ON THE WORK OF THE FIFTH DAY
(In One Article)
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.
Obj. 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 said that fishes and birds
are produced from water.
Obj. 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.
Obj. 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."
Obj. 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, (Q. 70, A. 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 Obj. 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 Obj. 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 Obj. 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 Obj. 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 Obj. 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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