good, to make anything that should
not be very excellent and beautiful." (Plato, "Timaeus," p.29 D.) This,
therefore, and all that follows, even to his disputation concerning
human souls, is to be understood of the first Providence, which in the
beginning constituted all things. Afterwards he speaks thus: "Having
framed the universe, he ordained souls equal in number to the stars, and
distributed to each of them one; and having set them, as it were, in a
chariot, showed the nature of the universe, and appointed them the laws
of Fate." (Ibid. p.41 D.) Who, then, will not believe, that by these
words he expressly and manifestly declares Fate to be, as it were, a
foundation and political constitution of laws, fitted for the souls of
men? Of which he afterwards renders the cause.

As for the second Providence, he thus in a manner explains it, saying:
"Having prescribed them all these laws, to the end that, if there should
afterwards happen any fault, he might be exempt from being the cause of
any of their evil, he dispersed some of them upon the earth, some into
the moon, and some into the other instruments of time. And after this
dispersion, he gave in charge to the young gods the making of human
bodies, and the making up and adding whatever was wanting and deficient
in human souls; and after they had perfected whatever is adherent and
consequent to this, they should rule and govern, in the best manner
they possibly could, this mortal creature, so far as it might not be the
cause of its own evils." (Ibid. p.42 D.) For by these words, "that he
might be exempt from being the cause of any of their evil," he most
clearly signifies the cause of Fate; and the order and office of the
young gods manifests the second Providence; and it seems also in
some sort to have touched a little upon the third, if he therefore
established laws and ordinances that he might be exempt from being the
cause of any of their evil. For God, who is free from all evil, has no
need of laws or Fate; but every one of these petty gods, drawn on by the
providence of him who has engendered them, performs what belongs to his
office. Now that this is true and agreeable to the opinion of Plato,
these words of the lawgiver, spoken by him in his Book of Laws, seems to
me to give sufficient testimony: "If there were any man so sufficient
by Nature, being by divine Fortune happily engendered and born, that he
could comprehend this, he would have no need of laws to c