18. The selfsame also completes, by the effectuating art of nature, those (beings) which are inwardly

conceived in the womb, and forms (them) into animals. The same too makes to ascend to the heights as light, this humid, heavy, and naturally descending, matter (of sea-water¹⁵), and thus, completing the course of his government, changes it to sweetness, and brings it (again) in due measure, and at determined seasons, upon the earth: and, like the excellent husbandman who waters his land well, and attempers the wet with the dry, he changes (things) into every sort of form: at one time, into beautiful flowers; at another, into the forms peculiar to each species; at another, into delightful scents; at another, into different and diversified sorts of fruits; at another, into every kind of taste which gives pleasure.