16
27. He makes a small digression on prayer (sub-sect. 4), saying that those who pray to God hope for some change in the order of nature; but it seems as though, according to his opinion, they are mistaken. In reality, men will be content if their prayers are heard, without troubling themselves as to whether the course of nature is changed in their favour, or not. Indeed, if they receive succour from good angels there will be no change in the general order of things. Also this opinion of our author is a very reasonable one, that there is a system of spiritual substances, just as there is of corporeal substances, and that the spiritual have communication with one another, even as bodies do. God employs the ministry of angels in his rule of mankind, without any detriment to the order of nature. Nevertheless, it is easier to put forward theories on these matters than to explain them, unless one have recourse to my system of Harmony. But the author goes somewhat further. He believes that the mission of the Holy Spirit was a great miracle in the beginning, but that now his operations within us are natural. I leave it to him to explain his opinion, and to settle the matter with other theologians. Yet I observe that he finds the natural efficacy of prayer in the power it has of making the soul better, of overcoming the passions, and of winning for oneself a certain degree of new grace. I can say almost the same things on my hypothesis, which represents the will as acting only in accordance with motives; and I am immune from the difficulties in which the author has become involved over his power of choosing without cause. He is in great embarrassment also with regard to the foreknowledge of God. For if the soul is perfectly indifferent in its choice how is it possible to foresee this choice? and what sufficient reason will one be able to find for the knowledge of a thing, if there is no reason for its existence? The author puts off to some other occasion the solution of this difficulty, which would require (according to him) an entire work. For the rest, he sometimes speaks pertinently, and in conformity with my principles, on the subject of moral evil. He says, for example (sub-sect. 6), that vices and crimes do not detract from the beauty of the universe, but rather add to it, just as certain dissonances would offend the ear by their harshness if they were heard quite alone, and yet in combination they render the harmony more pleasing. He also points out divers goods involved in evils, for instance, the usefulness of prodigality in the rich and avarice in the poor; indeed it serves to make the arts flourish. We must also bear in mind that we are not to judge the universe by the small size of our globe and of all that is known to us. For the stains and defects in it may be found as useful for enhancing the beauty of the rest as patches, which have nothing beautiful in themselves, are by the fair sex found adapted to embellish the whole face, although they disfigure the part they cover. Cotta, in Cicero’s book, had compared providence, in its granting of reason to men, to a physician who allows wine to a patient, notwithstanding that he foresees the misuse which will be made thereof by the patient, at the expense of his life. The author replies that providence does what wisdom and goodness require, and that the good which accrues is greater than the evil. If God had not given reason to man there would have been no man at all, and God would be like a physician who killed someone in order to prevent his falling ill. One may add that it is not reason which is harmful in itself, but the absence of reason; and when reason is ill employed we reason well about means, but not adequately about an end, or about that bad end we have proposed to ourselves. Thus it is always for lack of reason that one does an evil deed. The author also puts forward the objection made by Epicurus in the book by Lactantius on the wrath of God. The terms of the objection are more or less as follows. Either God wishes to banish evils and cannot contrive to do so, in which case he would be weak; or he can abolish them, and will not, which would be a sign of malignity in him; or again he lacks power and also will, which would make him appear both weak and jealous; or finally he can and will, but in this case it will be asked why he then does not banish evil, if he exists? The author replies that God cannot banish evil, that he does not wish to either, and that notwithstanding he is neither malicious nor weak. I should have preferred to say that he can banish evil, but that he does not wish to do so absolutely, and rightly so, because he would then banish good at the same time, and he would banish more good than evil. Finally our author, having finished his learned work, adds an Appendix, in which he speaks of the Divine Laws. He fittingly