10. Now let us return to that which has always been what it is. Let
us, in thought, embrace all beings: air, light, sun, and moon. Let us
then consider the sun, the light, and so forth, as being all things,
without ever forgetting that there are things that occupy the first
rank, others the second, or the third. Let us, at the summit of
this series of beings, conceive of the universal Soul as subsisting
eternally. Let us then posit that which holds the first rank after her,
and thus continue till we arrive at the things that occupy the last
rank, and which, as it were, are the last glimmerings of the light shed
by the soul. Let us represent these things as an extension first dark,
and then later illuminated by the form which comes to impress itself
on an originally dark background. This background is embellished by
reason in virtue of the entire universal Soul's independent power of
embellishing matter by means of reasons, just as the "seminal reasons"
themselves fashion and form animals as microcosms. According to its
nature, the Soul gives a form to everything she touches. She produces
without casual conception, without the delays of deliberation, or of
those of voluntary determination. Otherwise, she would not be acting
according to her nature, but according to the precepts of a borrowed
art. Art, indeed, is posterior to nature. Art imitates by producing
obscure and feeble imitations of nature's works, toys without value or
merit; and besides, art makes use of a great battery of apparatus to
produce these images. On the contrary, the universal Soul, dominating
bodies by virtue of her nature ("being") makes them become and be what
she desires; for the things themselves that exist since the beginning
cannot raise resistance to her will. In inferior things, as the result
of mutual obstruction, matter does not receive the exact form that the
("seminal) reason" contains in germ. But as the universal Soul produces
the universal form, and as all things are therein co-ordinated, the
work is beautiful because it is realized without trouble or obstacle.
In the universe there are temples for the divinities, houses for men,
and other objects adapted to the needs of other beings. What indeed
could the Soul create if not what she has the power to create? As
fire warms, as snow cools, the soul acts now within herself, and then
outside of herself, and on other objects. The action which inanimate
beings elicit from themselves slumbers, as it were, within them; and
that which they exert on others consists in assimilating to themselves
that which is capable of an experience. To render the rest similar to
itself, is indeed the common characteristic of every being. The soul's
power of acting on herself and on others is a vigilant faculty. It
communicates life to beings who do not have it in themselves, and the
life communicated to them is similar to the life of the soul herself.
Now as the soul lives in reason, she imparts a reason to the body,
which reason is an image of the one she herself possesses. Indeed, what
she communicates to the bodies is an image of life. She also imparts to
them the shapes whose reasons she contains. Now as she possesses the
reasons of all things, even of the divinities, the world contains all
things.