reproduce Augustine's jingle: in ipsius aposwli manu mortifera vipera inhaesitnec laesit. He,
230 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis kinds from the decay of such bodies, all things being put in motion without any change in him by the creator.
The creation ofpoisonous animals
15, 24. The question is also commonly asked about various poisonous and dangerous animals: whether they were created after the sin of man as a punish ment, or rather had already been created as harmless, and only began after that to do sinners harm. Nor should we be surprised at the idea, considering what happens occasionally even in the times of this difficult and woeful life in which there are none sojust that they could boldly call themselves perfect. We have the apostle bearing honest witness to this when he says. Not that l have already received this or am already perfect (Phil 3:12). Then again, bodily trials and troubles are still necessary for training and perfecting us in virtue, weak as we are; and once more we have the apostle illustrating this in his own case, when he says that to stop him getting swollen-headed at the greatness of the revelations shown him, he was given a thorn in theflesh, an angel ofSatan to buffet him, and that when he had asked the Lord three times to relieve him of it, he answered him: My grace is enoughfor you, since virtue is perfected in weakness (2 Cor
1 2:7-9). Holy Daniel too was certainly not lying to God when he not only prayed for the sins of his people but also confessed his own.21
And yet Daniel survived safe and sound and fearless among the lions,22 while the apostle had a deadly viper clinging to his arm and doing him no harm.23 So it would have been quite possible for these creatures to do no harm when they were created, if no occasion had arisen for punishing vices and frightening people off them, or for testing virtue and making people perfect, when it is a matter both of giving examples of patience to help others make progress and of people growing in self-knowledge through their trials. And it is only just that the eternal salva tion which had been disgracefully lost through wilfulness, should be coura geously won back again through pain.
Why beasts were created that harm each other
16, 25. Someone is going to say: "Then why do beasts injure one another, though they neither have any sins, so that this kind of thing could be called punishment, nor by such trials do they gain at all in virtue?"
21. See Dn 9:4-19. 22. See Dn 6:22. 23. See Acts 28:3-5. 1 have ihe viper on Paul's arm rather than on his hand, in an attempt to reproduce Augustine's jingle: in ipsius aposwli manu mortifera vipera inhaesitnec laesit. He, to be sure, manages two jingles: mortifera vipera as well as inhaesit nee laesit.