1. [/Her/.] The Lord and Demiurge of all eternal bodies, Tat, when He
had made them once for all, made them no more, nor doth He make them [now].

Committing them unto themselves, and co-uniting them with one another,
He let them go, in want of naught, as everlasting things.

If they have want of any, it will be want of one another and not of any
increase to their number from without, in that they are immortal.

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For that it needs must be that bodies made by Him should have their
nature of this kind.

2. Our Demiurge, 1 <#fn_86> however, who is [himself already] in a
body, 2 <#fn_87> hath made us,—he makes for ever, and will [ever] make,
bodies corruptible and under sway of death.

For ’twere not law that he should imitate the Maker of himself,—all the
more so as ’tis impossible.

For that the latter did create from the first essence which is bodiless;
the former made as from the bodying 3 <#fn_88> brought into existence
[by his Lord].

3. It follows, then, according to right reason, that while those bodies,
since they are brought into existence from incorporal essence, are free
from death, ours are corruptible and under sway of death,—in that our
matter is composed of bodies, 4 <#fn_89> as may be seen from their being
weak and needing much assistance.

For how would it be possible our bodies’ continuity should last, unless
it had some nutriment imported [into it] from similar elements, and [so]
renewed our bodies day by day?

For that we have a stream of earth, and water,

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fire, and air, flowing into us, which renovates our bodies, and keeps
our tent 1 <#fn_90> together.

We are too weak to bear the motions [of our frames], enduring them not
even for one single day.

For know, [my] son, that if our bodies did not rest at night, we should
not last a single day.

4. Wherefore, our Maker, being good, and with foreknowledge of all
things, in order that the animal may last, hath given sleep, the
greatest [calm 2 <#fn_91>] of the fatigue of motion, and hath appointed
equal time to each, or rather more, for rest.

Ponder well, son, the mightiest energy of sleep,—the opposite to the
soul’s [energy], but not inferior to it.

For that just as the soul is motion’s energy, so bodies also cannot live
without [the help of] sleep.

For ’tis the relaxation and the recreation of the jointed limbs; it also
operates within,

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converting into body the fresh supply of matter that flows in,
apportioning to each its proper [kind],—the water to the blood, the
earth to bones and marrow, the air to nerves and veins, the fire to
sight. 1 <#fn_92>

Wherefore the body, too, feels keen delight in sleep, for it is sleep
that brings this [feeling of] delight into activity.