Cause Principle Unity

Second dialogue
character of an efficient cause, it is all the more true of the world soul. As
Plotinus writes against the Gnostics, ‘the world soul governs the universe
more easily than the soul governs our body’, since there is a great difference
between their ways of governing. The former rules the world without being
fettered to it, so that what it controls does not bind it, nor does it suffer
through or with other things. It raises itself without impediment to higher
things; giving life and perfection to bodies, it does not itself become
infected with any imperfection: and that is why it is eternally united with
the same subject. As for the latter, it is clear that its condition is completely
different. Now, if, according to your principle, the perfections found in
inferior natures must be attributed to, and recognized in, superior natures
to a higher degree, we must agree, without the slightest doubt, with the distinction
you have established. This assertion is valid not only for the world
soul, but also for every star, since (as the aforementioned philosopher
holds) they all have the power to contemplate God, the principles of all
things and the distribution of the orders of the universe. He holds that this
does not occur by means of memory, reasoning or reflection, for all their
operations are eternal operations; no act can be new to them, and, in consequence,
they do nothing which is inappropriate to the whole, nor anything
which is not perfect or does not follow a definite and predetermined
order, and all this completely without any act of deliberation. This is what
Aristotle himself shows with the examples of the perfect writer or perfect
lute player, when he denies that, under the pretext that nature does not
reason or reflect, one can conclude that it operates without intellect or final
intention: for great musicians and writers pay less attention to what they are
doing than their less talented colleagues, who, because they reflect more,
produce work that is less perfect and, what is worse, not free from error.
TEOFILO. You have understood. But let us look at things a bit more
closely now. It seems to me that those who will not understand or affirm
that the world and its parts are animated detract from the divine goodness
and from the excellence of this great living being and simulacrum of the
first principle; as if God were jealous of his image, as if the architect failed
to love his own work – he of whom Plato 3 remarks that he appreciated his
creation for its resemblance to himself, for the reflection of himself he sees
in it. And, indeed, what could be presented to the eyes of the divinity which
is more beautiful than this universe? And since the universe is composed
of its parts, which of these parts should we hold to be more important than
3 Timaeus 29E.
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