An Experimental Music Theory

In man, the size of the trunk is proportionate to the lower portions. and as a man grows up it becomes much smaller in proportion. In infancy the reverse is found. . . . In other words, all children are dwarfs. . . . The whole groups of birds and fishes are dwarflike. . . . This is why all animals are less intelligent than man. . . . And the reason, as aforesaid, is that in very many of them the principle of the soul is sluggish and corporeal. And if the heat which raises the organism up wanes still further while the earthy matter waxes, then the animals’ bodies wane, and they will be many-footed; and finally they lose their feet altogether and lie full length on the ground. Proceeding a little further in this way, they actually have their principal part down below, and finally the part which answers to a head comes to have neither motion nor sensation; at this stage the creature becomes a plant.1