3. (It might however be objected) that the body of the world could
not contribute to the immortality of the world, since the body itself
fluctuates perpetually. But this fluctuation does not take place in
an outward direction, while the body (of the world) remains ever the
same because this fluctuation occurs so entirely within the world that
nothing issues therefrom. The world therefore could neither increase
nor diminish, nor further grow old. (As proof of this we may) consider
how, from all eternity, the earth constantly preserves the same shape
and mass; similarly, the air never diminishes, any more than the water.
The changes within them do not affect the universal living Organism.
Even we human beings subsist a long while, in spite of the perpetual
change of our constituent parts, and though some of these parts even
issue from the body. So much the more will the world's nature, from
which nothing issues, sufficiently harmonize with the nature of the
universal Soul to form along with her an organism which ever remains
the same, and subsists for ever.