45. "Gods⁸⁴ of the Gods, of whom I am the Creator: every thing therefore, that has been bound together, is dissoluble; hence, because you came into being, in order to exist, you are not immortal: neither (are you) wholly indissoluble." And again (speaking) on their being, whence this is, and how to be determined, he says: "What fire is to air; such the air is to the water; and the water to the earth : out of which He bound up and established the visible and sensible heavens. And, by means of these things, and out of them, which are thus and

the number of which is four, the body of the world came into being." After this he says : "And, as to the existence of time, in order that time might be, the Sun, the Moon, and the five other Stars, which have the title of wandering (planetary), came into existence; (and this) for its determination, preservation, and calculation. So God made each one of these bodies, and placed them (each) in (its) course." And again, he says of the heavens, how they existed in all time; there being no beginning of the essence (of these) not even one: or being, of what sort this was in its primitive commencement. He then turns his discourse to his soul, and says, "it became existent, is visible, is subject, to sense, and has a body: and, that all such things are thus subject to sense, and, that those which are subject to sense, are apprehended by thought, and (so) perceived to be existences".