Of God and His Creatures

Aristotle is right in contending that things do happen by fortune and chance; and further that fortune and chance are relative terms, denoting the unforeseen and unpremeditated in relation to (human) forethought. But in relation to a perfect providence, an all-seeing mind, an omnipotent ruler, nothing is fortuitous: everything is foreseen, allowed for, willed, or at least permitted. Nor are the laws of nature at fault in a chance event. The same forces, working according to the same laws, forward man to his destination nine hundred and ninety-nine times, and the thousandth time they destroy him.


Of God and His Creatures: 3.74