'Not so much as you might think. My friend Isaac – I've told you of him – has spoken of a ‘generative spirit' that pervades all things, and that accounts for the possibility of new things being created from old – and if you don't believe me, then just ask yourself, how can flowers grow up out of manure? Why does meat turn itself into maggots, and ships' planking into worms? Why do images of sea-shells form in rocks far from any sea, and why do new stones grow in farmers' fields after the previous year's crop has been dug out? Clearly some organizing principle is at work, and it pervades all things invisibly, and accounts for the world's ability to have newness :to do something other than only decay.'