Wherefore, it is clear that they attain their end not by chance, but by intuition. Now, those things that are without cognition tend to an end in so far only as they are directed by a cognitive and intelligent being. . . . Therefore, there is a being that orders all things in nature with a view to their end. This being is God."
Order may be defined as a due disposition of things to an end. St. Thomas distinguishes two kinds: "The relation of one created entity to another, as parts to the whole, accidents to substance, and everything to its end ; the other the respect of all creatures to God" (Sum. th., I, q. 21, a. 4). The source and origin of the admirable order of the universe is Divine Providence. For, to quote the words of the Angelic Doctor: "Wherever things are ordered to an end, they are all subject to the disposition of him to whom that end principally appertains, as appears in an army; for all the parts of an army and their workings are directed to the good of the general as to an ultimate end, to victory namely; and therefore does it belong to the general to command the whole army. So, also, any art which is concerned with an end, directs and gives laws to that which has to do with means to that end; as, for instance, civil to military rule, and military to the equestrian art, and the art of navigation to that of shipbuilding. Therefore, since all things are ordered with respect to divine goodness as their end, . . . it is fitting that God, to whom that goodness as possessed and known and loved substantially, principally appertains, should be the rule of all things" (Contra gentiles', III, 64). St. Thomas then proceeds to examine more minutely the nature of divine Providence. He shows that it preserves creatures in their being; that nothing can give being except in so far as it acts in virtue of divine power; that, therefore, God is the first cause of action in creatures, and that He is everywhere. Yet divine Providence excludes neither evil nor contingency in creatures, neither free will nor chance and fortune, rightly understood. The decrees of divine Providence are executed by second causes.
The harmony reigning throughout the universe results from
