XXI. Thus it frequently happens, that men think in one manner, and God
operates in another. Men suppose, and they suppose right, that the works
of God are all executed with order, and in proportion; but although they
suppose well, they reason ill; because they think there is no other
order and proportion, than that which comes within the reach of their
comprehension. The works of God, it is true are wrought with proportion;
but with a sublime proportion, which is much superior to our rules. It is
blind temerity in man, to imagine that God in his works, is to conform
himself to our human gross ideas of proportions.
XXII. It was a confidence in such proportions, that caused Pythagoras to
err egregiously in his dimensions of the magnitude, and his calculation
of the distance of the heavens, which he thought to compute, by the
numerical series of the intervals of music. And others were not much
wiser than Pythagoras, who by fancying they had found some special
perfection in the number four, chose to stamp it on, and regulate all the
operations of nature by it. From hence came the four elements, the four
first qualities, the four cardinal points of the globe, the four quarters
of the year, and the four humours of the body.