 To prove that the universe has a soul, Fechner again follows the guiding thread of analogy, just as he did in Nanna. He begins by considering the body closest to us: the earth. He finds many similarities between the earth and our body: both are self-enclosed purposive wholes; both consist in solid, fluid, gaseous materials in manifold connections; both go through cycles of changes; both go through processes of development whereby they become differentiated and more finely organized (ZA: 29–31). Furthermore, the earth has a circulatory system like that of our body (ZA: 73–74). Because of these many similarities, we are justified in concluding, Fechner argues, that the earth is an individual organism (ZA: 35). Of course, because it is a much greater organism, there is much in the earth that one does not find in man; but there is nothing in man that one does not already find in the earth (ZA: 37). The main difference between the human body and the earth is that the earth is a higher organism than the body; this is because it is more independent, self-sufficient, massive and powerful (ZA: 31). All the characteristics of the human organism—unity, multiplicity, organization and development from within—the earth has to a greater degree (ZA: 35–6). 