From A Sage’s Fruit, Essays, "The Secret of Conception and Birth," by Baal HaSulam
Our development in Creation
Is nothing other than our mimicry of it,
As the very feel and beauty
Of the colors we design and innovate
Are nothing other than copies of the appealing colors
That we find in flowers.
Take a carpenter, for instance,
How would he know how to make a four-legged table
If he hadn’t copied the work of the Creator,
Who created four-legged creatures?
How would he know how to join two pieces of wood,
If not by imitating the way our limbs are joined,
And putting the pieces of wood together accordingly?
That’s what people do.
They look and learn as best they can
In order to understand reality,
Which is set before them
In its perfect beauty.
When all of that is understood,
People make replicas.
That sample then becomes the basis for another sample
Until man has created a lovely world
Full of inventions.
Based on the observation of the work of Creation,
Planes have been built resembling a flying bird.
Radios have been made to perceive sound waves,
Just like ears.
In short,
Everything we’ve succeeded in doing
Has been set before us in Creation.
In our reality, exactly as it is,
Nothing is missing,
Except to learn from it
And create accordingly.