"I perform innumerable duties. Entering many creatures which are all different I do my work in them. And there are, from among countless particles like me, those that move from place to place² and work with me. If you have the knowledge and power to employ me in all those duties, and the authority and ability to employ and have at your command all those others as well, and if you are able to be the true owner of and to have total control over the beings of which I become a part in complete order, for example, over red blood-corpuscles, then you can claim to be master over me and ascribe me to something other than God Almighty. But if you cannot do all these things, be silent!
"And in the same way that you cannot have mastery over me. you cannot interfere in any way. For there is such complete orderliness in our duties and motion that one who does not have infinite wisdom and all-encompassing knowledge cannot meddle with us. If he did. it would cause 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." And 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 likę 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.
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2. Indeed, every object which is in motion, from minute particles to the planets, displays on itself the stamp of 'eternal besoughtedncss' and unity. Also, by reason of its movement, each of them takes possession of all the places in which it travels in the name of unity, thus including them in the property of its owner. As for those creatures that are not in motion, they arc each of them, from plants to the fixed stars, like a seal of unit) showing the place in which it is situated to be the missive of its Maker. That is to say. all flowers and fruits are stamps and seals of unity which demonstrate, in the name of unity, that their habitats and native places are lhe missives of their Maker. In short, through their motion all things take possession of all things in the name of unity. That is. one who docs not have all the stars within his grasp cannot have mastery over a single particle.