DISCOURSE ONMETAPHYSICS 585
As for the simplicity of God’s ways, that applies properly in respect of means
whereas the variety, richness or abundance applies to aims or effects. The one has to be
in balance with the other, like the expenses of a building with the size and beauty
expected of it. It is true that nothing costs God anything, much less than it costs a
philosopher to make hypotheses for the construction of his imaginary world, since God
has only to make decrees to bring a real world to birth; but in relation to wisdom, in so
far as they are mutually independent, decrees or hypotheses take the place of expendi-
ture, for reason demands that we avoid a multiplicity of hypotheses or principles; in
almost the same way the simplest system is always preferred in astronomy.
- GODDOESNOTHINGOUT OFORDER ANDITISNOTEVEN
POSSIBLE TOIMAGINEEVENTS THATARENOTREGULAR
The decisions or actions of God are commonly divided into ordinary and extraordinary.
But it is well to bear in mind that God does nothing out of order. So, whatever passes for
extraordinary is only so in relation to some particular order established among crea-
tures. For, in relation to the universal order, everything conforms to it. So true is this,
that not only does nothing happen in the world that is absolutely irregular, but such a
thing cannot even be imagined. Suppose, for example, that someone puts a number of
points on paper completely at random like those who practise the ridiculous art of geo-
mancy, then I say that it is possible to find a geometric line whose notion is constant and
uniform according to some rule, so that this line passes through all these points and
does so in the same order as they were made by the hand.
And if someone were to draw in one movement a line that was sometimes straight,
sometimes circular, and sometimes of some other kind, it is possible to find a notion, a
rule, or an equation common to all the points in that line and in virtue of which these
same changes had to occur. For example there is no face whose contour is not part of a
geometric line and cannot be drawn all in one movement by some rule-governed motion.
But when a rule is very complicated, what conforms to it is taken to be irregular.
Thus it can be said that however God might have created the world, it would always
have been regular and within some general order. But God chose that world that is the
most perfect, i.e. the one that is simultaneously the simplest in hypotheses and richest in
phenomena, just as a geometric line might be if its construction was easy but its proper-
ties most admirable and extensive. I make use of these comparisons to sketch some kind
of imperfect resemblance to the divine wisdom and to say something that could at least
raise our minds to conceive in some way what cannot be adequately expressed. But by
this I do not claim to explain the great mystery on which the whole universe depends.
- MIRACLESCONFORM TO THEGENERALORDERALTHOUGH
THEYARECONTRARY TOSUBALTERNNORMS. WHATGOD
WISHES ORPERMITS BY AGENERAL ORPARTICULARWILL
Now, since nothing can take place that is not within the order, it can be said that mira-
cles are just as much within the order as natural operations, are so called because they
conform to certain subaltern norms we call the nature of things. For it can be said that
this “nature” is no more than a custom of God from which He can exempt Himself in
virtue of a stronger reason than the one that moved Him to make use of these norms.