Silver (for example) is not of itself sufficient to frame a drinking cup; an operator also is required, which is the silversmith.

The like may be applied to vessels made of wood, brass, or any other material.
Anaxagoras the Clazomenian asserted Homoeomeries (or parts similar or homogeneous) to be the original cause of all beings; it seemed to him impossible that anything could arise of nothing or be dissolved into nothing.

Let us therefore instance in nourishment, which appears simple and uniform, such as bread which we owe to Ceres and water which we drink.

Of this very nutriment, our hair, our veins, our arteries, nerves, bones, and all our other parts are nourished.

These things thus being performed, it must be granted that the nourishment which is received by us contains all those things by which these of us are produced.