at this: worldly wisdom and divine differ as much from each other as truth and plausibility: the one is of heaven and the other of earth; and, indeed, according to the prince of matter,
"We know we oft speak lies that look like truths."[1]
Chap. xxv.—The poets and philosophers have denied a divine Providence.
These angels, then, who have fallen from heaven, and haunt the air and the earth, and are no longer able to rise to heavenly things, and the souls of the giants, which are the demons who wander about the world, perform actions similar, the one (that is, the demons) to the natures they have received, the other (that is, the angels) to the appetites they have indulged. But the prince of matter, as may be seen merely from what transpires, exercises a control and management contrary to the good that is in God:
"Ofttimes this anxious thought has crossed my mind,
Whether 'tis chance or deity that rules
The small affairs of men; and, spite of hope
As well as justice, drives to exile some
Stripped of all means of life, while others still
Continue to enjoy prosperity."[2]
Prosperity and adversity, contrary to hope and justice, made it impossible for Euripides to say to whom belongs the administration of earthly affairs, which is of such a kind that one might say of it:
"How then, while seeing these things, can we say
There is a race of gods, or yield to laws?"[3]
The same thing led Aristotle to say that the things below the heaven are not under the care of Providence, although the eternal providence of God concerns itself equally with us below—
"The earth, let willingness move her or not,
Must herbs produce, and thus sustain my flocks"[4]—
