45. This discussion teaches us that each one of the beings contained
in the universe contributes to the purpose of the universe by its
"actions" and "passions" according to its nature and dispositions, as,
in an organism, each organ contributes to the final purpose of the
entire body, by fulfilling the function assigned to it by its nature
and constitution. From this each organ derives its place and role, and
besides communicates something else to the other organs, and from them
receives all that its nature would allow. Somehow, all the organs feel
what is going on in the others, and if each of them became an organism,
it would be quite ready to fulfil the function of an organism, which
function differs from that of being merely an organ.
HUMAN NATURE IS INTERMEDIATE, SUFFERING WITH THE WHOLE, BUT ALSO ACTING
ON IT.
We are thus shown our condition. On the one hand, we exercise a certain
action on the whole; on the other, we not only experience the passions
that it is natural for our body to experience in its relations with
other bodies, but we also introduce into these relations the soul
which constitutes us, bound as we are to the kindred things which
surround us by our natural resemblance to them. Indeed, by our souls
and dispositions we become, or rather, we already are similar on one
hand to the inferior beings of the demonic world, and on the other, to
the superior beings of the intelligible world. Our nature cannot be
ignored, therefore. Not all of us receive, not all of us give the same
thing. How indeed could we communicate to others the good, if we do not
possess it? or receive it, if our nature was not capable of it?