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Dwarf-like again is the race of birds and fishes; and so in fact, as
already has been said, is every animal that has blood. This is the
reason why no other animal is so intelligent as man. For even among
men themselves if we compare children with adults, or such adults as
are of dwarf-like shape with such as are not, we find that, whatever
other superiority the former may possess, they are at any rate
deficient as compared with the latter in intelligence. The
explanation, as already stated, is that their psychical principle is
corporeal, and much impeded in its motions. Let now a further decrease
occur in the elevating heat, and a further increase in the earthy
matter, and the animals become smaller in bulk, and their feet more
numerous, until at a later stage they become apodous, and extended
full length on the ground. Then, by further small successions of
change, they come to have their principal organ below; and at last
their cephalic part becomes motionless and destitute of sensation.
Thus the animal becomes a plant, that has its upper parts downwards
and its lower parts above. For in plants the roots are the equivalents
of mouth and head, while the seed has an opposite significance, for it
is produced above it the extremities of the twigs.
The reasons have now been stated why some animals have many feet,
some only two, and others none; why, also, some living things are
plants and others animals; and, lastly, why man alone of all animals
stands erect
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