So that we may learn on all hands, that the preaching of the resurrection contains nothing beyond those facts which are known to us experimentally.

And yet we have said nothing of the most notable point concerning ourselves; I mean the first beginning of our existence. Who knows not the miracle of nature, what the maternal womb receives-what it produces? Thou seest how that which is implanted in the womb to be the beginning of the formation of the body is in a manner simple and homogeneous: but what language can express the variety of the composite body that is framed? and who, if he did not learn such a thing in nature generally, would think that to be possible which does take place-that that small thing of no account is the beginning of a thing so great? Great, I say, not only with regard to the bodily formation, but to what is more marvellous than this, I mean the soul itself, and the attributes we behold in it.
 

Ὥστε ἐξ ἁπάντων δυνατὸν εἶναι μαθεῖν͵ μηδὲν ἔξω τῶν τῇ πείρᾳ γνωριζομένων τὸ κήρυγμα περιέχειν τῆς ἀναστάσεως.

Καί τοιγε τὸ γνωριμώτατον τῶν ἡμετέρων ἐσιωπήσαμεν͵ αὐτὴν λέγω τὴν πρώτην τῆς συστάσεως ἡμῶν ἀφορμήν. Τίς γὰρ οὐκ οἶδε τὴν θαυματοποιίαν τῆς φύσεως͵ τί λαβοῦσα ἡ μητρῴα νηδύς͵ τί ἀπεργάζεται; ῍Η [229] οὐχ ὁρᾷς ὅπως ἀπλοῦν τρόπον τινὰ καὶ ὁμοιομερές ἐστι τὸ εἰς ἀφορμὴν τῆς συστάσεως τοῦ σώματος τοῖς σπλάγχνοις καταβαλλόμενον; τὴν δὲ ποικιλίαν τοῦ κατασκευαζομένου συγκρίματος τίς λόγος ἐκδιηγήσεται; Τίς δ' ἂν μὴ τῇ κοινῇ φύσει τὸ τοιοῦτον μαθών͵ δυνατὸν ἡγήσαιτο τὸ γινόμενον͵ ὅτι τὸ βραχύ τε καὶ ἀντ' οὐδενὸς ἐκεῖνο τοῦ τοσούτου πράγματός ἐστιν ἀρχή; μέγα δέ φημι͵ οὐ μόνον εἰς τὴν κατὰ τὸ σῶμα βλέπων διάπλασιν͵ ἀλλ' ὃ πρὸ τούτου θαυμάζειν ἄξιον͵ αὐτὴν λέγω τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ τὰ περὶ αὐτὴν θεωρούμενα.