Though Fate Comprehends Infinite, It Is Finite in Its Operations

Plutarch · Secret Doctrine's Second Proposition Series · 13 pages

Thirteen pages of Plutarch's essay on fate, from the Morals in R. Brown's translation, corrected and revised by William W. Goodwin with an introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The abstract at the front is set out as *a list of the propositions in order*, which makes the file usable as a summary of the classical position as well as a text. The frontispiece is by James Dean.

Plutarch begins by dividing the question: fate is either an energy, a law or an act, or else a substance, the soul of the world. The formulation the title takes follows at once — that though fate comprehends the infinite it is itself finite, because law is finite in its nature. The doctrine of recurrence is stated in the same breath: that everything moves in a circle, and that all beings and actions now existing will come round again, so that we shall do again what we are now doing, and in the same manner. Most of the essay is devoted to distinguishing terms that are ordinarily confused, and the distinctions are the reason it earns a place in a section on karma. Fate, the divine law, determines all things, both conditionally and universally — but its relation to providence, to fortune, to human ability and to contingent events must each be settled separately. Causes are divided into those which are causes in themselves and those which are causes by accident, and fortune is placed in the second class. Fortune and chance are then separated, though the two are usually run together: chance comprehends fortune rather than being identical with it, and fortune relates to men only while chance includes things animate and inanimate. Providence is divided threefold, into the will of the supreme Deity, the will of the subordinate deities, and the will of the dæmons, each treated in turn. A comparison used along the way is characteristic of the method: that as the civil law comprehends and relates to many things which are not themselves lawful, so it is with fate.

Read the full text (PDF, 0.5 MB, 13 pages)