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Objection 1: It would seem that it was not fitting that the
production of plants should take place on the third day. For plants
have life, as animals have. But the production of animals belongs to
the work, not of distinction, but of adornment. Therefore the
production of plants, as also belonging to the work of adornment,
ought not to be recorded as taking place on the third day, which is
devoted to the work of distinction.
Objection 2: Further, a work by which the earth is accursed should
have been recorded apart from the work by which it receives its form.
But the words of Gn. 3:17, "Cursed is the earth in thy work,
thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee," show that by the
production of certain plants the earth was accursed. Therefore the
production of plants in general should not have been recorded on the
third day, which is concerned with the work of formation.
Objection 3: Further, as plants are firmly fixed to the earth, so
are stones and metals, which are, nevertheless, not mentioned in the
work of formation. Plants, therefore, ought not to have been made on
the third day.
On the contrary, It is said (Gn. 1:12): "The earth brought
forth the green herb," after which there follows, "The evening and
the morning were the third day."
I answer that, On the third day, as said (Article 1), the
formless state of the earth comes to an end. But this state is
described as twofold. On the one hand, the earth was "invisible" or
"void," being covered by the waters; on the other hand, it was
"shapeless" or "empty," that is, without that comeliness which it
owes to the plants that clothe it, as it were, with a garment.
Thus, therefore, in either respect this formless state ends on the
third day: first, when "the waters were gathered together into one
place and the dry land appeared"; secondly, when "the earth brought
forth the green herb." But concerning the production of plants,
Augustine's opinion differs from that of others. For other
commentators, in accordance with the surface meaning of the text,
consider that the plants were produced in act in their various species
on this third day; whereas Augustine (Gen. ad lit. v, 5; viii,
3) says that the earth is said to have then produced plants and trees
in their causes, that is, it received then the power to produce them.
He supports this view by the authority of Scripture, for it is said
(Gn. 2:4,5): "These are the generations of the heaven and
the earth, when they were created, in the day that . . . God made
the heaven and the earth, and every plant of the field before it sprung
up in the earth, and every herb of the ground before it grew."
Therefore, the production of plants in their causes, within the
earth, took place before they sprang up from the earth's surface.
And this is confirmed by reason, as follows. In these first days
God created all things in their origin or causes, and from this work
He subsequently rested. Yet afterwards, by governing His
creatures, in the work of propagation, "He worketh until now."Now
the production of plants from out the earth is a work of propagation,
and therefore they were not produced in act on the third day, but in
their causes only. However, in accordance with other writers, it may
be said that the first constitution of species belongs to the work of
the six days, but the reproduction among them of like from like, to
the government of the universe. And Scripture indicates this in the
words, "before it sprung up in the earth," and "before it grew,"
that is, before like was produced from like; just as now happens in
the natural course by the production of seed. Wherefore Scripture
says pointedly (Gn. 1:11): "Let the earth bring forth the
green herb, and such as may seed," as indicating the production of
perfection of perfect species, from which the seed of others should
arise. Nor does the question where the seminal power may reside,
whether in root, stem, or fruit, affect the argument.
Reply to Objection 1: Life in plants is hidden, since they lack
sense and local movement, by which the animate and the inanimate are
chiefly discernible. And therefore, since they are firmly fixed in
the earth, their production is treated as a part of the earth's
formation.
Reply to Objection 2: Even before the earth was accursed, thorns
and thistles had been produced, either virtually or actually. But
they were not produced in punishment of man; as though the earth,
which he tilled to gain his food, produced unfruitful and noxious
plants. Hence it is said: "Shall it bring forth TO THEE."
Reply to Objection 3: Moses put before the people such things only
as were manifest to their senses, as we have said (Question 67,
Article 4; Question 68, Article 3). But minerals are
generated in hidden ways within the bowels of the earth. Moreover they
seem hardly specifically distinct from earth, and would seem to be
species thereof. For this reason, therefore, he makes no mention of
them.
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