Now suppose that as Chrysippus says the fire which has resolved the world as constructed into itself is the seed of the world which will result and that there is no fallacy in his theories on the subject, primarily that its generation comes from seed and its resolution passes into seed; secondly that natural philosophy shows the world to be also a rational being, having not only life but mind, and further a wise mind, still these establish nothing of what he wishes to prove but its opposite, namely that it will never be destroyed. The proofs of this lie ready at hand for those who do not shrink from examining them. The world has evidently either plant-life or animal-life, but whether it has one or the other, if it is destroyed at the conflagration it will never become seed to itself. Take the testimony of the plants and animals in our experience; none of them lesser or greater ever when destroyed pass into the condition of producing seed. We see how many types of cultivated trees and of uncultivated also are spread over every part of the earth. Each of these trees so long as the stem is sound produces with its fruit the germ of impregnation also. But when it withers away by length of time, or is destroyed in some other way with its roots as well it is never anywhere capable of being resolved into seed. In the same way also the different kinds of animals so numerous that it would be difficult even to give their names, while they survive and are vigorous, emit generating seed, but when they are dead they never anywhere become seed. For it is foolish to suppose that a man when alive uses the eighth part of his life principle, called the generative, to produce his like, but when dead uses his whole self. For death is not more efficacious than life. Besides nothing that exists is made completely out of seed alone without its proper sustenance. Seed is analogous to beginning and the beginning by itself does not generate fullness. For neither must you suppose that the ear of wheat grows only from the seed laid down in the field by the husbandmen. The double sustenance from the earth, moist and dry is a very great factor in its growth and the embryos moulded in the womb cannot be brought to life merely from the seed, but need also the fostering sustenance from outside which the pregnant mother administers. What is the purpose of these remarks? It is to show that at the conflagration seed alone will remain and nothing will exist to nourish it, as all things that would give nourishment are resolved into fire, and lame and imperfect therefore will be the genesis of the world brought about at the rebirth, since that which could best co-operate in its consummation, which the originating seed takes as a staff for its support, has been destroyed. The absurdity of this is self-evident and needs no further refutation. Again all things which originate from seed are greater in bulk than that which made them and visibly occupy a greater space. Thus trees which soar to heaven often spring from a very small grain, and animals of great corpulence and stature come from the emission of a little moisture. Also there is the fact mentioned a little above that during the time following closely on the birth the things generated are smaller but afterwards increase in size till they reach their full consummation. But in the universe the opposite will take place. The seed will both be greater and will occupy more space, but the result produced will be smaller, and will be seen to take up less space, and the Cosmos which forms itself from the seed will not gradually advance in growth but on the contrary will be reduced from a greater bulk to a lesser. The truth of this statement can be easily seen. Every body which is resolved into fire is diffused as well as resolved, but when the flame in it is being quenched, it is contracted and drawn in. Facts so clear as these need no proofs to testify to them as though they were matters of uncertainty. Assuredly the world when consumed by fire will become greater because its whole substance is resolved into very fine ether. This the Stoics seem to me to have foreseen and therefore left room in their theory for an infinite void outside the Cosmos, so that when it had to accept a sort of infinite diffusion, it might not lack a place to receive the overflow. So then when it has advanced and grown to such an extent that, under the infinite magnitude of the pressure forcing it, it extends its course almost to the illimitable existence of the void, even this ranks as seed, but when at the rebirth it is brought to its consummation in a diminished condition it ranks as a whole substance, though the fire at its extinction is contracted into the thickness of air and the air is contracted and subsides into water and the water condenses still more as it changes into the most compressed of the elements, earth. These conclusions are contrary to the accepted principles of those who are capable of judging the sequence of events aright.
On the Eternity of the World 19
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