the first is that the world, with everything in it, could be the opposite of what it is. Thus, for example, it could be smaller or larger than it is, have a different shape, contain a different number of bodies, or have each of its moving bodies move in the opposite direction. It would therefore be possible for a stone to move upward, fire downward, eastward motion to be westward, and westward motion to be eastward.

The second premise is that whatever admits of such possibilities has been brought into existence and has an originator—that is, an agent who brought it into existence and determined for it one of the two possibilities rather than the other.

As for the first premise, it is rhetorical, resting on first impressions. In the case of