Souls of water creatures and land animals compared

For among water creatures hearing is dull, and their sight is blurred as they look through the water. They have no memory, no imagination, no recognition of what is familiar. This is why the text seems to indicate that for water creatures, fleshly life directs the movements of the soul, whereas for land animals, since their life is more complete, the soul has been entrusted with the entire leadership. For their senses are rather sharpened, and sharp are the perceptions of things present; and accurate are the memories of things past among most of the four-footed animals. So it seems that in the case of water creatures, ensouled bodies were created—for creeping things of living creatures were brought forth from the waters—but in the case of land animals, a soul managing bodies was commanded to come into being, since those that live on the earth have received a greater share of vital power. Land animals too are without reason, yet each one, by the voice nature gives it, signals many of the passions of the soul. By sound it reveals joy and grief, recognition of what is familiar, lack of food, separation from its companions, and countless other passions. But water creatures are not only voiceless; they are also wild, unteachable, and unmanageable for any shared life with human beings. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's manger (Isaiah 1:3), but a fish would not recognize the one who feeds it. The donkey knows the familiar voice. It knows the road it has often traveled, and sometimes it even becomes a guide for a person who has lost the way. And no other land animal is said to have hearing as sharp as this creature. As for the camel's holding of grudges, its heavy anger, its lasting rage—what sea creature could imitate that? A camel struck once long ago stores up its wrath for a long time, and when it finds the opportunity, it pays back the harm. Listen, you who are slow to forgive, you who cultivate the holding of grudges as if it were a virtue: whom do you resemble when you guard your grief against your neighbor like a spark hidden in ashes, until you find fuel and kindle your anger into a flame?

"Let the earth bring forth a living creature" (Genesis 1:24). Why does the earth bring forth a living creature? So that you may learn the difference between the soul of an animal and the soul of a human being. A little later you will learn how the human soul was constituted; for now, hear about the soul of creatures without reason. Since, as it is written, the soul of every living creature is its blood (Leviticus 17:11), and blood when it congeals naturally changes into flesh, and flesh when it decays dissolves into earth, the soul of animals is reasonably something earthy. "Let the earth bring forth a living creature," then. Observe the sequence: soul to blood, blood to flesh, flesh to earth. And again, reversing the steps, go back from earth to flesh, from flesh to blood, from blood to soul, and you will find that the soul of animals is earth. Do not think that it is older than the substance of their body, or that it remains after the dissolution of the flesh. Flee the nonsense of the pompous philosophers, who are not ashamed to make their own souls and the souls of bitches of the same kind as one another—who say that they themselves were once women, and bushes, and fish of the sea.