These are the second causes which God used as his ministers in
fashioning the world. They are thought by many to be the prime
causes, but they are not so; for they are destitute of mind and
reason, and the lover of mind will not allow that there are any
prime causes other than the rational and invisible ones—these he
investigates first, and afterwards the causes of things which are
moved by others, and which work by chance and without order. Of
the second or concurrent causes of sight I have already spoken,
and I will now speak of the higher purpose of God in giving us
eyes. Sight is the source of the greatest benefits to us; for if
our eyes had never seen the sun, stars, and heavens, the words
which we have spoken would not have been uttered. The sight of
them and their revolutions has given us the knowledge of number
and time, the power of enquiry, and philosophy, which is the
great blessing of human life; not to speak of the lesser benefits
which even the vulgar can appreciate. God gave us the faculty of
sight that we might behold the order of the heavens and create a
corresponding order in our own erring minds. To the like end the
gifts of speech and hearing were bestowed upon us; not for the
sake of irrational pleasure, but in order that we might harmonize
the courses of the soul by sympathy with the harmony of sound,
and cure ourselves of our irregular and graceless ways.
Thus far we have spoken of the works of mind; and there are other
works done from necessity, which we must now place beside them;
for the creation is made up of both, mind persuading necessity as
far as possible to work out good. Before the heavens there
existed fire, air, water, earth, which we suppose men to know,
though no one has explained their nature, and we erroneously
maintain them to be the letters or elements of the whole,
although they cannot reasonably be compared even to syllables or
first compounds. I am not now speaking of the first principles of
things, because I cannot discover them by our present mode of
enquiry. But as I observed the rule of probability at first, I
will begin anew, seeking by the grace of God to observe it still.