The Golden Verses of Pythagoras — with commentary (1917)

by putting a limit upon the evils which he attracts to himself by his own choice. His reasoning coinciding with mine can be reduced to these few words. The sole remedy for evil, whatever may be the cause, is time. Providence, minister of the Most High, employs this remedy; and by means of perfectibility which results frqm it, brings back all to good. But the aptitude of the m^adies for receiving it acts in proportion to this remedy^ '¥ime, always the same, and always nihil for the Divinity is, however, shortened or lengthened for men, accojlding as their will coincides with the providential action or dififers therefrom. They have only to desire good> and time which fatigues them' wUl be lightened. But what if they desire evil always, wiU time therefore not be finished? Will the evUs therefore have no limit? Is it that the will of man is so inflexible that God may not turn it towards the good ? The will of man is free beyond doubt ; and its essence, immutable as the Divinity whence it emanates, knows not how to be changed, but nothing is impossible for God. The change which is effected in it, without which its immutability may in no wise be altered, is the miracle of the AU-Powerful. It is a result of its own liberty, and if I dare to say it, takes place by the coincidence of two movements, whose impulse is given by Providence ; by the first, it shows to the wUl, goodness; by the second, it puts it in a fitting position to meet this same goodness.

35. Nature serves them. . . .

Lysis expresses it thus: Nature, by the homogeneity which, as I have stated, constitutes its essence, teaches men to see beyond the range of their senses, transports them by analogy from one region to another and develops their ideas. The perfectibility which is manifested through the grace of time is called perfection; for the more a thing is perfected the more perfect it becomes. The man who perceives this is struck by it, and if he reflect he finds truth, as I have openly

Examinations of the Golden Verses 271

stated, and to which Lysis was content with making allusioti,- on account of the secret of the mysteries that he was forced to respect.

It is this perfectibility manifested! in Nature, which gives the affirmative proofs that I have promised, touching the way in which Providence remqves with time the evils which afiflict m^n. These are the proofs de facto. They cannot be challenged without absurdity: \I know well that there have been men who, studying Nature within four walls, and considering its operations throu^ the extremely narrow prism of their ideas, have denied that anything might be perfectible, and have asserted that the Universe was immobile because they have not seen it move; but there does not exist today a genuine observer, a naturalist whose learning is founded upon Nature, who does not invalidate the decision of these pretended savants, and who does not put perfectibility in the rank of the most rigorously demonstrated truths.

I shall not quote the ancients on a subject where their authority would be challenged; I shall even limit myself, to evade prolixities, to a small number of striking passages among the moderns. Leibnitz, who ought less than any other to admit perfectibility, since he had founded his system upon the existence of the best of worlds possible, has, however, recognized it in Nature, in advancing that aU the changes which are operated there are the consequence of both; that everjrthing tends toward its improvement, and that therefore the present is already teeming with the future." Buffon, inclining strongly toward the system of atoms, ought also to be much opposed, and yet he has been unable to see that Nature, in general, tends far more toward life than toward death, and that it seems to be seeking to organize bodies as much as is possible.* The school of Kant has pushed the system of perfectibility as far as it o Cit^ par De G6rando, Hist, des Systtmes, t. ii., p. loo. * Hist, des Animaux, in-4., p. 37.

272 The Golden Verses of Pythagoras could go. Schelling, the disciple of most consequence of this celebrated man, has followed the development of Nature with a force of thought which has perhaps passed the mark. The former, has ventured to say that Nature is a sort of Divinity in germ, which tends to apotheosiSi%nd is prepared for existence with God, by the reign of Chaos, and by that of Providence." But those are only speculative opinions. Here are opinions founded upon facts.

As soon as one considers the. Earth observingly, the naturalists say, one perceives striking traces of the revolutions that it has sustained in anterior times.