11. The world is administered like a living being, namely, partly from
the outside, and from the resulting members, and partly from within,
and from the principle. The art of the physician works from outside
in, deciding which organ is at fault, operating only with hesitation
and after groping around experimentally. Nature, however, starting
within from the principle, has no need to deliberate. The power which
administers the universe proceeds not like the physician, but like
nature. It preserves its simplicity so much the better as it comprises
everything in its breast, inasmuch as all things are parts of the
living being which is one. Indeed, nature, which is unitary, dominates
all individual natures; these proceed from it, but remain attached
thereto, like branches of an immense tree, which is the universe.
What would be the utility of reasoning, calculation, and memory in a
principle that possesses an ever present and active wisdom, and which,
by this wisdom, dominates the world and administers it in an immutable
manner? That its works are varied and changeful, does not imply that
this principle must itself participate in their mutability. It remains
immutable even while producing different things. Are not several
stages produced successively in each animal, according to its various
ages? Are not certain parts born and increased at determinate periods,
such as the horns, the beard, and the breasts? Does one not see each
being begetting others? Thus, without the degeneration of the earlier
("seminal) reasons," others develop in their turn. This is proved by
the ("seminal) reason" subsisting identical and entire within the same
living being.