Christ the Maker of All Things

But why do I defile my tongue with unholy words, when my purpose is to sound the praises of the true God? Let me rather wash myself clean, as it were, of this bitter drink in the pure stream that flows from the everlasting fountain of the goodness of that God whom I praise. Let it be my special task to glorify Christ, both by the actions of my life and by the thanks I owe him for the many remarkable blessings he has given. I declare, then, that he laid the foundations of this universe and conceived the race of human beings, ordering these things by his word. At once he moved our newly created first parents, who at first, by his will, did not know good and evil, to a happy place rich in flowers and fruits of every kind. In the end, however, he gave them a dwelling on earth fitting for creatures endowed with reason, and then opened to their minds, as thinking beings, the knowledge of good and evil. [a]

Then, too, he told the race to increase. Every healthy region of the world, as far as the edges of the ocean that surrounds it, became a home for human beings, and as their numbers grew, the invention of the useful arts kept pace with them. Meanwhile the various kinds of animals without reason increased in due proportion, each kind displaying some distinctive quality, the special gift of nature. The tame were marked by gentleness and obedience to human beings; the wild by strength and speed, and by an instinctive foresight that warned them to escape from danger. The gentler animals he placed entirely under human protection, but he laid on human beings the necessity of struggling against the fiercer ones. Next he created the birds, many in number, different in nature and habits, brilliant with every variety of color, and gifted with natural powers of song. Finally, having arranged with wise discernment everything else the compass of this world contains, and having assigned to every creature the fixed term of its existence, he completed in this way the beautiful order of the perfect whole.