The Text
Meditations VIII.35
Just as the Nature of rational things has given each rational being almost all his other powers, so also have we received this one from it; that, as this Nature moulds to its purpose whatever interference or opposition it meets, and gives it a place in the destined order of things, and makes it a part of itself, so also can the rational creature convert every hindrance into material for itself34 and utilize it for its own purposes.
- 34.See iv. 1; v. 20; vi. 50.