(22) Water also springeth in every living and moving creature in this world. In the water consisteth the body of everything, as the spirit consisteth in the air, be it in animals [or in flesh] or in vegetables.

(1) Likewise of that Breath, water is the body. Its light- form is yon moon. As far as Breath extends, so far extends water, so far yon moon. These are all alike, all infinite. Verily he who worships them as finite wins a finite world. Likewise he who worships them as infinite wins an infinite world. One's self identified with the sixteenfold Prajapati

(52) For heaven is the heart of the water. Likewise, in all creatures, and in all that is in this world the water is the heart thereof, and nothing can subsist without water, be it in the flesh or out of the flesh, in the vegetables of the earth or in metals and stones, in everything the water is the kernel or the heart.

(2) All things descend from Heaven to Earth, to Water and to Air. ’Tis Fire alone, in that it is borne upwards, giveth life; that which [is carried] downwards [is] subservient to Fire. Further, whatever doth descend from the above, begetteth; what floweth upwards, nourisheth. ’Tis Earth alone, in that it resteth on itself, that is Receiver of all things, and [also] the Restorer of all genera that it receives. This Whole, therefore, as thou rememberest, in that it is of all,—in other words, all things, embraced by nature under “Soul” and “World,” are in [perpetual] flux, so varied by the multiform equality of all their forms, that countless kinds of well-distinguished qualities may be discerned, yet with this bond of union, that all should seem as One, and from “One” “All.” III

(69) But seeing the water, which is the spirit of the astral life, stood in the midst or centre of wrath, and also in death, thereupon also every body formed itself as was the birth or geniture to life and mobility. Of the Earth.

(93) Water is a symbol of life; hence Plato and the gods before Plato, call it (the Soul) at one time the whole water of vivification, and at another time a certain fountain of it.

(4) In the Book of Changes it is said: Heaven created water through the One. That is the true power of the Great One. If a man attains this One he becomes alive; if he misses it he dies, But even if a man lives in the power (air, prana) he does not see the power (air), just as fishes live in water but do not see the water.

(41) First, because in the sweet water the spirit of light is generated, and saturateth or moisteneth the astringent, hard and cold qualities; also it enlighteneth them and warmeth them; for in water, light and heat the life consisteth.

(3) Discern what size the water is, that it is immeasurable (and) incomprehensible, both its beginning and its end. It supports the earth; it blows in the air where the gods and the angels are. But in him who is exalted above all these there is the fear and the light, and in him are my writings revealed. I have given them as a service to the creation of the physical things, for it is not possible for anyone to stand without that One, nor is it possible for the aeon to live without him. It is he who possesses what is in him by discerning (it) in purity.

(9) Hence come the seas and all the mountains, from him flow the rivers of every kind; hence come all herbs and the juice through which the inner Self subsists with the elements.

(104) The second spirit is the water: As the astringent or harsh quality is the father of the other six spirits, which attracteth or draweth them together, and so holds them, so the sweet water is the mother in which all spirits are conceived, kept and generated, that softeneth and saturateth them, wherein and whereby they get their life, and then the light and joyfulness riseth up therein.

(11) The very heavens, patently multiple, cannot be thought to disdain any form of life since this universe holds everything. Now how do these things come to be here? Does the higher realm contain all of the lower?

All that has been shaped by Reason-Principle and conforms to Idea.

But, having fire and water, it will certainly have vegetation; how does vegetation exist There? Earth, too? either these are alive or they are There as dead things and then not everything There has life. How in sum can the things of this realm be also There?

Vegetal life we can well admit, for the plant is a Reason-Principle established in life. If in the plant the Reason-Principle, entering Matter and constituting the plant, is a certain form of life, a definite soul, then, since every Reason-Principle is a unity, then either this of plant-life is the primal or before it there is a primal plant, source of its being: that first plant would be a unity; those here, being multiple, must derive from a unity. This being so, that primal must have much the truer life and be the veritable plant, the plants here deriving from it in the secondary and tertiary degree and living by a vestige of its life.

But earth; how is there earth There: what is the being of earth and how are we to represent to ourselves the living earth of that realm?

First, what is it, what the mode of its being?

Earth, here and There alike, must possess shape and a Reason-Principle. Now in the case of the vegetal, the Reason-Principle of the plant here was found to be living in that higher realm: is there such a Reason-Principle in our earth?

Take the most earthy of things found shaped in earth and they exhibit, even they, the indwelling earth-principle. The growing and shaping of stones, the internal moulding of mountains as they rise, reveal the working of an ensouled Reason-Principle fashioning them from within and bringing them to that shape: this, we must take it, is the creative earth-principle corresponding to what we call the specific principle of a tree; what we know as earth is like the wood of the tree; to cut out a stone is like lopping a twig from a tree, except of course that there is no hurt done, the stone remaining a member of the earth as the twig, uncut, of the tree.

