"Discourses" - читать интересную книгу автора (Epictetus)

That the deity oversees all things

When a person asked him how a man could be convinced that all his
actions are under the inspection of God, he answered, Do you not think
that all things are united in one? "I do," the person replied. Well,
do you not think that earthly things have a natural agreement and
union with heavenly things "I do." And how else so regularly as if
by God's command, when He bids the plants to flower, do they flower?
when He bids them to send forth shoots, do they shoot? when He bids
them to produce fruit, how else do they produce fruit? when He bids
the fruit to ripen, does it ripen? when again He bids them to cast
down the fruits, how else do they cast them down? and when to shed the
leaves, do they shed the leaves? and when He bids them to fold
themselves up and to remain quiet and rest, how else do they remain
quiet and rest? And how else at the growth and the wane of the moon,
and at the approach and recession of the sun, are so great an
alteration and change to the contrary seen in earthly things? But
are plants and our bodies so bound up and united with the whole, and
are not our souls much more? and our souls so bound up and in
contact with God as parts of Him and portions of Him; and does not God
perceive every motion of these parts as being His own motion connate
with Himself? Now are you able to think of the divine
administration, and about all things divine, and at the same time also
about human affairs, and to be moved by ten thousand things at the
same time in your senses and in your understanding, and to assent to
some, and to dissent from others, and again as to some things to
suspend your judgment; and do you retain in your soul so many
impressions from so many and various things, and being moved by
them, do you fall upon notions similar to those first impressed, and
do you retain numerous arts and the memories of ten thousand things;
and is not God able to oversee all things, and to be present with all,
and to receive from all a certain communication? And is the sun able
to illuminate so large a part of the All, and to leave so little not
illuminated, that part only which is occupied by the earth's shadow;
and He who made the sun itself and makes it go round, being a small
part of Himself compared with the whole, cannot He perceive all
things?

"But I cannot," the man may reply, "comprehend all these things at
once." But who tells you that you have equal power with Zeus?
Nevertheless he has placed by every man a guardian, every man's Demon,
to whom he has committed the care of the man, a guardian who never
sleeps, is never deceived. For to what better and more careful
guardian could He have entrusted each of us? When, then, you have shut
the doors and made darkness within, remember never to say that you are
alone, for you are not; but God is within, and your Demon is within,
and what need have they of light to see what you are doing? To this
God you ought to swear an oath just as the soldiers do to Caesar.
But they who are hired for pay swear to regard the safety of Caesar