ning.
Wherefore the habitude of heaven alone, being thus ordained in all
things, as well in regard of itself as of the earth and all terrestrial
matters, shall again (after long revolutions) one day return; and
those things that in order follow after, and being linked together in
a continuity are maintained in their course, shall follow, every one of
them by necessity bringing what is its own. But for the better clearing
of this matter, let us understand that whatever is in us or about us
is not wrought by the course of the heavens and heavenly influences, as
being entirely the efficient cause both of my writing what I now write,
and of your doing also what you at present do, and in the same manner as
you do it. Hereafter, then, when the same cause shall return, we shall
do the same things we now do and in the same manner, and shall again
become the same men; and so it will be with all others. And that which
follows after shall also happen by the following cause; and in brief,
all things that shall happen in the whole and in every one of these
universal revolutions shall again become the same. By this it appears
(as we have said before) that Fate, being in some sort infinite, is
nevertheless determinate and finite; and it may be also in some sort
seen and comprehended, as we have farther said, that it is as it were
a circle. For as a motion of a circle is a circle, and the time that
measures it is also a circle; so the order of things which are done and
happen in a circle may be justly esteemed and called a circle.

This, therefore, though there should be nothing else, almost shows us
what sort of thing Fate is; but not particularly or in every respect.
What kind of thing then is it in its own form? It is, as far as one can
compare it, like to the civil or politic law. For first it orders the
most part of things at least, if not all, conditionally; and then it
comprises (as far as is possible for it) all things that belong to the
public in general; and the better to make you understand both the one
and the other, we must specify them by an example. The civil law speaks
and ordains in general of a valiant man, and also of a deserter and a
coward; and in the same manner of others. Now this is not to make the
law speak of this or that man in particular, but principally to propose
such things as are universal or general, and consequently such as fall
under them. For we may very well say, that it is legal to reward
this from