divides these laws into natural and positive. He observes that the particular laws of the nature of animals must give way to the general laws of bodies, that God is not in reality angered when his laws are violated, but that order demanded that he who sins should bring an evil upon himself, and that he who does violence to others should suffer violence in his turn. But he believes that the positive laws of God rather indicate and forecast the evil than cause its infliction. And that gives him occasion to speak of the eternal damnation of the wicked, which no longer serves either for correction or example, and which nevertheless satisfies the retributive justice of God, although the wicked bring their unhappiness upon themselves. He suspects, however, that these punishments of the wicked bring some advantage to virtuous people. He is doubtful also whether it is not better to be damned than to be nothing: for it might be that the damned are fools, capable of clinging to their state of misery owing to a certain perversity of mind which, he maintains, makes them congratulate themselves on their false judgements in the midst of their misery, and take pleasure in finding fault with the will of God. For every day one sees peevish, malicious, envious people who enjoy the thought of their ills, and seek to bring affliction upon themselves. These ideas are not worthy of contempt, and I have sometimes had the like myself, but I am far from passing final judgement on them. I related, in 271 of the essays written to oppose M. Bayle, the fable of the Devil’s refusal of the pardon a hermit offers him on God’s behalf. Baron André Taifel, an Austrian nobleman, Knight of the Court of Ferdinand Archduke of Austria who became the second emperor of that name, alluding to his name (which appears to mean Devil in German) assumed as his emblem a devil or satyr, with this Spanish motto, _Mas perdido, y menos arrepentido_, the more lost, the less repentant, which indicates a hopeless passion from which one cannot free oneself. This motto was afterwards repeated by the Spanish Count of Villamediana when he was said to be in love with the Queen. Coming to the question why evil often happens to the good and good to the wicked, our illustrious author thinks that it has been sufficiently answered, and that hardly any doubt remains on that point. He observes nevertheless that one may often doubt whether good people who endure affliction have not been made good by their very misfortune, and whether the fortunate wicked have not perhaps been spoilt by prosperity. He adds that we are often bad judges, when it is a question of recognizing not only a virtuous man, but also a happy man. One often honours a hypocrite, and one despises another whose solid virtue is without pretence. We are poor judges of happiness also, and often felicity is hidden from sight under the rags of a contented poor man, while it is sought in vain in the palaces of certain of the great. Finally the author observes, that the greatest felicity here on earth lies in the hope of future happiness, and thus it may be said that to the wicked nothing happens save what is of service for correction or chastisement, and to the good nothing save what ministers to their greater good. These conclusions entirely correspond to my opinion, and one can say nothing more appropriate for the conclusion of this work.
* * * * * CAUSA DEI ASSERTA PER JUSTITIAM EJUS _cum caeteris ejus perfectionibus cunctisque actionibus conciliatam._ The original edition of the Theodicy contained a fourth appendix under this title. It presented in scholastic Latin a formal summary of the positive doctrine expressed by the French treatise. It satisfied the academic requirements of its day, but would not, presumably, be of interest to many modern readers, and is consequently omitted here.
* * * * *
INDEX Abélard, 122, 232-4, 272
Abraham, 209 Adam, 222, 270-2, 346-7 Adam Kadmon, 133 Albius, Thomas, 122
Alcuin, 77 Alfonso, King of Castile, 247-8 Aloysius Novarinus, 191
Alrasi, 288
Alvarez, 149 Ambrose, St., 153, 194
Amyraut, 238
Anaxagoras, 353 Andradius, Jacques Payva, 176 Andreas Cisalpinus, 81 Angelus Silesius, Johann, 79
Annat, 344-5
Anselm, St., 77
Antipater, 232 Aquinas, Thomas, _see_ Thomas
Arcesilaus, 337
Archidemus, 232 Aristotelians, 27-8 Aristotle, 13, 76-8, 81, 148, 170, 195, 203, 229, 241, 243-4, 265, 269, 283, 304, 309-10, 324, 352, 353, 409 Arminius, _see_ Irminius Arminius (Jacob Harmensen), 383, 398 Arnauld, 67, 89, 225, 254, 260, 264-6, 351 Arriaga, 112, 356
Arrian, 232
Assassins, 284 Athanasius, St., 87 Augustine (of Hippo), St., 60, 100, 122, 134, 148, 166, 173, 187, 226, 274, 285, 294, 296-7, 300-3, 347, 352-3, 378, 384, 409, 412 ----, his disciples, 145, 297, 300, 324, 330, 348 Augustus (Emperor), 287 Aulus Gellius, 258-9, 325, 327 Aureolus, Cardinal, 139, 353 Averroes, Averroists, 77 ff.
