If fire also be a reason engaged in matter, and in this respect
resemble the earth, it was not born by chance. Whence would it
come?[93] Lucretius thought it came from rubbing (sticks or stones).
But fire existed in the universe before one body rubbed another;
bodies already possess fire when they rub up against one another; for
it must not be believed that matter possesses fire potentially, so
that it is capable of producing it spontaneously. But what is fire,
since the principle which produces the fire, giving it a form, must
be a "reason"? It is a soul capable of producing the fire, that is, a
"reason" and a life, which (fuse) into one thing. That is why Plato
says that in every object there is a soul[94]; that is, a power capable
of producing the sense-fire. Thus the principle which produces the fire
in our world is a "fiery life," a fire that is more real than ours.
Since then the intelligible Fire is a fire more real than ours, it also
possesses a moral life. The Fire-in-itself therefore possesses life.
There is a similar "reason" in the other elements, air and water. Why
should not these things be as animated as earth is? They are evidently
contained in the universal living Organism, and they constitute parts
thereof. Doubtless life is not manifest in them, any more than in the
earth; but it can be recognized in them, as it is recognized in the
earth, by its productions; for living beings are born in the fire, and
still more in the water, as is better known; others also are formed
in the air. The flames that we daily see lit and extinguished do not
manifest in the universal Soul (because of the shortness of their
duration); her presence is not revealed in the fire, because she does
not here below succeed in reaching a mass of sufficient permanency.