The work of the Whole. The cosmos is given as a single agent: "the nature of the whole" (ἡ τῶν ὅλων TERMφύσις) has one "work" (ἔργον) — to transpose, transform, lift and carry things from place to place. Four verbs of motion draw the eternal circulation of matter; it is a compact formula of ceaseless transformation (cf. the image of the river of time, the body as a stream).

Three consolations. From the physics a therapy is drawn. (1) "All is turnings" (πάντα τροπαί) — but this is no cause for fear, "as though anything were new" (μή τι καινόν): all has happened before (7.1 — whoever has seen the present has seen all; the eternal recurrence of the same spectacles). (2) "All is familiar" (πάντα συνήθη) — DOGMAacceptance removes the shock of novelty. (3) "And the apportionments are equal" (ἴσαι αἱ ἀπονεμήσεις) — fate's dealing is proportionate, none is stinted or singled out; the same thought of just distribution is unfolded in 8.7 (κατ’ ἀξίαν). The strict term by the word is φύσις; μεταβάλλειν and τροπαί carry the concept of transformation, but the lemma μεταβολή itself is not in the text, so it is not entered among the terms. The governing discipline is desire (acceptance of transformation), the sustaining one assent (not to judge change a "new evil").