nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new
things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of
that which will be. But thou art thinking only of seeds which are cast
into the earth or into a womb: but this is a very vulgar notion." All
things then are in a constant flux and change; some things are dissolved
into the elements, others come in their places; and so the "whole
universe continues ever young and perfect" (xii. 23).

Antoninus has some obscure expressions about what he calls "seminal
principles" ([Greek: spermatikoi logoi]). He opposes them to the
Epicurean atoms (vi. 24), and consequently his "seminal principles" are
not material atoms which wander about at hazard, and combine nobody
knows how. In one passage (iv. 21) he speaks of living principles, souls
([Greek: psychahi]) after the dissolution of their bodies being
received into the "seminal principle of the universe." Schultz thinks
that by "seminal principles Antoninus means the relations of the various
elemental principles, which relations are determined by the Deity and by
which alone the production of organized beings is possible." This may be
the meaning; but if it is, nothing of any value can be derived from
it.[A] Antoninus often uses the word "Nature" ([Greek: physis]), and we
must attempt to fix its meaning, The simple etymological sense of
[Greek: physis] is "production," the birth of what we call Things. The
Romans used Natura, which also means "birth" originally. But neither the
Greeks nor the Romans stuck to this simple meaning, nor do we. Antoninus
says (x. 6): "Whether the universe is [a concourse of] atoms or Nature
[is a system], let this first be established, that I am a part of the
whole which is governed by nature." Here it might seem as if nature were
personified and viewed as an active, efficient power; as something
which, it not independent of the Deity, acts by a power which is given
to it by the Deity. Such, if I understand the expression right, is the