8 



Fire, indeed, when it is congregated into one 

 thing, generates air, but air generates water, and 

 water earth. From earth, also, there is the same 

 circuit of mutation, as far as to fire, from whence it 

 began to be changed. But fruits, and most plants 

 that derive their origin from a root, receive the 

 beginning of their generation from seeds. When, 

 however, they bear fruit and arrive at maturity, 

 again they are resolved into seed, nature producing 

 a complete circulation from the same to the same. 



But men and other animals, in a subordinate de- 

 gree, change the universal boundary of nature ; for 

 in these there is no periodical return to the first 

 age, nor is there an antiperistasis of mutation into 

 each other, as there is in fire and air, water and 

 earth ; but the mutations of their ages being ac- 

 complished in a four-fold circle*, they are dis- 

 solved, and again return to existence ; these, there- 

 fore, are the signs and indications that the uni- 

 verse, which comprehends [all things], will always 

 endure and be preserved, but that its parts, and 

 such things in it as are supervenient, are corrupted 

 and dissolved. 



Further still, it is credible that the universe is 

 without a beginning, and without an end, from its 



* This four-fold mutation of ages in the human race, consists 

 of the infant, the lad, the man, and the old man, as is well ob- 

 served by Theo of Smyrna. See my Theoretic Arithmetic, p. 189. 



