moving, nor did the fashioning of the ages take the time that they themselves do
272 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis at intervals according to the predetermined days? Or perhaps we ought not to think that when they were originally set up they were governed by the same natural motions as we now observe, but rather were fashioned according to the wonderful and inexpressible virtuosity of the Wisdom of God, who reachesfrom end to endmightily, and disposes all things sweetly (Wis 8:1). She, after all, does not reach there by steps, or arrive as if by pacing out the distance.
Accordingly, God fashioned all things with the same ease as she moves with so effectively, because it was through her that they were fashioned, so that the time-measured movements with which we now see them act and acted upon, each according to its own specific nature, come to them from those implanted formulae or ideas45 which God so to say scattered like seed in the very moment of fashioning them, when he spoke and they were made; gave orders, and they were created (Ps 33:9).
52. And so things that move slowly were not set up slowly in order to be slow moving, nor did the fashioning of the ages take the time that they themselves do to run their course. Times, you see, and seasons dance to the measures46 which they received, but not in a time-measured way, when they were created. Other wise, if it is the natural motions ofthings and the usual periods ofthese days with which we are familiar that we think of when these things were made originally by a word from God, they would all have needed not just one day but several more. Thus vegetation that pullulates from roots and dresses the earth with its finery would first have to germinate underneath in the soil, then break out into the open air after a definite number of days, every kind according to its own species, even ifup to this point everything happened as scripture tells it about the nature of things created on the third day.
Then again, how many days would have been needed for birds to start flying, if from their very origins they had to reach the stage of feathers and wings through the number of days proper to their nature? Or perhaps only eggs were created, is that it, when it says on the fifth day that the waters were to throw up every winged flying thing according to its kind? Or granted for the sake of argu ment, that the reason this could have been said quite rightly is that the eggs contained in liquid form everything that would coalesce through a definite number of days and then somehow or other break out of the shells; and this
45. Rationes. 46. The Latin says, literally, "carry through those numbers," hos numeros peragunt. Augustine clearly has in mind Wisdom 1 1 :20: You have arranged all things in measure and number and weight; so 1 am taking what is perhaps an undue liberty in substituting here "measure" for "number." But 1 think in fact that it conveys his meaning better in English, as also does my introducing the figure of dancing; for 1 am pretty sure he was thinking here in a musical metaphor, in terms, no doubt, of a choir or orchestra. But whereas for him, of these two words it was "number" that found expression in musical rhythm, for us it is more usually "measure;" and this in turn we refer to dancing more than to singing or playing musical instruments.