Who or What is God?

On the First Cause

Our Stoic philosophers as you know, declare that there are two things in the universe which are the source of everything, – namely, cause and matter.

Matter lies sluggish a substance ready for any use, but sure to remain unemployed if no one sets it in motion.

Cause, however, by which we mean reason, moulds matter and turns it in whatever direction it will, producing thereby various concrete results.

Accordingly, there must be in the case of each thing, that from which it is made and next an agent by which it is made; The former is its material, the latter its cause.

All art is but imitation of nature; therefore let me apply these statements of general principles to the things which have to be made by people.

A statue, for example, has afforded matter which was to undergo treatment at the hands of the artist, and has had an artist who was to give form to the matter; Hence in the case of the statue, the material was bronze, the cause was the worker, & so it goes with all things, – they consist of that which is made, and of the maker.

The Stoics believe in one cause only, – the maker; but Aristotle thinks that the word “cause” can be used in three ways:

“The first cause,” he says “is the actual matter, without which nothing can be created; The second is the worker; The third is the form, which is impressed upon every work, – a statue for example” This last is what Aristotle calls the Idos; “There is too” says he, “a fourth – the purpose of the work as a whole.”

Now I shall show you what this last means.

Bronze is the “first cause” of the statue, for it could never have been made unless there had been something from which it could be cast and moulded; The “second cause” is the artist; for without the skilled hands of a worker that bronze could not have been shaped to the outlines of the statue; The “third cause” is the form, in as much as our statue could never be called ‘The Lance-Bearer’, had not this special shape been stamped upon it; The “fourth cause” is the purpose of the work, for if this purpose had not existed, the statue would not have been made.

Now what is this purpose?, It is that which attracted the artist, which they followed when they made the statue; It may have been money, if they have made it for sale; or renown, if they have worked for reputation; or religion, if they have wrought it as a gift for a temple.

Therefore this also is a cause contributing towards the making of the statue; or do you think that we should avoid including, among the causes of a thing which has been made, that element without which the thing in question would not have been made?

To these four Plato adds a fifth cause, – the pattern which he himself calls the “idea”; for it is this that the artist gazed upon when they created the work which they had decided to carry out; Now it makes no difference whether it has their pattern outside themselves, that they may direct their glance to it, or within themselves conceived and placed there by themselves.

God has within oneself these patterns of all things, and one’s mind comprehends the harmonies and the measures of the whole totality of things which are to be carried out; one is filled with these shapes which Plato calls the “ideas,” – imperishable, unchangeable, not subject to decay; And therefore though people die, humanity itself, or the idea of people, according to which one is moulded, lasts on, and though people toil and perish, it suffers no change.

Accordingly there are five causes, as Plato says: the material, the agent, the make-up, the model and the end in view; Last comes the result of all these; Just as in the case of the statue – to go back to the figure with which we began, – the material is the bronze, the agent is the artist, the make-up is the form which is adapted to the material, the model is the pattern imitated by the agent, the end in view is the purpose in the maker’s mind, and finally, the result of all these is the statue itself.

The universe also, in Plato’s opinion, possesses all these elements; The agent is God; the source, matter; the form, the shape and the arrangement of the visible world; The pattern is doubtless the model according to which God has made this great and most beautiful creation.

The purpose is one’s object in so doing;

Do you ask what God’s purpose is?

It is, benevolence.

Plato, at any rate says: “What was God’s reason for creating the world?, God is benevolent, and no benevolent person is grudging of anything that is good; Therefore, God made it the best world possible; ” Hand down your opinion, then O judge; state who seems to you to say what is truest, and not who says what is absolutely true, For to do that is as far beyond our ken as truth itself.

This throng of causes, defined by Aristotle and by Plato, embraces either too much or too little; For if they regard as “causes” of an object that is to be made everything without which the object cannot be made, they have named too few.

Time must be included among the causes; for nothing can be made without time; They must also include place; for if there be no place where a thing can be made, it will not be made; And motion too; nothing is either made or destroyed without motion; There is no art without motion, no change of any kind.

