9. So much then for what we had to say of sense-being, and the genus it
constitutes. It remains to analyze it into species. Every sense-being
is a body; but there are elementary and organized bodies; the former
are fire, earth, water and air; the organized bodies are those of
plants and animals, which are distinguished from each other by their
forms. The earth and the other elements may be divided into species.
Plants and bodies of animals may be classified according to their
forms; or we could classify apart the terrestrial animals, that inhabit
the earth, and those which belong to some other element. We might also
analyze bodies into those that are light, heavy, or intermediary; the
heavy bodies remaining in the middle of the world, the light bodies in
the superior region which surrounds the world, and the intermediary
bodies dwelling in the intermediary region. In each one of these
regions the bodies are distinguished by their exterior appearance (or,
figure); thus there exist the bodies of the (stars, or) celestial
bodies, and then those that belong to particular elements. After having
distributed the bodies according to the four elements, they could be
blended together in some other manner, and thus beget their mutual
differences of location, forms, and mixtures. Bodies could also be
distinguished as fiery, terrestrial, and so forth, according to their
predominating element.