2. This is the first reflection of every soul.[219] By an influx of
the spirit of life, the universal Soul produced all the animals upon
earth, in the air and in the sea, as well as the divine stars, the
sun, and the immense heaven. It was the universal Soul that gave form
to the heavens, and which presides over their regular revolutions;
and she effects all that without mingling with the being to whom
she communicates form, movement and life. The universal Soul is far
superior to all created things. While the latter are born or die in
the measure that she imparts to them, or withdraws from them their
life, she herself is "being" and eternal life, because she could not
cease being herself. To understand how life can simultaneously be
imparted to the universe and to each individual, we must contemplate
the universal Soul. To rise to this contemplation, the soul must be
worthy of it by nobility, must have liberated herself from error, and
must have withdrawn from the objects that fascinate the glances of
worldly souls, must have immersed herself in a profound meditation,
and she must have succeeded in effecting the silence not only of the
agitations of the body that enfolds her, and the tumult of sensations,
but also of all that surrounds her. Therefore let silence be kept
by all--namely, earth, air, sea, and even heaven. Then let the soul
represent to herself the great Soul which, from all sides, overflows
into this immovable mass, spreading within it, penetrating into it
intimately, illuminating it as the rays of the sun light and gild a
dark cloud. Thus the universal Soul, by descending into this world
redeemed this great body from the inertia in which it lay, imparting to
it movement, life and immortality. Eternally moved by an intelligent
power, heaven became a being full of life and felicity. The presence
of the Soul made an admirable whole from what before was no more than
in inert corpse, water and earth, or rather, darkness of matter, which,
as Homer[220] says, was an "object of horror for the divinities."