587. Everything in nature is subject to a "cycle", which again – as we shall see later – is the same as a mental and physical "circular course". Without this phenomenon the "solid", "liquid" and "gaseous" states of substances or matter would be absolutely impossible. That ice becomes water, and water becomes steam and steam turns into air, and vice versa, is just an expression of a principle that applies to all substances. Matter or substance of any kind can appear solely in one or another of these states. "Solid" matter is analogous with ice, which may "melt" and become "liquid", which can then turn into "steam", into "air" or "atmosphere", just as the process can be reversed. From being gaseous or "air" it can become "moisture" and once again turn into "solid matter". It is this course of changeability in matter that we define as the "cycle".
      As the living being cannot exist without also constituting "substance" or "matter" (X3), then its manifestation or creation, which is indeed firmly based on matter, becomes a visible expression in the very highest degree of that substance's "cycle". Therefore the strongest or most fundamental expression of this "cycle" is the living being's "fate". "Fate" is the living being's manifestation or creation in matter. And this "fate" must necessarily reveal the above mentioned "cycle". We see, too, the living being's "fate" represents both "solid", "liquid" and "gaseous" matter; in fact, it would be quite impossible for things not to be exactly so. All types of movement within this "fate" would be totally out of the question if they did not really constitute one or another form of the transmutation of matter from one of these states to another. What are the organisms of living beings but the interaction between the various stages of that matter? If matter could not appear in a "solid" form there could be no creation of that which is so absolutely necessary for all physical manifestation, namely the "solid support" we call the "skeleton", and such things as musculature or "flesh", sinews, skin and hair would be an impossibility. Without matter in a "liquid" state neither could there exist "water" or "blood". And consequently there could not exist any of the various forms of organic living beings we are accustomed to meet with. The same would be the case if there were no "gaseous" forms of matter. Any idea of "respiration" or other related phenomena so necessary for the existence of any physical life would be excluded. This applies also to the "gill function" in fishes, designed as it is for extracting water's "oxygen" – which is also matter in a "gaseous" state – for the benefit of the organisms.