Ch. 16
Of Providence.
Do not wonder if for other animals than man all things
are provided for the body, not only food and drink, but beds
also, and they have no need of shoes nor bed materials,
nor clothing; but we require all these additional things.
For animals not being made for themselves, but for service,
it was not fit for them to be made so as to need other
things. For consider what it would be for us to take care
not only of ourselves, but also about cattle and asses, how
they should be clothed, and how shod, and how they
should eat and drink. Now as soldiers are ready for their
commander, shod, clothed, and armed: but it would be
a hard thing for the chiliarch (tribune) to go round and
shoe or clothe his thousand men: so also nature has formed
the animals which are made for service, all ready, prepared, and requiring no further care. So one little boy
with only a stick drives the cattle.
But now we, instead of being thankful that we need
not take the same care of animals as of ourselves, complain
of God on our own account; and yet, in the name of Zeus
and the gods, any one thing of those which exist would
be enough to make a man perceive the providence of God,
at least a man who is modest and grateful. And speak
not to me now of the great things, but only of this, that
milk is produced from grass, and cheese from milk, and
wool form skins. Who made these things or devised
them? No one, you say. O amazing shamelessness and
stupidity!
Well, let us omit the works of nature, and contemplate
her smaller (subordinate, πάρεργα) acts. Is there anything
less useful than the hair on the chin? What then, has
not nature used this hair also in the most suitable manner
possible? Has she not by it distinguished the male and
the female? does not the nature of every man forthwith
proclaim from a distance, I am a man: as such approach
me, as such speak to me; look for nothing else; see the
signs? Again, in the case of women, as she has mingled
[p. 51]
something softer in the voice, so she has also deprived them
of hair (on the chin). You say, not so: the human animal
ought to have been left without marks of distinction, and
each of us should have been obliged to proclaim, I am a
man. But how is not the sign beautiful and becoming
and venerable? how much more beautiful than the cock's
comb, how much more becoming than the lion's mane?
For this reason we ought to preserve the signs which God
has given, we ought not to throw them away, nor to confound, as much as we can, the distinctions of the sexes.
Are these the only works of providence in us? And
what words are sufficient to praise them and set them forth
according to their worth? For if we had understanding,
ought we to do any thing else both jointly and severally
than to sing hymns and bless the deity, and to tell of
his benefits?102 Ought we not when we are digging and
ploughing and eating to sing this hymn to God? Great
is God, who has given us such implements with which we
shall cultivate the earth: great is God who has given us
hands, the power of swallowing, a stomach, imperceptible
growth, and the power of breathing while we sleep. This
is what we ought to sing on every occasion, and to sing the
greatest and most divine hymn for giving us the faculty
of comprehending these things and using a proper way.103
Well then, since most of you have become blind, ought there
not to be some man to fill this office, and on behalf of all to
sing104 the hymn to God? For what else can I do, a lame
old man, than sing hymns to God? If then I was a nightingale, I would do the part of a nightingale. if I were
a swan, I would do like a swan. But now I am a rational
creature, and I ought to praise God: this is my work; I
do it, nor will I desert this post, so long as I am allowed
to keep it; and I exhort you to join in this same song.
[p. 52]
