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The earth is at once part and material of the world. You are not, I think, more likely to ask why it is a part than why the sky is a part. The one is just as essential as the other to the existence of the whole, which they go to make up, and from which [from the one no less than from the other]37 sustenance is provided for all animals and crops and stars. From the earth all the strength of every man, all the energy of the world with its ceaseless demands, are supplied. Hence proceeds the force that, by day and by night, sustains in their labours so many stars, so active and so eager, and that provides their food. The universal nature derives from this source what suffices for its nourishment. The world has appropriated all that it requires throughout eternity. To adopt a tiny illustration of a great subject: eggs enclose within them as much moisture as they require for the completion of the creature that is to be hatched.