the possibility of being born

"... NON ENTIA ENIM LICET QUODAMMODO LEVIBUSQUE HOMINIBUS FACILIUS ATQUE INCURIOSIUS VERBIS REDDERE QUAM ENTIA, VERUNTAMEN PIO DILIGENTIQUE RERUM SCRIPTORI PLANE ALITER RES SE HABET: NIHIL TANTUM REPUGNAT NE VERBIS ILLUSTRETUR, AT NIHIL ADEO NECESSE EST ANTE HOMINUM OCULOS PROPONERE UT CERTAS QUASDAM RES, QUAS ESSE NEQUE DEMONSTRARI NEQUE PROBARI POTEST, QUAE CONTRA EO IPSO, QUOD PII DILIGENTESQUE VIRI ILLLAS QUASI UT ENTIA TRACTANT, ENTI NASCENDIQUE FACULTATI PAULULUM APPROINQUANT.

ALBERTUS SECUNDUS
tract. de. cristall. spirit. ed. Clangor. et Collof. lib.I cap.28

In Joseph Knecht's translation:

... For although in a certain sense and for light-minded persons non-existent things can be more easily and irresponsibly represented in words than existing things, for the serious and conscientious historian it is just the reverse. Nothing is harder, yet nothing is more necessary, than to speak of certain things whose existence is neither demonstrable nor probable. The very fact that serious and conscientious men treat them as existing things, bring them a step closer to existence and to the possibility of being born."

(The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse)