Since the work under consideration is the entire world, we would, were
our intelligence attentively to listen to its voice, hear it exclaim
as follows: "It is a divinity who has made Me, and from the divinity's
hands I issued complete, including all animated beings, entire and
self-sufficient, standing in need of nothing, since everything is
contained within Me; plants, animals, the whole of Nature, the
multitude of the divinities, the troupe of guardians, excellent souls,
and the men who are happy because of virtue. This refers not only
to the earth, which is rich in plants and animals of all kinds; the
power of the Soul extends also to the sea. Nor are the air and entire
heaven inanimate. They are the seat of all the excellent Souls, which
communicate life to the stars, and which preside over the circular
revolution of the heaven, a revolution that is eternal and full of
harmony, which imitates the movement of Intelligence by the eternal and
regular movement of the stars around one and the same centre, because
heaven has no need to seek anything outside of itself. All the beings
I contain aspire to the Good; all achieve Him, each according to its
potentiality. Indeed, from the Good depends the entire heaven,[33]
my whole Soul, the divinities that inhabit my various parts, all the
animals, all the plants, and all my apparently inanimate beings. In
this aggregation of beings some seem to participate only in existence,
others in life, others in sensation, others in intelligence, while
still others seem to participate in all the powers of life at one
time;[34] for we must not expect equal faculties for unequal things, as
for instance sight for the fingers, as it is suitable to the eye; while
the finger needs something else; it needs its own form, and has to
fulfil its function."