performed by the drop of fluid itself, without anyone directing it for that purpose. If this were possible without a wise, knowledgeable, powerful governor—one who knows how to direct the drop of fluid, transform it through successive stages, fashion from it the organ of hearing for its proper purpose and set it in its place, and place the organ of sight where it belongs in the body; likewise, attach the two working hands in their proper places and the two supporting feet in the positions most appropriate to them; and place each part—the heart, liver, spleen, all the other bodily structures, and the hands—in the position most fitting for it and best suited to its intended function—then water could rise from the [well] to him and mix with clay, and the clay could fall into a brick mould and take its shape. The bricks could then be laid at the building site, rising one above another in orderly courses until they formed a lofty, solid, well-built structure, without any builder or anyone raising one course upon another. Rather, the water and earth would take shape by themselves, through nothing other than themselves.

If this is impossible because it is not in the nature of water and earth to produce what I have described, then it is likewise impossible for a human being to be assembled, shaped, and given his features—with his beautiful form and marvellous constitution—by the drop of fluid itself and its inherent nature.

On this reasoning, the natural properties of wood would also allow a ship to come into being whose parts had come together and aligned,