17. He discusses this opinion at slightly greater length in Book X1. 16.22 below.
224 The Literal Meaning of Genesis
Granted that demons may be called airy beings, scripture 's account of the production of birdsfrom the water is still valid
10. 14. So then, let us grant that demons are airy animals, since it is in virtue of their airy bodies that they have their power, and the reason they suffer no disso lution in death is that the element dominant in them is one that is more suited to acting than to being acted upon or undergoing, with two others placed under it, namely water and earth, and one placed above it, that is, the sidereal fire—there being two elements, you see, assigned to undergoing or being acted upon, humidity and humus,16 while the other two are given over to acting—air and fire. If this is the case, therefore, this distinction does not rule out what our scripture points out, that it was not from air but from the waters that flying things were produced, because it was still a place of humidity, even though indeed of a finer quality, exhaled into the atmosphere and extended through it, that was allotted to flying things. , Now air reaches from the boundary of the lum,' "tns heaven right down to the level of the fluid waters and the bare earth. lt gnt sav 'owever, this whole space that is made murky with humid exhalations, but only as far as that limit from which the psalm begins to call everything earth, where it says, Praise the Lord from the earth (Ps 148:7). The higher region of the air, on the other hand, on account of its purity and tranquillity is joined in a shared peace to the heaven it borders on, and shares in its name. If it was perhaps in this region that the trans gressor angels were to be found before their transgression, together with their prince, now the devil, then an archangel17—some of our people, you see, think that they were not celestial or supercelestial angels—then it is hardly surprising if after their sin they were thrust down into this foggy darkness, where it is still air but now interwined with a fine humidity. This causes winds when stirred up, and lightning and thunder when more vehemently roused; clouds when contracted and rain when thickened even more; snow when the clouds freeze, hail when the denser clouds freeze more turbulently; fair weather when it is stretched out; and all this at the hidden orders and working of God controlling from its heights to its depths the universe he created. So that psalm, after mentioning/i/r, hail, snow, ice, spirits of the tempest, lest such things should be thought to come about and run their course apart from divine providence, adds straightaway, that carry out his word (Ps 148:8).
16. This is his play on words in the Latin, which 1 have kept in translation, even though we use "humus" to mean something slightly different. The Latin is simply an archaic word meaning earth or soil. 17. He discusses this opinion at slightly greater length in Book X1. 16.22 below.