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The Improvement of Human Reason - Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan by Ibn Tufail
page 87 of 141 (61%)
any further Care about those things; and as for his Diet, he observ'd
those Rules which he had prescrib'd to himself, namely, those which we
have just now set down.

§ 78. After this he apply'd himself to the second Operation, _viz._ the
Imitation of the Heavenly Bodies, and expressing their proper Qualities
in himself; which when he had consider'd, he found to be of three sorts.
The _first_ were such as had relation to those inferior Bodies, which,
are plac'd in this World of Generation and Corruption, as Heat, which
they impart to those of their own Nature, and Cold by accident,
Illumination, Rarefaction, and Condensation, and all those other things,
by which they influence these inferior Bodies, whereby they are dispos'd
for the Reception of Spiritual Forms from the _necessarily self-existent
Agent_. The _second_ sort of Properties which they had, were such as
concern'd their own Being, as that they were clear, bright and pure,
free from all manner of feculent Matter, and whatsoever kinds of
Impurity: That their Motion was circular, some of them moving round
their own Center, and some again round the Center of other Planets. The
_third_ kind of their Properties, were such as had relation to the
necessarily self-existent Agent, as their continually beholding him
without any Interruption, and having a Desire towards him, being busied
in his Service, and moving agreeable to his Will, and not otherwise, but
as he pleased, and by his Power. So he began to resemble them in every
one of these three kinds, to the utmost of his Power.

§ 79. And as for his first Conformity, his Imitation of them consisted
in removing all things that were hurtful, either from Animals or Plants
if they could be remov'd: So that if he saw any Plant which was depriv'd
of the Benefit of the Sun, by the Interposition of any other Body; or
that its growth was hindred by its being twisted with, or standing too
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