This power must be further defined to be the soul of the world, the
highest reason, a kind, beneficent, and philanthropic being; in short,
deity. The universal belief and the universal worship of God prove
this, as the Stoics think, beyond a doubt; [293] still more accurate
investigation confirms it. Matter can never move or fashion itself;
nothing but a power inherent as the soul is in man can produce these
results. [294] The world would not be the most perfect and complete
thing it is unless Reason were inherent therein; [295] nor could it
contain any beings possessed of consciousness, unless it were conscious
itself. [296] It could not produce creatures endowed with a soul and
reason, unless it were itself endowed with a soul and reason. [297]
Actions so far surpassing man’s power could not exist, unless there
were a cause for them in perfection equally surpassing man. [298] The
subordination of means to ends which governs the world in every part
down to the minutest details would be inexplicable, unless the world
owed its origin to a reasonable creator. [299] The graduated rank of
beings would be incomplete, unless there were a highest Being of all
whose moral and intellectual perfection cannot be surpassed. [300]
Although this perfection belongs, in the first place, to the world as a
whole, [301] nevertheless, as in everything consisting of many parts,
so in the world the ruling part must be distinguished from other parts.
It is the part from which all acting forces emanate and diffuse
themselves over the world, [302] whether the seat of this efficient
force be placed in the heaven, as was done by Zeno, Chrysippus, and the
majority of the Stoics; [303] or in the sun, as by Cleanthes; [304] or
in the centre of the world, as by Archedemus. [305] This primary source
of all life and motion, the highest Cause and the highest Reason, is
God. God, therefore, and formless matter, are the two ultimate grounds
of things. [306]
[(3) Deity.]
[(a) The conception of Deity more accurately defined.]
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