2000. THAT NOT THE VERY LEAST MOTION IS EVER MADE BY MAN APART FROM A STATED LAW. I have sometimes observed that nothing ever existed but by the operation of a fixed law, not even the least thing, as, for instance, the casual occurrence of anything to the eye, the movement of my hand, etc. But I then perceived also that I might be persuaded concerning it by an influx from heaven, so that in fact I was persuaded; for the heavens are in such a persuasion, and that nothing, not even the slightest occurrence takes place but in consequence of the will, the good pleasure, or the permission of the Lord, thus perpetually from a fixed law, as may be sufficiently manifest from one experience only, to wit, that there could not appear to me any representative image, nor could any voice be heard, unless entirely according to a law from which there could not be the least imaginable deviation. Thus all and singular things are ordered with reference to ends, and those ends to a [still ulterior] end. - 1748, May 19.