But just as we would understood the natures of Adam and of the trees of paradise much better if we had studied how infants are gradually formed in the wombs of their mothers, and how plants grow out of their seeds, than if we had only considered what they had been when God created them, so in the same way we would better understand the nature of all things in the world in general ifwe could imagine certain quite intelligible and very simple principles, by which we could clearly show that the stars, the earth, and in short the entire visible world might have been produced just as if from a few seeds (even though we know that it was not produced in this manner) than if we were merely to describe it as it is or as we belie it was created; and because I think I found such principles, I shall try to explain them here.