ity, whereas clearly
men impose no necessity on things which they see? Does the act of vision
add any necessity to the things which thou seest before thy eyes?'

'Assuredly not.'

'And yet, if we may without unfitness compare God's present and man's,
just as ye see certain things in this your temporary present, so does He
see all things in His eternal present. Wherefore this Divine
anticipation changes not the natures and properties of things, and it
beholds things present before it, just as they will hereafter come to
pass in time. Nor does it confound things in its judgment, but in the
one mental view distinguishes alike what will come necessarily and what
without necessity. For even as ye, when at one and the same time ye see
a man walking on the earth and the sun rising in the sky, distinguish
between the two, though one glance embraces both, and judge the former
voluntary, the latter necessary action: so also the Divine vision in its
universal range of view does in no wise confuse the characters of the
things which are present to its regard, though future in respect of
time. Whence it follows that when it perceives that something will come
into existence, and yet is perfectly aware that this is unbound by any
necessity, its apprehension is not opinion, but rather knowledge based
on truth. And if to this thou sayest that what God sees to be about to
come to pass cannot fail to come to pass, and that what cannot fail to
come to pass happens of necessity, and wilt tie me down to this word
necessity, I will acknowledge that thou affirmest a most solid truth,
but one which scarcely anyone can approach to who has not made the
Divine his special study. For my answer would be that the same future
event is necessary from the standpoint of Divine knowledge, but when
considered in its own nature it seems absolutely free and unfettered.
So, then, there are two necessities--one simple, as that men are
necessarily mortal; the other conditioned, as that, if you know that
someone is walking, he must necessarily be walking. For that which is
known cannot indeed be otherwise than as it is known to be, and yet this
fact by no means carries with it that other simple necessity. For the
former necessity is not imposed by the thing's own proper nature, but by
the addition of a condition. No necessity compels one who is voluntarily
walking to go forward, although it is necessary for him to go forward at
the moment of walking. In the same