Part the cause from the matter. An analytic exercise (EXERCISEdefinition): take the "quality of the cause" (ποιότης τοῦ αἰτίου), "circumscribe" (περιγράψας) it apart from the material (ὑλικόν), and contemplate it by itself. Stoic ontology: every thing is a compound of two principles, the δραστικόν (causal, active) and the ὑλικόν (passive, material); the analysis parts them (cf. 7.29 δίελε καὶ μέρισον; 8.11 the five-question grid of the definition; 8.03 the three sages who "saw the things, the causes, and the matter").

And the span besides. The second move is to "delimit the time" (τὸν χρόνον περιόρισον): the utmost this "peculiarly qualified thing" (τὸ ἰδίως ποιόν — the Stoic term for the individually-qualified particular) is able to subsist. Having parted it into cause and matter and added the brief span, the practitioner strips the thing of both the spell of value and the spell of permanence. The governing discipline is assent.