Now however, I am searching for the first, the general cause; this must be simple, in as much as matter too, is simple; Do we ask what cause is?, It is surely Creative Reason, – in other words, God; For those elements to which you referred are not a great series of independent causes; they all hinge on one alone, and that will be the creative cause.

Do you maintain that form is a cause?, This is only what the artist stamps upon their work; it is part of a cause, but not the cause; Neither is the pattern a cause, but an indispensable tool of the cause; Its pattern is as indispensable to the artist as the chisel or the file; without these, art can make no progress; But for all that, these things are neither parts of the art, nor causes of it.

“Then,” perhaps you will say, “the purpose of the artist, that which leads them to undertake to create something, is the cause” It may be a cause; it is not, however, the efficient cause, but only an accessory cause; But there are countless accessory causes; what we are discussing is the general cause.

Now the statement of Plato and Aristotle is not in accord with their usual penetration, when they maintain that the whole universe, the perfectly wrought work, is a cause.

For there is a great difference between a work and the cause of a work.

Either give your opinion, or as is easier in cases of this kind, declare that the matter is not clear and call for another hearing; But you will reply: What pleasure do you get from wasting your time on these problems, which relieve you of none of your emotions, rout none of your desires?, So far as I am concerned, I treat and discuss them as matters which contribute greatly toward calming the spirit, and I search myself first, and then the world about me.

The wise person, the seeker after wisdom, is bound closely, indeed to their body, but they are absentee so far as their better selves are concerned, and they concentrate their thoughts upon lofty things; Bound so to speak, to their oath of allegiance, they regard the period of life as their term of service; They are so trained that they neither loves nor hates life; they endure a mortal lot, although they know that an ampler lot is in store for them.

Do you forbid me to contemplate the universe?, Do you compel me to withdraw from the whole and restrict me to a part?, May I not ask what are the beginnings of all things, who moulded the universe, who took the confused and conglomerate mass of sluggish matter, and separated it into its parts?, May I not inquire who is the Master-Builder of this universe, how the mighty bulk was brought under the control of law and order, who gathered together the scattered atoms, who separated the disordered elements and assigned an outward form to elements that lay in one vast shapelessness?, Or whence came all the expanse of light?, And whether is it fire, or something even brighter than fire?

Am I not to ask these questions?, Must I be ignorant of the heights whence I have descended?, Whether I am to see this world but once, or to be born many times?, What is my destination afterwards?, What abode awaits my soul on its release from the laws of slavery among people?, Do you forbid me to have a share in heaven?, In other words, do you bid me live with my head bowed down?

No, I am above such an existence; I was born to a greater destiny than to be a mere chattel of my body, and I regard this body as nothing but a chain which manacles my freedom; Therefore I offer it as a sort of buffer to fortune, and shall allow no woound to penetrate through to my soul; For my body is the only part of me which can suffer injury; In this dwelling, which is exposed to peril, my soul lives free.

Never shall this flesh drive me to feel fear, or to assume any pretence that is unworthy of a good person; Never shall I lie in order to honour this petty body; When it seems proper, I shall sever my connexion with it, & at present, while we are bound together, our alliance shall nevertheless not be one of equality; the soul shall bring all quarrels before its own tribunal; To despise our bodies is sure freedom.

To return to our subject; this freedom will be greatly helped by the contemplation of which we were just speaking; All things are made up of matter and of God; God controls matter, which encompasses One and follows one as its guide and leader; And that which creates, in other words, God, is more powerful and precious than matter, which is acted upon by God.

God’s place in the universe corresponds to the soul’s relation to people; World-matter corresponds to our mortal body; therefore let the lower serve the higher; Let us be brave in the face of hazards; Let us not fear wrongs, or wounds or bonds, or poverty; & what is death?, It is either the end, or a process of change; I have no fear of ceasing to exist; it is the same as not having begun; Nor do I shrink from changing into another state, because I shall under no conditions, be as cramped as I am now.

Farewell, Seneca, StoicTaoist.