Miscellanies 6.17.155

Why, then, is the serpent called prudent? Because even in wicked deeds one can find a certain sequence, discernment, combination, and conjecture of the future. And most wrongdoings escape notice for this reason, that the wicked contrive for themselves to escape punishment by every means and entirely. Prudence, being manifold, extended through the whole world and through all human affairs, changes its name according to each of them. When it applies itself to first causes, it is called intellection; when it confirms this by demonstrative reasoning, it is named knowledge, wisdom, and scientific understanding; when it occurs in matters that tend to reverence and accepts the primary Word without contemplation, by keeping the working-out that lies in it, it is called faith; in sensible things, when it trusts what appears, as in these, most true, it is right opinion; again, in actions done by handiwork, it is art; and where, without contemplation of first causes, by observation of similar cases and by transition, it produces a certain impulse and structure, it is called experience. But what is proper, and truly principal and ruling, is that which the one who has believed receives in addition to all these, after firm faith: the Holy Spirit, by divine visitation.