Bacon, Francis, 306 BañEzekiel, 149 Barbaro, Ermolao, 170 Baron, Vincent, 121 Baronius, Robert, 84 Barton, Thomas, 122 Basil, St., 221, 352 Bayle, P., 34 ff. _et passim_ Becher, Johann Joachim, 334-5
Becker, 221
Bede, 77 Bellarmine, St. Robert, 107, 313, 323 Berigardus, Claudius, 81 Berkeley, Bp., 11 Bernard, St., 277 Bernier, 139, 353
Bertius, 227 de Bèze, Theodore, 274 _Birgitta, Revelations of St._, 173 Boethius, 76, 365-6 Bonartes, Thomas, 58, 121-2 Bonaventura, St., 294 des Bosses, Fr., 121, 389
Bossuet, 10 Bradwardine, Abp., 159, 176 Bramhall, Bp. John, 161, 393 Bredenburg, Johan, 349-50 Brunswick, Duke of, 8, 82 Buckingham, Duke of, 142 Buridan’s ass, 150, 311, 312 Burnet, Thomas, 278 Cabalists, 79, 133, 347 Caesar Cremoninus, 81 Cajetan, Cardinal, 100, 243 Calanus, 284, 434
Caligula, 227
Calixtus, 108
Calli, 359 Callimachus, 213
Calovius, 84 Calvin, 84-5, 101, 165, 222, 238, 240, 328
Cameron, 313
Campanella, 217 Capella, Martianus, 264 Cardan, Jerome, 282, 286 Carneades, 312, 320-1, 337 Caroli, Andreas, 227 Casaubon, Meric, 285
Caselius, 82
Cassiodorus, 76
[Page 446] Casuists, 194, 222, 241 Catharin, Ambrose, 173 Catherine de Medicis, 227
Cato, 263, 318
Celsus, 102-3
Chardin, 209 de la Charmoye, Abbé, 213 Chemnitz, Martin, 111, 176 Christine, Queen of Sweden, 96, 104 Chrysippus, 229-32, 258-9, 324-7 Cicero, 99, 194, 229-32, 241, 286, 297, 312, 321, 324-5, 342 Claudian, 132, 191, 215 Cleanthes, 233, 324 Coelius Secundus Curio, 134 Coimbra, Fathers of, 325
Colerus, 350 Conringius, 161, 422 Constance, Council of, 234 de la Cour, 350-1
Crellius, 161 Cudworth, Ralph, 64, 245 Cuper, Franz, 350 Cyrano de Bergerac, 331
Dacier, 337 Daillé, 70, 107 Davidius, John, 179 _De Auxiliis_, 168
Democritus, 324 Descartes, 12-13, 19-21, 107, 111-12, 140, 150, 156, 224 ff., 239, 244, 265, 281, 304, 331, 333, 334, 343, 390, 409, 426 Desmarests, Samuel, 241
Diodorus, 230-2 Diogenianus, 325 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 232
Diphilus, 285 Diroys, 249-53, 329
Dominicans, 348
Dreier, 244
Drexler, 291
Dualists, 251 du Plessis-Mornay, 91 Durand de Saint-Pourçain, 139, 324, 341, 353
Empedocles, 324
Epictetus, 352 Epicureans, 282-3 Epicurus, 229-30, 310-11, 319, 320, 324, 395 Esprit, Abbé, 131
Euclid, 261 Euripides, 284, 285
Eusebius, 326
Eutrapelus, 191 Fabricius, Johann Ludwig, 67
