This is by what we must begin. Having to speak of sense-objects, and
knowing that all of them are contained in this world here below,
we must first scrutinize this world, establish within it divisions
according to the nature of the (beings) which compose it, and then
distribute them into genera, just as we would do if we had to analyze
the voice whose nature is infinite (by the diversity of sounds it
produces), reducing it to a definite number of kinds.[344] Observing
the elements common to many sounds, we would reduce them to one unity,
then, to a superior unity, further to a supreme unity, in which these
sounds appear as a small number of classes. Then, the elements common
to these individuals would be called "species," and that common to
various species would be called a genus. As to the voice, it is easy
enough to discover each species, to reduce all the species to unity,
and to predicate of all of them (as highest genus or category) the
general element, the voice. But an analysis as summary as this is
impossible with the (more complicated universe). In the sense-world we
will have to recognize several genera, which will differ from those of
the intelligible world, since the sense-world itself differs from the
intelligible world so much that it is not its counterpart, but only its
image, whose only element common (to its model) is the name.