[1]Izn your absence, my son Tat wanted to learn the nature of things as a whole, and he would allow me no delay. Because he is my son and a newcomer who but lately gained knowledge of them in each particular, I was forced to hold forth at some length so it would be easy for him to follow the explanation. To you, however, I wanted to write selectively on a few of the most important headings of what I told him, but I have given them a more mystical interpretation, suitable to someone of your greater age and learning in the nature of things.

[2]If all visible things have come to be and are coming to be; if those that are begotten come to be by another's agency, not of their own (the begotten are many or, rather, they are all visible things, all that are different and not alike); if, then, things that come to be come by another's agency, there is someone who makes them; and, if this someone is to be older than the begotten, he must be unbegotten. For I maintain that things begotten come to be by the agency of another; it is impossible, however, for anything to be older than all begotten entities unless it alone is unbegotten.[3]Also, such a one is stronger, unique, and alone truly wise in everything since none is older.[…]