XXXIX
1. [XIV. M.] Asc. What part of the economy, Thrice-greatest one, does the Heimarmenē, or Fate, then occupy? For do not the celestial Gods rule over generals; the terrene occupy particulars?
Tris. That which we call Heimarmenē, Asclepius, is the necessity of all things that are born, bound ever to themselves with interlinked enchainments.
This, then, is either the effector of all things, or it is highest God, or what is made the second God by God Himself,—or else the discipline of all things both in heaven and on earth, established by the laws of the Divine.
2. And so these twain, Fate and Necessity, are bound to one another mutually by inseparable cohesion.
The former of them, the Heimarmenē, gives birth to the beginnings of all things; Necessity compels the end of [all] depending from these principals.
On these doth Order follow, that is their warp-and-woof, and Time’s arrangement for the perfecting of [all] things. For there is naught without the interblend of Order.
That Cosmos is made perfect in all things; for Cosmos’ self is vehicled in Order, or totally consists of Order.