Chapter 5
A wise Goodness disposes the Fate of Mankind; therefore there is no nobler Merit, no purer and more durable Happiness, than to cooperate in its Designs
The sensual contemplator of history, who in it has lost sight of God, and begun to doubt of Providence, has fallen into this misfortune, from having taken too superficial a view of his subject, or from having had no just conception of Providence. If he have considered Providence as an apparition, that was to meet him at every turn, and continually interrupt the course of human actions, to accomplish this or that particular object of his will and fancy; I confess history is the grave of such a Providence, but certainly to the advantage of truth. For what kind of a Providence must it be, that everyone could employ as a hobgoblin in the order of things, as the agent of his narrow designs, as the ally of his pitiful follies; so that the whole would ultimately remain without a master! The God, whom I seek in history, must be the same as in nature: for a man is but a small part of the whole; and his history, like that of the grub, is intimately interwoven with that of the web he inhabits. In it, therefore, natural laws must prevail, that are inherent in the essence of things; and with which the deity is so far from being able to dispense, that he reveals himself in his supreme power, with invariable wisdom, goodness, and beauty, even in those which himself has founded. Everything, that can take place upon Earth, must take place upon it, provided it happens according to rules that carry their perfection within themselves. Let us repeat these rules, which we have already developed, as far as they regard the history of mankind: they all bear in themselves the stamp of wise goodness, of exalted beauty, and even of intrinsic necessity.
1. Everything that can live on our Earth lives upon it: for every organization carries in its essence a union of various powers, which limit each other, and thus limited are capable of attaining in themselves a maximum of durability. Could they not attain this, the powers would separate, and form unions of a different kind.
2. Among these organized bodies man arose, the crown of the terrestrial creation. Innumerable powers united in him, and attained a maximum, the understanding; as their material parts, the human body, did also, in the center of gravity, according to laws of the most beautiful symmetry and order. Thus in the character of man were given the basis of his duration and happiness, the stamp of his destination, and the whole course of his earthly fate.
3. This character of man is termed intelligence: for it understands the language of God in the creation, that is, it seeks the rule of order, according to which things are founded connectedly on their essences. Thus its intrinsic law is the perception of existence and truth; the connection of creatures according to their relations and qualities. It is an image of the deity: for it investigates the laws of nature, the ideas in conformity to which the Creator connected them, and which he made essential to them. Reason, therefore, can no more act arbitrarily, than God himself has thought at random.
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