When you observe created beings, you find that the mineral
kingdom is endowed with certain virtues. And we observe that the vegetable
kingdom has not only the virtues of the mineral kingdom but it is endowed with
another property namely, the virtue augmentative or the power of growth. The
animal kingdom possesses the virtues or powers of the mineral kingdom plus
those of the vegetable kingdom, and moreover it possesses certain peculiar
properties of its own. The human kingdom is endowed with the virtues or perfections
of the mineral kingdom and those of the vegetable kingdom, and the perfections
of the animal kingdom, and moreover has the human virtues. This makes it
evident that man is superior and most noble, and he is the most glorious of
beings!
Man is the microcosm and this endless world is the
macrocosm. But the mysteries of the macrocosm, the greater world, are expressed
or revealed in the microcosm or the lesser world. The tree is the greater
world, so to speak, and a seed holds the relation of the lesser world. But the
whole of the tree is potentially latent in the seed. An immense tree, a
colossal tree, is latent or hidden within a small seed. So when this seed is
cultivated, is planted, then it is made possible of revelation. Likewise the
greater world, the macrocosm, is latent and involved in the microcosm or the
lesser world, and that is the universality of the virtues which is
particularized in man.
- ‘Abu’l-Baha (From a talk; ‘Star of the West, vol. 3,
no. 4, May 17, 1912’)
