are not called "live soul" but reptiles of live souls is that they lack any kind of
222 The Literal Meaning of Genesis goes, over the earth along the solid structure ofheaven, that is to say, next to the solid structure of heaven, because to be sure this foggy and humid space, in which the birds fly around, borders on that space where they cannot fly, which thanks to its tranquillity and stillness now really does belong to the solid struc ture of heaven. So the birds then do fly around in heaven, or the sky, but in this one which that psalm also includes under the heading of "earth"; it is because of this heaven that they are called in many places "the birds of heaven"—not however in the solid structure, but along the solid structure.
Whyfish are called reptiles of live souls
8, 1 1 . Some people think that it was because of a certain dullness of sensation that the phrase reptiles oflive souls is used, and not just "live soul." But if that were the case the birds would have been given the name of "live soul." So on the contrary, since they are called flying things—understand "of live souls"—in the same way as the others are called reptiles or crawling things, it has to be admitted, l suggest, that it is so phrased as if to say, "things among live souls that are crawling things or flying things," as one might say "low-born things of men," meaning "whoever among men are low-born." For although there are also land animals that crawl upon the earth, still the vast majority of them move about on feet, and reptiles that crawl on land are comparatively as few as creatures that walk are in the waters.
12. Some people, however, have expressed the opinion that the reason fishes are not called "live soul" but reptiles of live souls is that they lack any kind of memory or form of life even remotely approaching rationality. But this opinion comes simply from insufficient experience, because there are authors who have described many wonderful things that they have been able to observe in fish-ponds.12 But even if their descriptions are untrue, it is still absolutely certain that fishes have memory. This is something I have myself experienced, and anyone who wants to can experience it too. There is, you see, a large fountain in the district of Bulla13 that is chock-full of fish. People are habitually looking down into it and throwing in things which the fish will rush at together to grab first, or fight among themselves to tear them to bits. Being now used to this kind of feeding, whenever people stroll round the rim of the fountain, the fish too will
1 2. He no doubt had in mind, among other authorities, the ninth book of Pliny's Natural History, devoted to aquatic animals. 13. Bulla Regia was a small town on the inland route between Hippo Regius and Carthage, where Augustine preached Sermon 30 1 A (Denis 17), and upbraided the citizens for still continuing to put on theatrical shows and spectacles, that made the place (in his view) what we would nowadays call "the porn capital of Africa"—which brought in, as it would today, considerable revenue from tourists; section 7 of that sermon. Perhaps here he is hoping this great fountain will be able to replace the equivalent of "blue movies" as the town's chief holiday attraction for the Carthaginian bourgeoisie.