60. I once heard a number of people around me in the spiritual world talking and saying that they did in fact want to recognize that there was something divine in absolutely everything in the universe because they saw God's wonders there, and the deeper they looked, the more wonderful were the things they saw. However, when they heard someone say that there actually was something divine in absolutely everything in the created universe, they resented it. This was a sign that they claimed the belief but did not actually believe it.

They were therefore asked whether they could not see this simply in the marvelous ability in every seed of generating its growth in sequence all the way to new seeds. In every seed, then, there is an image of something infinite and eternal, an inherent effort to multiply and bear fruit without limit, to eternity.

Or they might see this in even the tiniest animals, realizing that they contain sensory organs, brains, hearts, lungs, and the like, along with arteries, veins, nerve fibers, muscles, and the activities that arise from them, to say nothing of incredible features of their basic nature that have had whole books written about them.

All these wonders come from God, though the forms that clothe them are of earthly matter. These forms give rise to plant life and, in due sequence, to human life. This is why humanity is said to have been created out of the ground, to be the dust of the earth with the breath of life breathed in (Genesis 2:7). We can see from this that the divine nature is not our possession but is joined to us.

65. The uses of all things that have been created ascend by degrees from the lowest created forms to mankind, and through mankind to God the Creator from whom they originate. The lowest created forms are, as we said above, each and every constituent of the mineral kingdom, which are substances of various kinds, composed of stony, saline, oily, mineral and metallic materials, and covered with soil resulting from plant and animal matter disintegrating into a fine dust. In these lie the end in all uses that originate from life, and also their beginning. The end in all uses is the endeavor to effect them, and their beginning is the force acting as a result of that endeavor. These are the end in and the beginning of the uses of the mineral kingdom.

[2] Intermediate created forms are each and every constituent of the plant kingdom. These are grasses and herbs of every kind, shrubs and bushes of every kind, and trees of every kind. Their uses exist to serve each and every constituent of the animal kingdom, both the lower ones and the higher. They nourish these, gratify them, and enliven them. They nourish their bodies with their substances, gratify their senses with their taste, smell and beauty, and enliven their affections. An endeavor to serve in these ways is present in them also from life.

[3] The highest created forms are each and every constituent of the animal kingdom. The lowest forms in it are called worms and insects, the intermediate ones birds and beasts, and the highest ones human beings. For every kingdom has in it its lowest, intermediate, and highest constituents, the lowest existing to serve the intermediate, and the intermediate existing to serve the highest.

Thus do the uses of all things that have been created ascend in turn from the lowest created forms to mankind, which is the highest in order.