Dialogue on Divine and Human Love

Tell me then, you say that the earth is the most vile and the most mortified In this context, "mortified" means "deadened" or lacking in the vital heat and movement associated with the heavens. of all four elements:

PH. Although the Earth, because it is the most distant from heaven, and in itself the most dense, cold, low, and most alien to life, it nonetheless—by standing united in the center—receives all together within itself all the influences influences: the invisible "flow" of power from the stars believed to shape earthly events and rays of all the stars, planets, and celestial bodies. And here they are so complexioned complexioned: the balancing and mixing of different qualities (hot, cold, moist, dry) into a single substance that (drawing into itself the virtue of all the other elements) they come to be combined in such ways and manners that all the things you mentioned are generated. Such a thing would not be possible in the place of any other element, for they are not a common receptacle where all celestial and elemental virtues unite. In the other elements, these virtues only pass through but do not stop; they only settle in the earth because of its density and because it is in the center, where all the rays strike and, by reverberating reverberation: the "bouncing back" of celestial light and energy, which increases its intensity, much like sunlight reflecting off a mirror., they become stronger. So it is that this earth is the proper and ordinary wife of the Celestial Body, and the other elements are his concubines, since heaven generates in her all, or the greater part, of its offspring, and she is adorned with such many and diverse things.

SO. I am satisfied regarding my doubt; let us return to our purpose. Tell me about the other causes of love in men and animals, and if they are found in the elements and in other inanimate bodies—such as that third cause of benefit, the second of generative succession, and the first of the desire and delight in generation.

PH. That cause of "benefit" in these elemental bodies is the same as that of "generative succession," because the thing generated loves its generator as its benefactor, and the generator loves the thing generated as the recipient of its benefit. This cause of generative succession is indeed found in those things generated from the elements; for you will see things generated in the region of the air from the vapors that ascend from the earth and the sea. When the vapors are moist, water, snow, and hail are generated from them; once these are generated, they immediately descend with a loving impetus to find the sea and the earth, their mother. And if the vapors are dry, winds and fiery things are made from them; the winds seek the air with their breathings, and the fiery part goes higher seeking the fire, each one moved by the love of its own origin. You will also see metals and stones generated by the earth; when they are found outside of it, they seek it with speed and never rest until they are within it, just as children seek their mothers, with whom they find rest. So too the earth generates them with love, holds them, and preserves them; and plants, herbs, and trees have so much love...