n the
colours are burnt as well as mingled and the black is more thoroughly
mixed with them. Flame-colour (Greek) is produced by a union of auburn
and dun (Greek), and dun by an admixture of black and white; pale yellow
(Greek), by an admixture of white and auburn. White and bright meeting,
and falling upon a full black, become dark blue (Greek), and when dark
blue mingles with white, a light blue (Greek) colour is formed, as
flame-colour with black makes leek green (Greek). There will be no
difficulty in seeing how and by what mixtures the colours derived from
these are made according to the rules of probability. He, however,
who should attempt to verify all this by experiment, would forget
the difference of the human and divine nature. For God only has the
knowledge and also the power which are able to combine many things into
one and again resolve the one into many. But no man either is or ever
will be able to accomplish either the one or the other operation.

These are the elements, thus of necessity then subsisting, which the
creator of the fairest and best of created things associated with
himself, when he made the self-sufficing and most perfect God, using the
necessary causes as his ministers in the accomplishment of his work,
but himself contriving the good in all his creations. Wherefore we may
distinguish two sorts of causes, the one divine and the other necessary,
and may seek for the divine in all things, as far as our nature admits,
with a view to the blessed life; but the necessary kind only for the
sake of the divine, considering that without them and when isolated from
them, these higher things for which we look cannot be apprehended or
received or in any way shared by us.

Seeing, then, that we have now prepared for our use the various classes
of causes which are the material out of which the remainder of our
discourse must be woven, just as wood is the material of the carpenter,
let us revert in a few words to the point at which we began, and then
endeavour to add on a suitable ending to the beginning of our tale.

As I said at first, when all things were in disorder God created in
each thing in relation to itself, and in all things in relation to each
other, all the measures and harmonies which they could possibly receive.
For in those days nothing had any proportion except by accident; nor did
any of the things which now have names deserve to be named at all--as,
for example, fire, water, and the