Eusebius of Caesarea · a new plain-English translation from the Greek
1| For “chance” is in truth a catchword of people who think at random and without reasoning, who do not grasp the reason for things and, because their grasp is too weak, suppose without reason that whatever they cannot account for has been arranged by no reason at all. Yet there are some things, the true grasp of whose truth lies deep, that have been given a wonderful nature, such as the nature of hot springs happens to be. No one could readily state the cause of so great a fire; and it is a wonder that, though it is surrounded on every side by cold water, it never departs from its native heat.
2| These things are rare, I am persuaded, so that the power of providence may be easily recognized among human beings, since it decrees that two natures most opposed to each other, heat and cold, should flow out filtered from one and the same root.
3| Many, indeed countless, gifts have been given to human beings by the Higher Power for their comfort and enjoyment, and above all the fruit of the olive and of the vine: the one serves to restore and gladden the soul, while the other is suited both to enjoyment and to the care of the body. An extraordinary wonder too is the constant and unbroken flow of rivers by night and by day, a symbol of everlasting and unbroken life; and the succession of night upon day has the same meaning.
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