[9] There are two species of this helper: the one has its sphere in the passions, the other in sense-perception. At present He will produce the former only, for he says, “And God moulded moreover out of the earth all the wild beasts of the field, and all the birds of the heaven, and led them to Adam, to see what he would call them: and whatever Adam called a living soul, this was its name” (Gen. 2:19). You see who are our helpers, the wild beasts, the soul’s passions: for after saying, “Let us make a helper corresponding to him,” he adds the words, “He moulded the wild beasts,” implying that the wild beasts are our helpers. These are not properly called our helpers,
[10] but by a straining of language; in reality they are found to be our actual foes, just as the allies of states sometimes turn out to be traitors and deserters, and in private friendships flatterers prove enemies instead of comrades. He uses the terms “heaven” and “field” as synonyms, meaning the mind. For the mind is like the field in having countless sproutings and upgrowths, and like heaven again in having natures brilliant and godlike and blessed.
[11] The passions he likens to wild beasts and birds, because, savage and untamed as they are, they tear the soul to pieces, and because like winged things they light upon the understanding; for the assault of the passions is violent and irresistible. The addition of “further” to “formed” is by no means otiose. How do we see this? Because above also he mentions the forming of the wild beasts before the creation of man, as we see from these words referring to the sixth day: and He said, “Let the earth bring forth the living soul after its kind, four-footed animals and creeping things and wild beasts” (Gen. 1:24).
[12] How comes He, then, to form other wild beasts now, and not to be satisfied with those former ones? From the ethical point of view what we must say is this. In the realm of created things the class or kind of wickedness is abundant. It follows that in this the worst things are ever being produced. From the philosophical point of view our answer must be, that on the former occasion, when engaged in the Work of the six days, He wrought the genera or kinds and the originals of the passions, whereas now He is fashioning the species as well.
[13] This is why he says, “He fashioned moreover.” That what were created in the first instance were genera, is evident from the words employed, “Let the earth bring forth the living soul,” not according to species but “according to kind.” And we find Him in every instance working in this way. Before the species He completes the genera. He does so in the case of man. Having first fashioned man as a genus, in which the prophet says that there is the male and the female genus. He afterwards makes Adam, the finished form or species.