The first principle of all of them was the generation
of the marrow. For the bonds of life which unite the soul with
the body are made fast there, and they are the root and
foundation of the human race. The marrow itself is created out of
other materials: God took such of the primary triangles as were
straight and smooth, and were adapted by their perfection to
produce fire and water, and air and earth-these, I say, he
separated from their kinds, and mingling them in due proportions
with one another, made the marrow out of them to be a universal
seed of the whole race of mankind; and in this seed he then
planted and enclosed the souls, and in the original distribution
gave to the marrow as many and various forms as the different
kinds of souls were hereafter to receive. That which, like a
field, was to receive the divine seed, he made round every way,
and called that portion of the marrow, brain, intending that,
when an animal was perfected, the vessel containing this
substance should be the head; but that which was intended to
contain the remaining and mortal part of the soul he distributed
into figures at once around and elongated, and he called them all
by the name "marrow"; and to these, as to anchors,
fastening the bonds of the whole soul, he proceeded to fashion
around them the entire framework of our body, constructing for
the marrow, first of all a complete covering of bone.