Fabry, 333 Fecht, 290, 291, 293 Fénelon, 287
Fludde, 184
Fonseca, 145 Foucher, 34, 89, 337 Francis I of France, 204 Francis of Sales, St., 176 Francis Xavier, St., 176 Freitag, Johann, 171 Fromondus, Libertus, 89
Fulgentius, 167 _Fur praedestinatus_, 227 della Galla, Julius Caesar, 171 Gassendi, 12, 337 Gatacre, Thomas, 262 Gerhard, Johann, 291
Gerson, 79
Gibieuf, 344-5 Glarea, Antonio, 366 Godescalc, 167, 294
Gomarists, 227 Gregory, St., the Great, 100, 291, 293, 294 Gregory, St., of Nazianzus, 173 Gregory, St., of Nyssa, 132 Gregory of Rimini, 173 Grotius, 77, 91, 161, 194, 241, 243, 276 Guerre, Martin, 97-8 Gymnosophists, 284
Hartsoeker, 172 Heliodorus of Larissa, 437
Heraclitus, 324 Herminius, _see_ Irminius
Hermippus, 209 Herodotus, 196, 208, 210 Heshusius, Tilemann, 82 Hobbes, Thomas, 67, 89, 159, 161, 234, 265, 348, 393 ff., 410 Hoffmann, Daniel, 82 Horace, 131, 318
Homer, 284
Hyde, 209 Innocent III, Pope, 131
Irminius, 209
Isbrand, 238 Jansenists, 145, 346-7
Jansenius, 344 Jacquelot, 157, 223, 259, 265, 278, 341 Jerome, St., 132 John of Damascus, St., 77
[Page 447]
John Scot, 171
Jung, 261
Jupiter, 213 Jurieu, 174, 187, 290-2, 356
Justin, 208 Keckermann, Bartholomaeus, 106 Keilah, siege of, 145-6 Kendal, George, 228 Kepler, 140, 353
Kerkering, 351 Kessler, Andreas, 83 Kortholt, Sebastian, 351 Krell, Nicolas, 398 de Labadie, Jean, 82 Lactantius, 221, 285, 286, 440 Lami, François, 89, 359 Lateran Council, 80
Laud, Abp., 398 de Launoy, 100
Lazarus, 294 le Clerc, 64, 121, 132, 245, 292 Leeuwenhoek, 172
Limbourg, 350 Lipsius, Justus, 325, 337, 353
Livy, 263 Locke, John, 8, 9, 33-4, 86, 409 Löscher, 298 Louis of Dole, 149, 353
Lucan, 122, 212 Lucian, 265, 434
Lucretius, 320 Lully, Raymond, 106 Luther, 67, 81, 99, 101, 110-11, 122, 298, 328, 395 Machiavelli, 216
Maignan, 359 Maimonides, 287-8 Malebranche, 172, 244, 254 ff., 276, 280, 333, 359, 361 Manichaeans, 59, 98, 113, 124, 208, 274, 419
Marchetti, 320
Marcion, 213 Marcus Aurelius, 263 Mary, Blessed Virgin, 193 Matthieu, Pierre, 204 Maurice, Prince, 398
Melanchthon, 81 Melissus, 218, 220 Ménage, 232 Meyer, Louis, 82
Mithras, 209 Molina, 145, 173, 207 Molinists, 145, 317, 324, 342 More, Henry, 169 Moses Germanus, 79 de la Motte le Vayer, 282 Musaeus, Johann, 86, 111 Naudé, Gabriel, 81 Newcastle, Duke of, 393 ff.
