library_books Bookstacks

Section 97

"But hearing someone reading from a book by Anaxagoras—as he said—saying that Mind is what orders and is the cause of all things, I rejoiced in this cause. I thought it was somehow correct that Mind is the cause of all. If this is so, I thought, then the ordering Mind orders everything and places each thing in the way that is best. Therefore, if anyone wishes to find the cause of how each thing comes to be, perishes, or exists, he must find out how it is best for that thing to exist, act, or be acted upon. According to this reasoning, a human being need examine nothing else, concerning himself or others, but what is best and most excellent. And he would automatically know the worse as well, since the knowledge of both is the same. Reasoning this way, I was delighted to think I had found a teacher in the cause of reality according to my own mind: Anaxagoras. I expected he would first tell me whether the earth is flat or round, and having told me, he would add the cause and the necessity, explaining what is best, and why it is better for it to be that way. And if he said it was in the center, he would explain why it is better for it to be in the center. If he could demonstrate this to me, I was prepared to stop longing for any other kind of cause. I was also prepared to learn the same about the sun, the moon, and the other stars, regarding their relative speeds, their turnings, and all their other experiences—how it is best for each of them to act and be acted upon. I never supposed that, having said they were ordered by Mind, he would introduce any other cause for them than that it is best for them to be as they are. I assumed that by giving the cause for each thing and for everything in common, he would explain what is best for each, and the common good for all. I would not have sold my hopes for a great sum of money. I seized the books with great eagerness and read them as quickly as I could, so that I might know the best and the worse as soon as possible."