Wherefore also these Kinds [elements] occupied different places even before the universe was organised and generated out of them. Before that time, in truth, all these were in a state devoid of reason or measure, but when the work of setting in order this Universe was being undertaken, fire and water and earth and air, although possessing some traces of their known nature, were yet disposed as everything is likely to be in the absence of God; and inasmuch as this was then their natural condition, God began by first marking them out into shapes by means of forms and numbers.
PlatoThere should exist among the citizens neither extreme poverty nor again excessive wealth, for both are productive of great evil.
PlatoThe gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies... they are the trees and the plants and the seeds.
Plato