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We must next consider the work of the fifth day.
Objection 1: It would seem that this work is not fittingly
described. For the waters produce that which the power of water
suffices to produce. But the power of water does not suffice for the
production of every kind of fishes and birds since we find that many of
them are generated from seed. Therefore the words, "Let the waters
bring forth the creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may
fly over the earth," do not fittingly describe this work.
Objection 2: Further, fishes and birds are not produced from water
only, but earth seems to predominate over water in their composition,
as is shown by the fact that their bodies tend naturally to the earth
and rest upon it. It is not, then, fittingly that fishes and birds
are produced from water.
Objection 3: Further, fishes move in the waters, and birds in the
air. If, then, fishes are produced from the waters, birds ought to
be produced from the air, and not from the waters.
Objection 4: Further, not all fishes creep through the waters, for
some, as seals, have feet and walk on land. Therefore the production
of fishes is not sufficiently described by the words, "Let the waters
bring forth the creeping creature having life."
Objection 5: Further, land animals are more perfect than birds and
fishes which appears from the fact that they have more distinct limbs,
and generation of a higher order. For they bring forth living beings,
whereas birds and fishes bring forth eggs. But the more perfect has
precedence in the order of nature. Therefore fishes and birds ought
not to have been produced on the fifth day, before land animals.
On the contrary, Suffices the authority of Scripture.
I answer that, As said above, (Question 70, Article 1), the
order of the work of adornment corresponds to the order of the work of
distinction. Hence, as among the three days assigned to the work of
distinction, the middle, or second, day is devoted to the work of
distinction of water, which is the intermediate body, so in the three
days of the work of adornment, the middle day, which is the fifth, is
assigned to the adornment of the intermediate body, by the production
of birds and fishes. As, then, Moses makes mention of the lights
and the light on the fourth day, to show that the fourth day
corresponds to the first day on which he had said that the light was
made, so on this fifth day he mentions the waters and the firmament of
heaven to show that the fifth day corresponds to the second. It must,
however, be observed that Augustine differs from other writers in his
opinion about the production of fishes and birds, as he differs about
the production of plants. For while others say that fishes and birds
were produced on the fifth day actually, he holds that the nature of
the waters produced them on that day potentially.
Reply to Objection 1: It was laid down by Avicenna that animals of
all kinds can be generated by various minglings of the elements, and
naturally, without any kind of seed. This, however, seems repugnant
to the fact that nature produces its effects by determinate means, and
consequently, those things that are naturally generated from seed
cannot be generated naturally in any other way. It ought, then,
rather to be said that in the natural generation of all animals that are
generated from seed, the active principle lies in the formative power
of the seed, but that in the case of animals generated from
putrefaction, the formative power of is the influence of the heavenly
bodies. The material principle, however, in the generation of either
kind of animals, is either some element, or something compounded of
the elements. But at the first beginning of the world the active
principle was the Word of God, which produced animals from material
elements, either in act, as some holy writers say, or virtually, as
Augustine teaches. Not as though the power possessed by water or
earth of producing all animals resides in the earth and the water
themselves, as Avicenna held, but in the power originally given to
the elements of producing them from elemental matter by the power of
seed or the influence of the stars.
Reply to Objection 2: The bodies of birds and fishes may be
considered from two points of view. If considered in themselves, it
will be evident that the earthly element must predominate, since the
element that is least active, namely, the earth, must be the most
abundant in quantity in order that the mingling may be duly tempered in
the body of the animal. But if considered as by nature constituted to
move with certain specific motions, thus they have some special
affinity with the bodies in which they move; and hence the words in
which their generation is described.
Reply to Objection 3: The air, as not being so apparent to the
senses, is not enumerated by itself, but with other things: partly
with the water, because the lower region of the air is thickened by
watery exhalations; partly with the heaven as to the higher region.
But birds move in the lower part of the air, and so are said to fly
"beneath the firmament," even if the firmament be taken to mean the
region of clouds. Hence the production of birds is ascribed to the
water.
Reply to Objection 4: Nature passes from one extreme to another
through the medium; and therefore there are creatures of intermediate
type between the animals of the air and those of the water, having
something in common with both; and they are reckoned as belonging to
that class to which they are most allied, through the characters
possessed in common with that class, rather than with the other. But
in order to include among fishes all such intermediate forms as have
special characters like to theirs, the words, "Let the waters bring
forth the creeping creature having life," are followed by these:
"God created great whales," etc.
Reply to Objection 5: The order in which the production of these
animals is given has reference to the order of those bodies which they
are set to adorn, rather than to the superiority of the animals
themselves. Moreover, in generation also the more perfect is reached
through the less perfect.
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