Things ordinary people are impressed by fall into the categories of things that are held together by simple physics (like stone or wood), or by natural growth (figs, vines, olives...). Those admired by more advanced minds are held together by a living soul (sheep, herds of cows). Still more sophisticated people admire what is guided by a rational mind – not the universal mind, but one admired for technical knowledge, or for some other skill.

Time is a river, a violent current of events, glimpse once and already carried past us, and another follows and is gone.