His first ground was, that whatsoever was the prolific seed of all animals was a principle, and that is moist; so that it is probable that all things receive their original from humidity.

His second reason was, that all plants are nourished and fructified by that thing which is moist, of which being deprived they wither away.

Thirdly, that that fire of which the sun and stars are made is nourished by watery exhalations,--yea, and the world itself; which moved Homer to sing that the generation of it was from water:-- The ocean is Of all things the kind genesis.
(Iliad, xiv.

246.) Anaximander, who himself was a Milesian, assigns the principle of all things to the Infinite, from whence all things flow, and into the same are corrupted; hence it is that infinite worlds are framed, and those dissolve again into that whence they have their origin.

And thus he farther proceeds, For what other reason is there of an Infinite but this, that there may be nothing deficient as to the generation or subsistence of what is in Nature?
There is his error, that he doth not acquaint us what this Infinite is, whether it be air, or water, or earth, or any other such like body.