Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

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.

Quaestio 71 de opere quintae die

Prologus

Argumentum 1

Deinde considerandum est de opere quintae diei.

Et videtur quod inconvenienter hoc opus describatur. Illud enim aquae producunt, ad cuius productionem sufficit virtus aquae.

Sed virtus aquae non sufficit ad productionem omnium piscium et avium, cum videamus plura eorum generari ex semine. Non ergo convenienter dicitur, producant aquae reptile animae viventis, et volatile super terram.

Argumentum 2

Praeterea, pisces et aves non tantum producuntur ex aqua, sed in eorum compositione videtur magis terra dominari quam aqua, quia corpora eorum naturaliter moventur ad terram; unde et in terra quiescunt. Non ergo convenienter dicitur pisces et aves ex aqua produci.

Argumentum 3

Praeterea, sicut pisces habent motum in aquis, ita et aves in aere. Si ergo pisces ex aquis producuntur, aves non deberent produci ex aquis, sed ex aere.

Argumentum 4

Praeterea, non omnes pisces reptant in aquis, cum quidem habeant pedes, quibus gradiuntur in terra, sicut vituli marini. Non ergo sufficienter productio piscium designatur in hoc quod dicitur, producant aquae reptile animae viventis.

Argumentum 5

Praeterea, animalia terrestria sunt perfectiora avibus et piscibus. Quod patet ex hoc quod habent membra magis distincta, et perfectiorem generationem, generant enim animalia, sed pisces et aves generant ova. Perfectiora autem praecedunt in ordine naturae. Non ergo quinta die debuerunt fieri pisces et aves, ante animalia terrestria.

Sed Contra

In contrarium sufficit auctoritas Scripturae.

Corpus

Respondeo dicendum quod, sicut supra dictum est, opus ornatus per ordinem respondet ordini distinctionis.

Unde sicut inter tres dies distinctioni deputatos, media, quae est secunda, deputatur distinctioni medii corporis, scilicet aquae; ita inter tres dies deputatos ad opus ornatus, media, idest quinta, deputatur ad ornatum medii corporis, per productionem avium et piscium. Unde sicut Moyses in quarta die nominat luminaria et lucem, ut designet quod quarta dies respondet primae, in qua dixerat lucem factam; ita in hac quinta die facit mentionem de aquis et de firmamento caeli, ut designet quod quinta dies respondet secundae.

Sed sciendum est quod, sicut in productione plantarum differt Augustinus ab aliis, ita et in productione piscium et avium.

Alii enim dicunt pisces et aves quinta die esse productos in actu, Augustinus autem dicit, V super Gen. Ad litt., quod quinta die aquarum natura produxit pisces et aves potentialiter.

Ad 1

Ad primum ergo dicendum quod Avicenna posuit omnia animalia posse generari ex aliquali elementorum commixtione absque semine, etiam per viam naturae.

Sed hoc videtur inconveniens. Quia natura determinatis mediis procedit ad suos effectus, unde illa quae naturaliter generantur ex semine, non possunt naturaliter sine semine generari. Et ideo dicendum est aliter, quod in naturali generatione animalium, principium activum est virtus formativa quae est in semine, in iis quae ex semine generantur; loco cuius virtutis, in iis quae ex putrefactione generantur, est virtus caelestis corporis. Materiale autem principium in utrorumque animalium generatione, est aliquod elementum vel elementatum.

In prima autem rerum institutione, fuit principium activum verbum dei, quod ex materia elementari produxit animalia vel in actu, secundum alios sanctos; vel virtute, secundum Augustinum.

Non quod aqua aut terra habeat in se virtutem producendi omnia animalia, ut Avicenna posuit, sed quia hoc ipsum quod ex materia elementari, virtute seminis vel stellarum, possunt animalia produci, est ex virtute primitus elementis data.

Ad 2

Ad secundum dicendum quod corpora avium et piscium possunt dupliciter considerari. Uno modo, secundum se. Et sic necesse est quod in eis magis terrestre elementum dominetur, quia ad hoc quod fiat contemperatio mixtionis in corpore animalis necesse est quod quantitative abundet in eo elementum quod est minus activum, scilicet terra. Sed si considerentur secundum quod sunt nata moveri talibus motibus, sic habent affinitatem quandam cum corporibus in quibus moventur.

Et sic eorum generatio hic describitur.

Ad 3

Ad tertium dicendum quod aer, quia insensibilis est, non per seipsum connumeratur, sed cum aliis, partim quidem cum aqua, quantum ad inferiorem partem, quae exhalationibus aquae ingrossatur; partim etiam cum caelo, quantum ad superiorem partem. Aves autem motum habent in inferiori parte aeris, et ideo sub firmamento caeli volare dicuntur, etiam si firmamentum pro nebuloso aere accipiatur.

Et ideo productio avium aquae adscribitur.

Ad 4

Ad quartum dicendum quod natura de uno extremo ad aliud transit per media. Et ideo inter terrestria et aquatica animalia sunt quaedam media, quae communicant cum utrisque; et computantur cum illis cum quibus magis communicant, secundum id quod cum eis communicant; non secundum id quod communicant cum alio extremo.

Tamen, ut includantur omnia huiusmodi quae habent aliquid speciale inter pisces, subiungit, postquam dixerat, producant aquae reptile animae viventis, creavit deus cete grandia, etc..

Ad 5

Ad quintum dicendum quod productio horum animalium ordinatur secundum ordinem corporum quae eis ornantur, magis quam secundum propriam dignitatem. Et tamen, in via generationis, ab imperfectioribus ad perfectiora pervenitur.