(fatum) denotes an inevitable necessity depending upon a superior cause. The word is formed a fando, "from speaking, " and primarily implies the same with effatum, vis. a word or decree pronounced by God, or a fixed sentence whereby the Deity has prescribed the order of things, and allotted to every person what shall befal him. The Greeks called it as it were a chain or necessary series of things indissolubly linked together. It is also used to express a certain unavoidable designation of things, by which all agents, both necessary and voluntary, are swayed and directed to their ends. Fate is divided into physical and divine.
1. Physical fate is an order and series of natural causes, appropriated to their effects; as, that fire warms; bodies communicate motion to each other, &c." and the effects of it are all the events and phenomena of nature.
2. Divine fate is what is more usually called providence.
See PROVIDENCE, NECESSITY.