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There is a question raised about all those kinds of beasts which are
not domesticated, nor are produced like frogs from the earth, but are
propagated by male and female parents, such as wolves and animals of
that kind; and it is asked how they could be found in the islands after
the deluge, in which all the animals not in the ark perished, unless
the breed was restored from those which were preserved in pairs in the
ark. It might, indeed, be said that they crossed to the islands by
swimming, but this could only be true of those very near the mainland;
whereas there are some so distant, that we fancy no animal could swim
to them. But if men caught them and took them across with themselves,
and thus propagated these breeds in their new abodes, this would not
imply an incredible fondness for the chase. At the same time, it
cannot be denied that by the intervention of angels they might be
transferred by God's order or permission. If, however, they were
produced out of the earth as at their first creation, when God said,
"Let the earth bring forth the living creature,"4 this makes it
more evident that all kinds of animals were preserved in the ark, not
so much for the sake of renewing the stock, as of prefiguring the
various nations which were to be saved in the church; this, I say,
is more evident, if the earth brought forth many animals in islands to
which they could not cross over.
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