From breathing to co-thinking. An elegant step of Stoic physics: as the body "breathes together" (συμπνεῖν) with the surrounding air, so it is time for the rational part to "think together" (συμφρονεῖν) with the DOGMAall-embracing intelligent principle (τῷ περιέχοντι πάντα νοερῷ). The prefix συν- equates two levels of participation: the physical (lungs and air) and the noetic (mind and the cosmic Logos). To live is already to be in ceaseless exchange with the whole; to grasp this at the level of thought is a second, higher inhalation.

Reason diffused, like air. The ground is the Stoic physics of pneuma: "the intelligent power (ἡ νοερὰ δύναμις) is diffused everywhere (πάντῃ κέχυται) and pervades all (διαπεφοίτηκε)" — no less than the air. The only difference is the capacity to "draw it in" (σπάσαι): the air every living thing inhales, but the cosmic reason only the one who is turned toward it in consciousness "draws in." The single DOGMArational continuum is the same that makes all rational beings fellow-citizens (of the common νοερόν; cf. 4.4 — the common λόγος; 12.30 — "one light of the sun … one intelligent element"). There are no term-lemmata in the text (νοερός is an adjective, not νοῦς). The governing discipline is assent (to think together with the reason of the Whole).