- All things are drawn toward what is like them, if such a
thing exists. All earthly things feel the earth’s tug. All wet
things flow together. And airy things as well, so they have to
be forcibly prevented from mixing. Fire is naturally drawn
upward by that higher fire, but ready to ignite at the slightest
touch of other, earthly flame. So that anything drier than usual
makes good fuel, because less of what hinders combustion is
mixed in with it.
And things that share an intelligent nature are just as prone
to seek out what is like them. If not more so. Because their
superiority in other ways is matched by their greater
readiness to mix and mingle with their counterparts.
Even in irrational beings we see swarms and herds, and
nesting, and love not unlike ours. Because they do have
souls, and the bonding instinct is found in a developed form
—not something we see in plants, or stones, or trees. And
it’s still more developed in rational beings, with their states,
friendships, families, groups, their treaties and truces. And in
those yet more developed there is a kind of unity even
between separate things, the kind that we see in the stars. An
advanced level of development can produce a sympathy even
in things that are quite distinct.
But look how things are now. The rational things are the
only ones that have lost that sense of attraction—of
convergence. Only there do we not see that intermingling. But