[Footnote: words in Greek]
CCV. That nevertheless there is a moral certainty that all the
things of this world are such as has been here shown they may be.
But nevertheless, that I may not wrong the truth by supposing it
less certain than it is, I will here distinguish two kinds of
certitude. The first is called moral, that is, a certainty
sufficient for the conduct of life, though, if we look to the
absolute power of God, what is morally certain may be false. [Thus,
those who never visited Rome do not doubt that it is a city of
Italy, though it might be that all from whom they got their
information were deceived]. Again, if any one, wishing to decipher a
letter written in Latin characters that are not placed in regular
order, bethinks himself of reading a B wherever an A is found, and a
C wherever there is a B, and thus of substituting in place of each
letter the one which follows it in the order of the alphabet, and if
by this means he finds that there are certain Latin words composed
of these, he will not doubt that the true meaning of the writing is
contained in these words, although he may discover this only by
conjecture, and although it is possible that the writer of it did
not arrange the letters on this principle of alphabetical order, but
on some other, and thus concealed another meaning in it: for this is
so improbable [especially when the cipher contains a number of
words] as to seem incredible.
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