§8.50.1Σίκυος πικρός;
Is the cucumber bitter?
ἄφες.
Throw it away.
βάτοι ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ;
Are there briers in the path?
ἔκκλινον.
Turn aside.
ἀρκεῖ, μὴ προσεπείπῃς· τί δὲ καὶ ἐγένετο ταῦτα ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ; ἐπεὶ καταγελασθήσῃ ὑπὸ ἀνθρώπου φυσιολόγου, ὡς ἂν καὶ ὑπὸ τέκτονος καὶ σκυτέως γελασθείης καταγινώσκων ὅτι ἐν τῷ ἐργαστηρίῳ ξέσματα καὶ περιτμήματα τῶν κατασκευαζομένων ὁρᾷς.
That is enough, do not go on to say: "Why indeed did these things come to be in the world?" For you will be laughed at by a student of nature, just as you would be laughed at by a carpenter and a shoemaker if you found fault because you see in their workshop the shavings and clippings of the things they are making.
καίτοι ἐκεῖνοί γε ἔχουσι ποῦ αὐτὰ ῥίψωσιν, ἡ δὲ τῶν ὅλων φύσις ἔξω οὐδὲν ἔχει, ἀλλὰ τὸ θαυμαστὸν τῆς τέχνης ταύτης ἐστὶν ὅτι περιορίσασα ἑαυτὴν πᾶν τὸ ἔνδον διαφθείρεσθαι καὶ γηράσκειν καὶ ἄχρηστον εἶναι δοκοῦν εἰς ἑαυτὴν μεταβάλλει, καὶ ὅτι πάλιν ἄλλα νεαρὰ ἐκ τούτων αὐτῶν ποιεῖ, ἵνα μήτε οὐσίας ἔξωθεν χρῄζῃ μήτε ὅπου ἐκβάλῃ τὰ σαπρότερα προσδέηται.
And yet they indeed have a place where they may throw them, but the nature of the whole has nothing outside itself. But the wonderful thing about this art is that, having limited itself, it changes into itself everything within that seems to be decaying, growing old, and becoming useless, and that again from these very things it makes other new things, so that it neither requires substance from without, nor needs in addition a place where it may cast out what is decayed.
ἀρκεῖται οὖν καὶ χώρᾳ τῇ ἑαυτῆς καὶ ὕλῃ τῇ ἑαυτῆς καὶ τέχνῃ τῇ ἰδίᾳ.
It is satisfied, therefore, with its own space, its own material, and its own art.