Cause Principle Unity

Cause, principle and unity
token of a wroth and sacrilegious spirit to rush into demanding reasons and
giving definitions of things above the sphere of our intelligence.
TEOFILO. Good. But these people do not deserve reproach, so much as
those deserve the highest praise who strive towards the knowledge of this
principle and this cause, to apprehend its grandeur as far as possible by
inspecting, with the eyes of orderly consideration, those magnificent stars
and luminous bodies which are so many inhabited worlds, great creatures
and superlative divinities: those which seem to be, and are, innumerable
worlds not very unlike that in which we find ourselves. Since it is impossible
for them to have being in and of themselves, being composite and
dissoluble (not that they are, therefore, deserving of dissolution, as was well
expressed in the Timaeus), it is necessary that they have a principle and
cause, and that, as consequence of the greatness of their being, living and
acting, they manifest and proclaim in an infinite space and with innumerable
voices the excellence and infinite majesty of their first cause and
first principle. Leaving aside, then, as you say, that speculation, since it
surpasses all sense and intellect, let us look into the principle or cause
insofar as, as vestige, either it is nature itself, or it shines in the element and
the bosom of nature. Question me, then, methodically, if you want me to
answer likewise.
DICSONO. So I will. But first of all, since you frequently employ the
terms ‘cause’ and ‘principle’, I would like to know whether you consider
them synonymous.
TEOFILO. No.
DICSONO. But then what difference is there between the two?
TEOFILO. When we say that God is first principle and first cause,
we mean one and the same thing, using different concepts, but when we
speak of principles and causes in nature, we are talking of different things
using different concepts. We say that God is first principle, in so far as
all things come after him according to a definite order of anteriority and
posteriority, in terms of either their nature, their duration or their merit.
We speak of God as first cause, in so far as all things are distinct from
him, as the effect from the efficient cause, and the thing produced from
its producer. And these two definitions are different, because not everything
which is prior and of higher value is the cause of what comes after
it and is of lesser value, and because not every cause is prior and of higher
value than that which is caused, as is clear to whoever ponders the matter
carefully.
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