But experience makes us aware that all the feelings
with which nature inspires us are such as I have just spoken
of; and there is therefore nothing in them which does not give
testimony to the power and goodness of the God [who has
produced them28]. Thus, for example, when the nerves which
are in the feet are violently or more than usually moved,
their movement, passing through the medulla of the spine29 to
the inmost parts of the brain, gives a sign to the mind which
makes it feel somewhat, to wit, pain, as though in the foot,
by which the mind is excited to do its utmost to remove the
cause of the evil as dangerous and hurtful to the foot. It is
true that God could have constituted the nature of man in such
a way that this same movement in the brain would have conveyed
something quite different to the mind; for example, it might
have produced consciousness of itself either in so far as it
is in the brain, or as it is in the foot, or as it is in some
other place between the foot and the brain, or it might
finally have produced consciousness of anything else
whatsoever; but none of all this would have contributed so
well to the conservation of the body.
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