John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

538

7. IV:15. Tuesday— Squantum.

Charles and his wife were to have left us this morning; but a north-easterly rain came on, which suspended their visit to Medford. Charles went to Boston, and came back to dine. My Nursery labours were interrupted, and the rain forced me to take refuge in the house. I planted on one division of the Stony-barren, alternate peach and Plum stones; with Apple and Bass wood seeds—first partly filling the trench with mould from the Garden— Annual meeting of the proprietors of Neponset Bridge— I dined with them at Squantum— The road for a quarter of a mile was overflowed by the tide— Thomas Greenleaf G. W. Beale, and Edward Miller, were the only proprietors there—my brother and Mr Miller’s brother in Law Spooner were also there. The place was dreary with a stubborn North easter, and we adjourned soon after five. I finished reading the second Book de Natura Deorum— The whole book is occupied by Lucilius Balbus, with an exposition of the Stoic doctrines concerning the Gods— His disquisition is in four parts— 1. to prove their existence. 2. what they are. 3. That the world is governed by them. 4. That they take interest in human affairs— The proof of the existence of the Gods is in the first sixteen Sections—and is by no means logical— The only rational argument for the existence of an intelligent creative power, is the creation itself— We everywhere see means adapted to ends.— Intelligence invisible in act—visible in effect, is stamped upon all creation— We find a watch—we infer the watchmaker, because we know the watch could not make itself, and must have had a beginning—but here our evidence stops— By whom or how or when the watch was made, we have nothing to shew— The agent is impenetrably concealed. There may be one; there may be myriads— The Stoics inferred that there were Gods; but as in all the works of creation there is unity of action, it would have been more philosophical to infer unity of the agent— But the Stoics with this natural evidence mingled up the absurdest traditions, and Balbus immediately passes to the fables about Castor and Pollux, augury, the flight of birds and the feeding of Chickens— When he takes up his second point, he makes Gods of the Sun, moon and planets—the courses of which he describes— Next he deifies certain moral properties—such as Faith—the Mind—Virtue—Help, Safety, Concord, Victory—Love, Pleasure and all the Passions— Then distinguished men after death: atmospherical phenomena, Earth, Air and Water— These airy nothings extend to the 29th. Section— The rest of the Book argues the Government of the Gods, from the description of the Constellations, and the natural history of Beasts and Birds— That in all this there is a constant adaptation of cause to effect, Balbus considers as proof that it is all under the Government of the Gods—the whole substance of the argument is embraced in a quotation, Section 37. from Aristotle— There are five Sections from 40 to 44. of extracts from Cicero’s translation of the Astronomical Poem of Aratus—and from Section 56 to the end, the Providence of the Gods is manifested in human concerns, by the corporial and mental organization of man— All Paley’s Natural Theology is here included.