11. (The Timaeus of Plato[90]) states that heaven has not scorned to
receive any of the forms of the animals, of which we see so great
a number. The cause must be that this universe was to contain the
universality of things. Whence does it derive all the things it
contains? From on high? Yes, it received from above all the things that
were produced by reason, according to an intelligible form. But, just
as it contains fire and water, it must also contain plant-life. Now,
how could there be plant-life in the intelligible world? Are earth and
fire living entities within it? For they must be either living or dead
entities; in the latter case, not everything would be alive in the
intelligible world. In what state then do the above-mentioned objects
find themselves on high (in the intelligible world)?
First it can be demonstrated that plants contain nothing opposed to
reason; since, even here below, a plant contains a "reason" which
constitutes its life.[91] But if the essential "reason" of the plant,
which constitutes it, is a life of a particular kind, and a kind of
soul, and if this "reason" itself be a unity, is it the primary Plant?
No: the primary Plant, from which the particular plant is derived, is
above that "reason." The primary Plant is unity; the other is multiple,
and necessarily derives from this unity. If so, the primary Plant must
possess life in a still higher degree, and be the Plant itself from
which the plants here below proceed, which occupy the second or third
rank, and which derive from the primary Plant the traces of the life
they reveal.