J. Sibree's version of The Philosophy of History, New
XIV INTRODUCTION
"Passions, private aims, and the satisfaction of selfish desires," Hegel observes in words that might easily be mistaken for St. Augustine's, "are most effective springs of action" because they
"respect none of the Umitations which justice and moraUty would impose" and because they exert a "more direct influence over men than the artificial and tedious discipline that tends toward order and self-restraint, law and morality." Yet, when we read the record of history and note the evil and ruin that such passions, aims, and desires have wrought, when we contemplate the
"miseries that have overwhelmed the noblest nations and polities, and the finest examples of private virtue," we experience, Hegel acknowledges, "mental torture, allowing no defense or escape but the consideration that what has happened could not be otherwise; that it is a fataUty which no intervention could alter." ^^ As a Christian apologist constantly combating the materiaUstic and astrological determinism preached by contemporary pagans, including the Epicureans and
Stoics, St. Augustine was not much inclined to speak of "fatality" in the governance of human history. Yet, in Book Five of The City of God, after asserting that the rise and fall of nations is governed by God's will, he did not hesitate to write: "If anyone attributes it to fate because he gives the name of fate to God's will or power, let him keep his opinion, but hold his tongue."
Centuries later, St. Thomas Aquinas cited these very words (together with an example of the pious compHance of Pope Gregory I) in support of his
10. Sdmtliche Werke, pp. 79-80 (trans, adapted from
J. Sibree's version of The Philosophy of History, New York, 1899, pp. 20-21). n. De civ., V, 1.