Plenty for Need, Little for Pleasure

Let what has been said be enough to prove that nothing exists without reason and intelligence, and that reason itself and providence come from God. It is he who has also distributed the metals, such as gold, silver, copper and the rest, in due proportion. He ordained an abundant supply of those that would be most needed and most widely used, while he dealt out those that serve only for pleasure, for ornament and luxury, with a hand both generous and sparing, keeping a middle course between stinginess and excess. For if the metals used for ornament were found in the same abundance as the rest, the searchers for metals would be driven by greed to despise and neglect to gather those, like iron or copper, that serve for farming, for building houses, or for fitting out ships. They would care only for those that lead to luxury and to a superfluous excess of wealth. That is why, as they say, the search for gold and silver is far more difficult and laborious than for any other metal: the violence of the toil acts as a counterweight to the violence of the desire.

And how many more examples could be listed of the workings of that Divine Providence which, in all the gifts it has so freely given us, plainly urges us to practice self-control and every other virtue, and leads us away from unfitting greed! To trace the hidden reasons for all these things is indeed a task beyond the power of human abilities. For how can the mind of a frail and perishable being arrive at the knowledge of perfect truth, or grasp in its purity the counsel of God from the beginning?