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. Standing thus erect, man has no need of legs in front,
and in their stead has been endowed by nature with arms and hands. Now
it is the opinion of Anaxagoras that the possession of these hands
is the cause of man being of all animals the most intelligent. But
it is more rational to suppose that his endowment with hands is the
consequence rather than the cause of his superior intelligence.
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