Saepe mihi dubiam traxit sententia mentem, etc.
But the harmony existing in all the rest allows of a strong presumption that it would exist also in the government of men, and generally in that of Spirits, if the whole were known to us. One must judge the works of God as wisely as Socrates judged those of Heraclitus in these words: What I have understood thereof pleases me; I think that the rest would please me no less if I understood it.
147. Here is another particular reason for the disorder apparent in that which concerns man. It is that God, in giving him intelligence, has presented him with an image of the Divinity. He leaves him to himself, in a sense, in his small department, ut Spartam quam nactus est ornet. He enters there only in a secret way, for he supplies being, force, life, reason, without showing himself. It is there that free will plays its game: and God makes game (so to speak) of these little Gods that he has thought good to produce, as we make game of children who follow pursuits which we secretly encourage or hinder according as it pleases us. Thus man is there like a little god in his own world or Microcosm, which he governs
after his own fashion: he sometimes performs wonders therein, and his art often imitates nature.
Jupiter in parvo cum cerneret aethera vitro,
Risit et ad Superos talia dicta dedit:
Huccine mortalis progressa potentia, Divi?
Jam meus in fragili luditur orbe labor.
Jura poli rerumque fidem legesque Deorum
Cuncta Syracusius transtulit arte Senex.