Newton, Isaac, 34, 85-6 Nicole, 96-7, 174, 291, 299 Nominalists, 203
Novarini, 286 Ochino, Bernardino, 89
Onomaus, 325
Opalenius, 194 Origen, 102-3, 132, 235, 294 Origenists, 260, 292
Orobio, 350 Ovid, 209, 220, 306
Pardies, 333
Pascal, 35 Paul, St., 129-30, 238, 260 Paulicians, _see_ Manichaeans
Pelagius, 139 Pélisson, 176 Pereir, Louis, 139 Peter Lombard, 290
Pfanner, 352 Pierre de Saint-Joseph, 342, 357 Pietists, Leipzig, 83
Piscator, 207
Pitcairne, 172 Plato, 59, 76, 135, 148, 209, 241, 286, 297, 321, 352-4 Pliny the Younger, 204, 209, 284, 287, 365 Plutarch, 208, 231, 326, 353 Pomponazzi, 80, 161 de la Porrée, Gilbert, 122 de Preissac, 80 Prudentius, 132, 218 Ptolomei, Fr., 70 Pufendorf, 194, 241, 403
Pythagoras, 172 Quênel, Fr., 70
Quietists, 79
Rachelius, 194 de la Ramée, Pierre, 81
Ravaillac, 204 Regis, 305, 330, 340 Remonstrants, 226 Reynaud, Theophile, 348
[Page 448] Rodon, David Deuteronomy, 354
Rorarius, 160 Rutherford, Samuel, 236, 238, 269
Ruysbroek, 79
Saguens, 359
Salmeron, 173
Saurin, 106 Scaliger, Joseph, 89, 104-5 Scaliger, Julius, 170
Scherzer, 84 Schoolmen, 75, 77, 100, 241, 290, 310, 354, 407
Scioppius, 337 Scotists, 243, 324 Scotus, Duns, 203, 271, 328, 383 Seneca, 226, 285 Sennert, Daniel, 171 Sentences, Master of the, _see_ Peter Lombard Servetus, Michael, 81 Sfondrati, Cardinal, 129, 173
Sharrok, 194
Silenus, 286 Slevogt, Paul, 82 Socinians, 58, 83-4, 161-2, 307, 343, 394, 412, 423 Sonner, Ernst, 290 Spee, Friedrich, 176-7 Sperling, Johann, 171 Sperling, Otto, 212 Spinoza, 67, 68, 79, 82, 159, 234-6, 331, 348-51, 359, 418 Stahl, Daniel, 243 Stegman, Josua, 107 Stegmann, Christopher, 84
Steno, 178 Steuchus, Augustinus, 91 Stoics, 79, 232, 263, 282-3, 324 ff., 342 Strato, 67, 245-6, 331, 335, 336, 349, 395
Strinesius, 241
Sturm, 69, 261
Suarez, 314
Suetonius, 287 Supralapsarians, 166, 228, 236, 238, 269, 273-4, 289
Swammerdam, 172 Tacitus, 210, 211, 265, 287 Taifel, Baron André, 441 Taurel, Nicolas, 81, 353
Tertullian, 101 Thomas Aquinas, St., 174, 176, 241, 243, 262, 324, 357, 378, 383 Thomasius, Jacob, 243, 265 Thomists, 145, 149, 241, 311, 324, 344, 347
Tiberius, 227
Timon, 265
Tiresias, 230 Toland, John, 106 de Tournemine, Fr., 69
Trajan, 293
Trogus, 208
Turretin, 240
Twiss, 238 Ursinus, Zacharias, 291
Usserius, 70 Valla, Laurentius, 67, 344, 365 ff. van Beverwyck, Johan, 153-4 van den Ende, Franz, 351 van den Hoof, 350 van der Weye, 82 van Helmont, 169 Vanini, Lucilio, 434 Vedelius, Nicolaus, 86, 111 Velleius Paterculus, 318 Vergil, 78-9, 122, 287, 293, 306, 315 Véron, François, 107 Versé, Aubert Deuteronomy, 350 Voëtius, Gisbertus, 86 Vorstius, Conrad, 58
Vogelsang, 82 von Wallenberg, Bp. Peter, 67 Wander, William, 169 Weigel, Erhard, 261, 355 Weigel, Valentine, 79 de Witt, 351 Wittich, 187, 306-7, 309 von Wollzogen, 82 Wyclif, John, 122, 159, 234, 272, 395
Xanthus, 209 Zeisold, Johann, 171 Zoroaster, 71, 208-10, 218 End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Theodicy, by G. W. Leibniz E-sword module built by Manoau2002