Anyone who has the power to bind must to some degree have a universal theory of things in order to be able to bind humans (who are, indeed, the culmination of all things). As we have said elsewhere, in this highest species, it is possible to see, and especially to rank, the species of all things. For example, some humans are like fish, others like birds, others like snakes, and still others like reptiles, whether it be in the latters' species or in their genera. Also, different people have different functions, habits, purposes, inclinations, understandings and eras. And so, as was imagined by Proteus and Achelous, the same material object can be changed into different forms and figures, such that to bind them continuously one should always use differing kinds of knots. In addition to this, let us notice the conditions of human life: being young and then old; being of a moderate station, or noble, or rich, or powerful, or happy, or, indeed, even envious and ambitious; or being a soldier or a merchant, or one of the many other officials who play a role in different ways in the administration of a state, and thus who must be bonded to each other because they function as agents and instruments of the state. In effect, it seems that nothing can fall outside of an examination of civil life when it is considered in this way (whether it be bonding, or being bonded, or the bonds themselves, or their circumstances).