Enneads V.2: Of Generation, and of the Order of things that Rank Next After the
The Whole Universe Is One Immense Concatenation of All Things
Thus, in the universe, life resembles an immense chain in which every being occupies a point, begetting the following being, and begotten by the preceding one, and ever distinct, but not separate from the (upper) generating Being, and the (lower) begotten being into which it passes without being absorbed.