All the souls which, having issued from the universal soul, administer large parts of the regions below the moon, resting on their pneuma but controlling it by reason, should be regarded as good daemons who do everything for the benefit of those they rule, whether they are in charge of certain animals, or of crops which have been assigned to them, or of what happens for the sake of these — showers of rain, moderate winds, fine weather, and the other things which work with them, and the balance of seasons within the year; or again, for our sake, they are in charge of skills, or of all kinds of education in the liberal arts, or of medicine and physical training and other such things. It is impossible for these daemons both to provide benefits and to cause harm to the same beings. (Porfírio, de Abstinentia)
Nor should we listen at all to those who have held that the highest parts of the universe are indeed governed by divine Providence, that is starting from the confines of our more corporeal air and going upwards, but that this lowest part, which is earthy and fluid and consists of the air which is nearer to us, and flows with exhalations of earth and water, where winds and clouds rush together, is moved instead by chance and fortuitous movements. (Agostinho, De Genesi ad Litteram)
(RSS2)