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A general account of bonding<br />
Anyone who has the power to bind must to some degree have a universal<br />
theory of things in order to be able to bind humans (who are, indeed, the<br />
culmination of all things). As we have said elsewhere, in this highest<br />
species, it is possible to see, and especially to rank, the species of all things.<br />
For example, some humans are like fish, others like birds, others like<br />
snakes, and still others like reptiles, whether it be in the latters’ species or<br />
in their genera. Also, different people have different functions, habits, purposes,<br />
inclinations, understandings and eras. And so, as was imagined by<br />
Proteus and Achelous, the same material object can be changed into<br />
different forms and figures, such that to bind them continuously one<br />
should always use differing kinds of knots. In addition to this, let us notice<br />
the conditions of human life: being young and then old; being of a moderate<br />
station, or noble, or rich, or powerful, or happy, or, indeed, even envious<br />
and ambitious; or being a soldier or a merchant, or one of the many<br />
other officials who play a role in different ways in the administration of a<br />
state, and thus who must be bonded to each other because they function as<br />
agents and instruments of the state. In effect, it seems that nothing can fall<br />
outside of an examination of civil life when it is considered in this way<br />
(whether it be bonding, or being bonded, or the bonds themselves, or their<br />
circumstances). This is the reason why we have assembled the following<br />
considerations, which are entitled A general account of bonding.<br />
On bonding agents in general<br />
1. Types of bonding agents. Taken universally, bonding agents are God,<br />
demons, souls, animals, nature, chance, luck and, finally, fate. This universal<br />
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