11. He is hinting that it does have invisible inhabitants, namely angels.
220 The Literal Meaning of Genesis
How thefaculty ofsensation is related differently to thefour elements in each ofthefive senses
5. 7. Now the finer anything is in the realm ofbodies, the closer it is to the spir itual realm, although differing widely in kind, seeing that the former is bodily, the latter not. And thus it is that, however acute the arguments may be about the senses of the body being arranged with reference to the various bodily elements, it is still not the body that is the subject of sensation, but the soul through the body; so this, being itself incorporeal, activates the power of sensation through the finer, the least coarse kind of body. ln this way it starts movement in all the senses from the refined nature of fire, but it does not reach the same result in all of them. In the sense of sight, you see, it restrains the heat of fire, bringing only its light to bear, while in the sense of hearing the fire penetrates with its heat to the more fluid element of air. In the sense of smell, however, it goes through pure air and reaches the moist exhalation which gives this atmosphere of ours its coarser texture. In the sense of taste it also goes through this and reaches the humid element in its grosser liquid form; and having penetrated this as well and gone right through it, on reaching the heaviness ofearth it activates the last of the senses, that of touch.
The element ofair not overlooked by the author of Genesis
6. 8. So then, when the author came to the provision of the visible things that move naturally within the cosmos in the framework of its elements, he first gave an account of the heavenly lights, next of the aquatic animals and finally of the terrestrial ones. But this does not mean that he was ignorant of the distinct natures of the elements and their order in the cosmos, nor that he overlooked the element of air. But any regions there may be of the purest and most tranquil air, in which it is said that birds are unable to fly, are joined to the upper heaven; and under the name of "heaven" in the scriptures they are understood to belong to the upper part of the cosmos, while the whole of it may be generally signified by the name of "earth," from which the psalm verse begins, working down from the top: Fire, hail, snow, ice, spirits of the tempest and all deeps (Ps 148:8), until it comes to the dry land, which is properly called by the name of earth.10
And so that upper air, whether because it belongs to the heavenly part of the cosmos or because it has no visible inhabitants such as the narrator is concerned with at this point," was neither overlooked, being included in the mention of heaven, nor counted in with the creation of animals. This lower air, on the other
10. He cheats a little, by moving "the deeps" from the end of verse 7, where they are preceded by "sea monsters," dracones in the Latin, to the end of verse 8 after "the spirit of the tempest" or stormy winds. 11. He is hinting that it does have invisible inhabitants, namely angels.