Two examples of one construction. The passage is built as a pair of observations, both cast in the same mould: a man does a small thing and departs — thereafter another cause takes over. Seed is left in a womb, and «ἄλλη αἰτία παραλαβοῦσα» (another cause, having taken it up) finishes off the infant. Food is let down through the throat — and again ἄλλη αἰτία παραλαβοῦσα makes perception, TERMimpulse, life, strength. The twice-repeated παραλαβοῦσα — "having taken up the relay" — is the whole argument: our contribution is minute and breaks off at once; the work is carried through by someone other than the one who began it.

Two exclamations in place of a description. ἐξ οἵου οἷον; — "from what a thing, what a thing!" — and ὅσα καὶ οἷα; — "how many and of what kind!" Marcus does not describe the result; he refuses to describe it: an exclamatory question stands where one expects an inventory. The device underlines the disproportion between input and output.

Hiddenness as the object of observation. ἐν τοιαύτῃ ἐγκαλύψει — "in such a wrapping": what happens is not merely invisible, it is covered over, as under a veil. And the EXERCISEinstruction is not to solve it but to contemplate the covered thing (θεωρεῖν) and see the power (τὴν δύναμιν ὁρᾶν).

The analogy with weight. The argument closes with a comparison: the power is seen just as "we see the power that bears down and the power that bears up" — that is, heaviness and lightness. No one has ever seen these with the eyes either, and yet no one doubts them: οὐχὶ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς, ἀλλ’ οὐχ ἧττον ἐναργῶς — "not with the eyes, but no less plainly." The formative power is set beside everyday physics: it is no more mysterious than weight, it merely works under a covering. Cf. 10.7 (the solid and the breath-like gathered from food and air); 4.36; 6.42. The governing discipline is assent, the sustaining one desire.