First Complete Latin Philo

...than those implanted in fish, yet duller than human ones. And for this reason, fish were created first, participating more in a corporeal than an animal essence, being in a certain way both animals and non-animals, moving yet lifeless things, with an animal force added to them only for the preservation of the body, just as people commonly sprinkle salt on meat so that it does not easily putrefy. After the fish, however, followed the winged and terrestrial creatures, clearly endowed with sharper senses and displaying animal properties by their very nature. Last (as I have said) man was created, to whom the Founder gave an extraordinary mind, which is, as it were, the soul of the soul, just as the pupil is in the eye; for the investigators of nature say that this is also the eye of the eye. Then, therefore, all things were created at once. In which universal handiwork it was necessary that order be preserved, on account of the future generation of some things from others. In those things, however, which are generated successively, the order is this: that nature, beginning from the meanest, finishes in the most excellent of all. What that truly is must be stated more clearly.

The genital seed is the beginning of animals. We see that this is a most mean thing, similar to foam. But when it has been cast into the womb and remained there, soon becoming a participant in motion, it is changed into a certain vesicle. This is better than the seed. And since a gentle motion is present in the fetuses like an artisan, or as I might more properly say, an irreproachable art, it fashions the animal out of the moist essence, distributing it into the members and parts of the body; just as it distributes the spiritual essence into the virtues of the soul, both nutritive and sensitive. For we must now refrain from speaking of the rational part, on account of those who say that it, being divine and eternal, comes from without. And thus the generation which nature began from the mean seed ended in the most excellent things, the animal and man.

This same thing also happened in the creation of this universe. For when it pleased the Maker to fashion things, those which were first in order were also the meanest, the fish; but the last were the best, men. The remaining things, however, being in the middle between the extremes, were better than the former and inferior to the latter: the terrestrial and the winged creatures.

Furthermore, after all other things (as I said), he says that man was made according to the image and likeness, most beautifully. For nothing generated from the earth is more like God than man. Moreover, let no one estimate this likeness by the form of the body; for neither is God conspicuous in human form, nor does the human body reflect the appearance of God. But he is called the image according to the mind, the governor of the soul. For after that singular one, as if after an archetype, the mind in each person was fashioned, being in a certain way the god of him who carries it about like a statue. For just as that great Commander stands in relation to the whole world, so the human mind seems to stand in relation to man. For it is invisible, while itself seeing all things; and it has its own essence unknown, while it perceives the essences of others. And being equipped with arts and manifold sciences, it opens for itself all ways by land and sea, searching out both elements. And soon flying aloft, and having contemplated the air and its changes, it carries itself forth to the highest ether; and having wandered through the courses and dances of the stars, both fixed and wandering, which are most perfect according to the rules of music, it is drawn by the love of wisdom leading it. And thus emerging above every sensible essence, it is at last seized by a desire for the intelligible. There, having beheld the patterns and ideas of the things which it saw here as sensible objects—those extraordinary beauties—it is captured by a certain sober intoxication, and is driven into a frenzy like the Corybantes, being filled with another love far...