27. If the earth communicate to plant-life the power of begetting and
growing, it possesses this power within itself, and gives only a trace
of it to the plants which derive from it all their fruitfulness, and
as it were are the living flesh of its body. It gives to them what
is best in them; this can be seen in the difference between a plant
growing in the soil, and of a branch cut from it; the former is a real
plant, the latter is only a piece of wood. What is communicated to the
body of the earth by the Soul which presides over it? To see this it is
sufficient to notice the difference between some earth resting within
the soil, and a piece that is detached therefrom. It is likewise easy
to recognize that stones increase in size as long as they are in the
bosom of the earth, while they remain in the same state when they have
been plucked out therefrom. Everything therefore bears within itself a
trace of the universal vegetative (power) shed abroad over the whole
earth, and belonging particularly to no one of its parts. As to the
earth's power of sensation, it is not (like its vegetative power)
mingled with the body of the earth; it only hovers above and guides
it. Moreover, the earth possesses also, higher than the above powers,
a soul and an intelligence. They bear respectively the names of Ceres
and Vesta, according to the revelations of men of prophetic nature, who
allow themselves to be inspired by the divine.