213] To this
co-ordination is due the possibility of birds furnishing us with omens,
and other animals furnishing us with presages. All things mutually
depend from each other. Everything conspires to a single purpose,[214]
not only in each individual, whose parts are perfectly related; but
also in the universe, and that in a higher degree, and far earlier.
This multiple being could be turned into a single universal Living
organism only by a single principle. As in the human body every organ
has its individual function, likewise in the universe each being plays
its individual part; so much the more that they not only form part
of the universe, but that they themselves also form universes not
without importance.[215] All things, therefore, proceed from a single
principle, each plays its individual part, and lends each other mutual
assistance. Neither are they separate from the universe, but they act
and react on each other, each assisting or hindering the other. But
their progress is not fortuitous, nor is it the result of chance. They
form a series, where each, by a natural bond, is the effect of the
preceding one, and the cause of the following one.[216]