Thus, mingling with the mass, the general soul
Lives in the parts, and agitates the whole.
From that celestial energy began
The low-browed brute, th' imperial race of man,
The painted birds who wing th' aërial plain,
And all the mighty monsters of the main;
Their souls at first from high Olympus came,” &c.[87]
Just as if the world, which is a theatre erected for displaying the glory of God, were its own creator! For thus writes the same poet in another place, following the common opinion of the Greeks and Latins—
“Led by such wonders, sages have opined,
That bees have portions of a heavenly mind;