s the creation of another; and that is not to be
destroyed but to change.

But if the World is to be destroyed by other bodies than these it is
impossible to say where such bodies are or whence they are to arise.

Again, everything destroyed is destroyed either in form or matter. (Form
is the shape of a thing, matter the body.) Now if the form is destroyed
and the matter remains, we see other things come into being. If matter
is destroyed, how is it that the supply has not failed in all these
years?

If when matter is destroyed other matter takes its place, the new matter
must come either from something that is or from something that is not.
If from that-which-is, as long as that-which-is always remains, matter
always remains. But if that-which-is is destroyed, such a theory means
that not the World only but everything in the universe is destroyed.

If again matter comes from that-which-is-not: in the first place, it is
impossible for anything to come from that which is not; but suppose it
to happen, and that matter did arise from that which is not; then, as
long as there are things which are not, matter will exist. For I presume
there can never be an end of things which are not.

If they say that matter <will become> formless: in the first place, why
does this happen to the world as a whole when it does not happen to any
part? Secondly, by this hypothesis they do not destroy the being of
bodies, but only their beauty.

Further, everything destroyed is either resolved into the elements from
which it came, or else vanishes into not-being. If things are resolved
into the elements from which they came, then there will be others: else
how did they come into being at all? If that-which-is is to depart into
not-being, what prevents that happening to God himself? (Which is
absurd.) Or if God's power prevents that, it is not a mark of power to
be able to save nothing but oneself. And it is equally impossible for
that-which-is to come out of nothing and to depart into nothing.

Again, if the World is destroyed, it must needs either be destroyed
according to Nature or against Nature. Against Nature is impossible, for
that which is against nature is not stronger than Nature.[222:1] If
according to Nature, there must be another Nature which changes the
Nature of the World: which does not appear.

Again, anything that is naturally destructible we can ourselves destroy.
But no one has ever destroyed or altered the round body