primum etiam bestiale corpus, si iam forte formatum est, dignitate transcendit materiam informem; deinde formato praeponitur corpus animatum; tertio praecedit animam pecudis animus humanus, quia, sicut inferior est caro vitae, sic vita rationi, cuius assequendae substantiam nostram compotem deus artifex, ferinam vero impotem fecit; ita tamen, quod in statu mentis humanae pollet bipertita condicio.
In the first place, the body even of a lower animal, if already formed, transcends in dignity mere formless matter. In the second place, a body possessed of life ranks higher than one with nothing but form. Thirdly, the mind of man takes precedence of the vital force of a beast, because, just as flesh is inferior to life, so is life inferior to reason, which God the creator has made our substance capable of attaining, but that of wild animals incapable, though with this reservation, that a double law controls the standing of the human intellect;
final_alignments\Sidonius_Letters_Book7.json