Realizing thus that the creative force inherent in our earth is life within a Reason-Principle, we are easily convinced that the earth There is much more primally alive, that it is a reasoned Earth-Livingness, the earth of Real-Being, earth primally, the source of ours.

Fire, similarly, with other such things, must be a Reason-Principle established in Matter: fire certainly does not originate in the friction to which it may be traced; the friction merely brings out a fire already existent in the scheme and contained in the materials rubbed together. Matter does not in its own character possess this fire-power: the true cause is something informing the Matter, that is to say, a Reason-Principle, obviously therefore a soul having the power of bringing fire into being; that is, a life and a Reason-Principle in one.

It is with this in mind that Plato says there is soul in everything of this sphere. That soul is the cause of the fire of the sense-world; the cause of fire here is a certain Life of fiery character, the more authentic fire. That transcendent fire being more truly fire will be more veritably alive; the fire absolute possesses life. And the same principles apply to the other elements, water and air.

Why, then, are water and air not ensouled as earth is?

Now, it is quite certain that these are equally within the living total, parts of the living all; life does not appear visibly in them; but neither does it in the case of the earth where its presence is inferred by what earth produces: but there are living things in fire and still more manifestly in water and there are systems of life in the air. The particular fire, rising only to be quenched, eludes the soul animating the universe; it slips away from the magnitude which would manifest the soul within it; so with air and water. If these Kinds could somehow be fastened down to magnitude they would exhibit the soul within them, now concealed by the fact that their function requires them to be loose or flowing. It is much as in the case of the fluids within ourselves; the flesh and all that is formed out of the blood into flesh show the soul within, but the blood itself, not bringing us any sensation, seems not to have soul; yet it must; the blood is not subject to blind force; its nature obliges it to abstain from the soul which nonetheless is indwelling in it. This must be the case with the three elements; it is the fact that the living beings formed from the close conglomeration of air are not susceptible to suffering. But just as air, so long as it remains itself, eludes the light which is and remains unyielding, so too, by the effect of its circular movement, it eludes soul- and, in another sense, does not. And so with fire and water.

(1) In the beginning nothing whatsoever was here. This [world] was covered over with death, with hunger — for hunger is death. Then he made up his mind (manas): ' Would that I had a self!' So he went on (acarat) praising (arcau). From him, while he was praising, water was produced. 'Verily, while I was praising, I had pleasure (ka) \ ' thought he, This, indeed, is the tfTv&tf-nature of what pertains to brightness (arkya). Verily, there is pleasure for him who knows thus that ar/ca-naturc of what pertains to brightness. 2* The water, verily, was brightness. That which was the froth of the water became solidified. That became the earth. On it he [i.e. Death] tortured himself ( Vsram}. When he had tortured himself and practised austerity, his heat (tejas) and essence (rasa) turned into fire.

(6) Speech said: ' Verily, wherein I am the most excellent, therein are you the most excellent/ ' Verily, wherein I am a firm basis therein are you a firm basis/ said the eye. c Verily, wherein I am attainment, therein are you attain- ment,' said the ear. said the mind. ( Verily, wherein I am procreation, therein are you procrea- tion/ said the semen. f If such I anij what is my food? what is my dwelling? ' flying insects — that is your food. Water is your dwelling/ Verily, what is not food is not eaten; what is not food is not taken by him who thus knows that [i.e. water] as the food (anna) of breath (ana). Those who know this, who are versed in sacred learning (srotriya), when they are about to eat, take a sip; after they have eaten, they take a sip. So, indeed, they think they make that breath (ana) not naked (anagna).

(60) For the waters are for those who dwell on the earth; for they are nourishment for the earth from the Most High who is in heaven: therefore there is a measure for the rain, and the angels take it in charge.

(6) Verily, of created things here earth is the essence; of earth, water; of water, plants; of plants, flowers; of flowers, fruits; of fruits, man (purusa); of man, semen.

(1) Out of the water and out of the moon the divine Breath enters him. Verily, that is the divine Breath which, whether moving or not moving, is not perturbed, nor injured. He who knows this becomes the Self of all beings. As is that divinity [i.e. Prajapati], so is he. As all beings favor that divinity, so to him who knows this all beings show favor. Whatever sufferings creatures endure, these remain with them. Only good goes to him. Evil, verily, does not go to the gods. Breath, the unfailing power in a person: like the unwearying world-breath, wind