chaos. However, a person like you who is thick, impotent, and unseeing, and is in the clutches of blind chance and nature, could not even begin to stretch out a finger to interfere.”

So, just like the materialists, the one making these claims said: “In that case, own yourself. Why do you say you are working on someone else’s account?” To which the particle replied:

“If I had a brain like the sun, and all-embracing knowledge like its light, and all-encompassing power like its heat, and comprehensive senses like the seven colours in its light, and if I had a face that looked to all the places in which I travel and all the beings in which I work, and an eye that looked to them and words that carried authority with them, then perhaps I would indulge in foolishness like you and claim to own myself. Get out! Go away! You won’t get anything out of me!”

So, when the representative of those things held to be God’s partners despaired of the particle, he hoped to pursue the matter with a red blood corpuscle. And coming across one he said to it on behalf of causes and in the language of nature and philosophy: “I am your master and owner.” The red corpuscle replied to him through the tongue of truth and divine wisdom:

“I am not alone. If you are able to own all my fellows in the army of blood whose stamp, nature as officials, and order is the same, and if you have subtle wisdom and mighty power enough to own all the cells of the body in which we travel and are employed with perfect wisdom, and if you can demonstrate this to be the case, then perhaps some meaning might be found in your claim.

“But someone stupified like yourself cannot be owner with your only support being deaf nature and blind force; indeed, you are unable to interfere in so much as an atom. For the order with which we function is so perfect that only one who sees, hears, knows, and does everything can have authority over us.” And saying: “So, be silent! My duty is so important and the order so perfect that I have no time to answer garbled rubbish such as yours,” it repelled him.

Then, since he was unable to mislead it, the representative left and next came across the little house known as a cell of the body. He said to it in the language of philosophy and nature: “I could not persuade the particle and red corpuscle but perhaps you will be reasonable. Since you have been made of several substances just like a minute house, I am able to make you. You will be my artefact and true property.” The cell responded to him through the tongue of wisdom and truth, saying:

“I am only a minute little thing but I have very important duties and