governs the rest of that work. Chief among signs is language and words; but then some things
Book VIII 357 praised more copiously for having given a soul set in an animal body the rational facility of working as much as would satisfy its willing spirit, not as much as it would be reluctantly forced to do by the wants of the body.
16. What greater or more wonderful spectacle can there be, after all, or when is human reason more able after a fashion to converse with "The Nature of Things,"28 than when after seeds have been sown, cuttings potted, shrubs planted out, graftings made, each root and seed is questioned, so to say, on what its inner vital force can or cannot do, what helps and what hinders it, what is the range of the inner, invisible power of its own numerical formula,29 what that of the care bestowed on it from outside? And then to perceive by these very considerations that neither the one who plants is anything nor the one who waters, but the one who gives the growth, God ( 1 Cor 3:7), because the work and skill applied from the outside is applied by one who also was nonetheless created and is being governed and directed invisibly by God?
The same continued, on a cosmic scale
9, 17. From this the eye of the mind can now be raised up to the universe itself as if it were all some huge tree, and in this too will be discovered the same twin functioning of providence, partly through natural, partly through voluntary activity; through natural activity indeed is working the hidden management of God, by which he also gives growth to trees and herbs, while voluntary activity comes through the works of angels and human beings. As regards the first mode celestial things are arrayed up above, terrestrial ones down below, the great lights and constellations shine, day and night are moved around in turn, the earth with its foundations in the waters has them washing round it and in amongst it, the air is poured over it at a higher level, shrubs and animals are conceived and born, grow up, grow old and perish, and whatever else happens in things through the inner impulses of nature; while in this other mode signs are given, taught and learned,30 fields cultivated, communities administered, arts and skills practiced, and whatever else is done, whether in the higher company of the angels or in this earthly and mortal society, in such a way as to be in the interests of the good even through the unwitting actions of the bad. And in the human individual we see the same twin power of providence at work; first with respect to the body, nature
28. Cum rerum natura, an allusion, surely, to the strange epic poem, De Rerum Natura of the great Latin poet Lucretius, older contemporary ofCicero, and enthusiastic advocate of the Epicurean philosophy. Were it not for this allusion, 1 would more happily render the phrase, "converse with Nature herself." 29. Of its "numbers"; see Wis 1 1:20. 30. See Teaching Christianity 1,2 for his distinction between "things" and "signs," which then governs the rest of that work. Chief among signs is language and words; but then some things signified by words can also be used as signs, and these he will often call sacraments.
358 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis provides for its coming to be, its growth, its aging, while the provision of food, clothing, shelter, health care is left to voluntary activity; likewise with respect to the soul, nature ensures that it is alive, sentient and conscious, while to learn and give its consent is left to the will.
1 8. Now just as in the case of a tree agriculture acts from the outside to ensure the effectiveness of what nature is busy with on the inside, so in the case of a human being; as regards the body, what nature is doing for it inwardly is being preserved outwardly by medicine; and again as regards the soul, in order that nature may be blessed within, education offers its services from without. On the other hand, what neglect of cultivation is to the tree, that is what failure to take proper medical care is to the body, is what slackness over studies is to the soul; and what harmful spraying does for a tree, that is what poisonous food does for the body, what inducement to wickedness does for the soul.
And so God, then, Most High above all things, who established all things and governs all things, creates all natures out of his goodness, disposes all wills according to his justice. How therefore can it be abhorrent to the truth, if we believe that the man was set up in Paradise to work at agriculture, not in servile toil, but with genuine pleasure and uplift of spirit? What, after all, is more inno cent than such work for our moments of leisure, and what can provide more material for our serious reflection?
Question about the man being put in Paradise to guard it
10, 19. What, though, about for guarding? For guarding Paradise itself? Against whom? Certainly there was no invasion from a neighbor to fear, no trouble on the borders, no thief, no aggressor. How therefore are we going to understand that the material paradise could have been guarded by the man in a material way? But then scripture did not actually say, "for working and guarding Paradise," butjust/or working and guarding—though if it were expressed more carefully word for word from the Greek, this is how it is written: And the Lord God took the man whom he made, andput him in Paradise to work it and guard (Gn 2: 1 5). But whether he just put the man there to work—that, you see, is what the person thought who translatedfor working—or whether it was to work, or operate, the same paradise,11 that is that the man should work Paradise, well it sounds ambiguous, and the expression called for seems rather to be, not "to work Paradise," but "in Paradise."
3 1 . As one talks about working or operating a machine? The obvious meaning (which Augustine too, never a slave of the obvious, has until now been taking for granted) is "to till it." But because of the fastidiousness over words he is indulging in here in this whole passage, 1 have had to translate as literally as possible—and avoid the obvious meaning.