Physics 161
is well-suited for feeding humans, no other type of animal is more prolific
of offspring .... 161. ... You can scan the land and all the seas with
your mind, as though with your eyes, and you will immediately see
huge expanses of land which bear fruit [for man], and densely forested
mountains, pasture land for cattle, and also sea-lanes for ships to sail in
with remarkable speed. 162. It is not just on the earth's surface either;
but even in the deepest, darkest bowels of the earth there lies hidden a
great store of useful materials which were made for man and are only
discovered by man.
There is another point too, which both of you^32 will perhaps seize on
for criticism, you Cotta because Carneades loved to attack the Stoics,
Velleius because Epicurus ridiculed nothing so much as the prediction
of future events; but I think that it proves better than anything else
that divine providence takes thought for human affairs. For divination
certainly does exist, since it shows up in many different places and at
many different times, in both private and public affairs. 163 .... This
power, or art, or natural ability of knowing future events was certainly
given to man and to no other animal by the immortal gods .... 164. And
the immortal gods do not limit themselves to taking thought for mankind
as a whole, but they even concern themselves with individual men. For
one may gradually reduce the scope of universality, from mankind to
smaller and smaller numbers of men, and finally get down to single
individuals [applying the same arguments at each stage]. ...Aetius 1.6.1-16 (= Dox.Gr. pp. 292-297;
SVF 2.1009)
The Source of Man's Conception of the Gods[11-24]- The Stoics define the substance of god thus: it is an intelligent and
fiery pneuma, which does not have a shape but changes into whatever it
wishes and assimilates itself to all things. 2. They [sc. men] acquired the
conception of god first by getting it from the beauty of the things which
appear to them. For nothing beautiful becomes so at random and haphaz-
ardly but rather by a craft which acts as an artisan. And the cosmos is
beautiful; this is clear from its shape and its colour and its size and the
varied adornment of the heavenly bodies around the cosmos. 3. For the
cosmos is spherical and this is the best shape of all. For this shape alone
is similar to its own parts. And since it is rounded, it contains parts
which are round. For it is for this reason that Plato held that the most
sacred [part of man], his mind, is in the head. 4. And its colour is beautiful - The two other speakers in the dialogue are an Epicurean and an Academic sceptic.