1. the nutritive; 2. the growth promoting; and 3. the propagating. Of these the nutritive is as the starting-point; the propagating as the aim and end; and the growth-promoting as the means binding the end to the starting-place. Indeed the souled body stands in absolute need of these three powers for the following reasons: Whereas the Divine Command came down upon Nature enjoining (imposing) upon her the task of forming a compound living being out of the four elements after such wise fashion as they called for in it; and whereas Nature of herself is unable to originate a souled body at one stroke, but can do so only by promoting its growth little by little;[F] and whereas an individual that is put together after the manner of animal composition is susceptible of being again decomposed and melting away by the natures of its constituents; and whereas a thing composed of opposites will not keep up so protracted a duration and last so long a time as is expected of it--therefore Nature is in want of a power by which she can fabricate a living body by promotion of growth; so she has been supplied by Divine Providence with the growth-giving power; and is in want of a power whereby she can preserve the souled body at an even standard[G] over against the waste which it undergoes in making up for what disintegration wears away from it; so she has been succoured by Divine Providence with the nutritive power; and is in want of a power that shall mould, out of the living natural body, a piece that she shall dwell in, in order that if corruption permeate the body it shall have sought for itself a successor as a substitute, whereby to arrive at the preservation of species; so she has been helped by the Divine Providence with the propagating (generating) power.