Was the world always in existence and without beginning or created, and had it a beginning? Created, I reply, being visible and tangible and therefore sensible; and all sensible things are created. . . . Which of the patterns had the Artificer in view when He made the world— the pattern of the unchangeable or of that which is created? If the world is indeed fair and the Artificer good, it is manifest that He must have looked to that which is eternal—Thus, when all things were in disorder, God created in each thing all the measures and harmonies which they could possibly receive. For in those days nothing had any proportion except by accident nor did any of the things which now have names deserve to be named at all, neither fire nor water nor the other elements. All these the Creator first set in order and out of them he constructed the universe. —PLATO, TIMAEUS, C. 370 B.C.
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