A Sketch of Universal Wisdom

beginning from formless, confused, and dark beginnings; but ending in the most distinct, most perfect, and most beautiful forms. He also impressed this same law upon Nature itself, so that whatever things are born, they are born small and formless from seeds, and gradually take on growth, until they reach the perfection determined for each kind.

XX. He subjected the human race to this same condition in all things. For although He could have produced them in their full number (just as He did with the Angels and the Stars, as many as He willed), He created only a single stock: a Man with a Woman referring to Adam and Eve. Having granted them the power to multiply their kind, He assigned several thousand years for the procreation of men, until the whole earth should be filled with inhabitants.

XXI. And although He could have revealed the secrets of all mysteries—in matters Natural, Artificial, Moral, and Divine—to these same men all at once and in a single moment; He preferred instead to use His accustomed gradation, and gradually [unfold] the Sciences, the Arts,