Let us now descend to our common mother, which is the earth, from which our bodies are produced and fed. But this will be without departing much from the sea, because it is the sea that, by the veins and secret roads that the Creator ordered, is kneaded with the earth for many profits: of which one is to make it a solid body, joining and pressing together with its moisture and coldness the parts of it, so that it may sustain us. For otherwise, it being in the highest degree dry, its parts would be as loose and unattached as quicklime is in powder, and thus it could not sustain us.
Among all the elements, this is the lowest and least active: but with all that, being helped by heaven and by the other elements, it serves and profits us more than all. With which our nature ought to grow and be strengthened, which, although of itself it is lower than that of the angels, can with the favors and helps of grace rise above them. Its seat and natural place is the center and middle of the world, surrounded on all sides by air and water, without for that reason inclining to one part or to another. For just as the Creator placed in the magnet stone that marvelous power, that it should look only to the north, and in it alone rest, so also he placed in the earth this natural inclination: that it should have for center and for its natural place the point that is in the middle of the world, and that to it it should always run, and in it alone
rest, without moving to one part or to another, which is as great a marvel as if a ball were in the air in the middle of a great hall, a thing that some philosophers could not believe. This is that marvel that the Psalmist sings when he says: “You founded, Lord, the earth upon its own firmness, which in the ages will never lose that place and position that you gave it, nor will it incline to one part or to another, and you ordered that the abyss of the waters should be like a garment, with which it was surrounded and clothed.”
The same Psalmist says that “this was the place that divine providence deputed for the habitation of men. The heaven of heavens (he says) the Lord deputed for himself, but the earth for the dwelling of men.” Therefore this earth, obeying the disposition and commandment of the Creator, as a benign mother receives us when we are born, and maintains us after being born, and sustains us while we live, and at the end receives us into its lap after we are dead, and faithfully keeps our bodies for the day of the general resurrection. This great element is softer and more favorable to us than the others, because from the waters we see that there proceed the floods and risings of rivers, which do notable harm in the neighboring lands; the air thickens in the clouds, from which are born the storms, which damage the sowings and destroy the labors of the poor farmers. But the earth, as servant of man, what fruits it produces, what odors, what flavors, what juices! What colors does it not engender! Who will be able to explain how great its fertility is, how great its riches, especially if we consider how many differences of metals were drawn from it five thousand years before the coming of Christ, and how many have been drawn from then to here, and will be drawn until the end of the world, men reaching, as that poet said, even to the shadows of hell, and pursuing gold and silver, however much it hides itself in the entrails of the earth? Therefore what shall I say of the variety of precious stones of great value and power, which are hidden in the inmost part of it?
But among the benefits of the earth very notable is that of the fountains and rivers that flow from it, and moisten and refresh it. For just as the Creator distributed the veins through the whole human body to moisten and maintain it, so he also wished that this great body of the earth should have its veins, which are the rivers, which running through all parts, refresh and moisten it, and help us to maintain ourselves, raising fishes and watering our sowings.
And because in many parts fountains and rivers are lacking, divine providence ordered that the whole earth should be soaked in water, because in this manner, by digging, men might supply with wells the lack of fountains. But who will not marvel here at the origin and principle from which these rivers and fountains flow? We see in many lands far from the sea, beneath a living rock, a great arm, and at times an ox, of water come out. From where, then, is this water born? How does it always run, winter and summer, in one manner? What abyss is that so copious that it always has something to give, and in so many thousand years is never exhausted? If you say that it is made from the air that is in the concavities of the earth, since it is true that from ten parts of air one of water is made, what so great a quantity of air will be necessary so that from there the river Nile, or the Danube, or Euphrates, or
our Guadalquivir, may perpetually come out, although I well know that other rivers that join with these help their greatness, but nevertheless they, and other similar ones, are great rivers in their birth? The Prophet praises God because “he brings forth the winds from his treasures,” which is from the places that he with his wisdom marked out. How much more ought he to be praised for having created in the earth so great bosoms and gatherings of perennial water that never fail? What is the matter from which so much water is produced, and what the efficient cause that from that matter produces it? For until now the minds of the philosophers vary in declaring this generation of the waters, and scarcely do they say a thing that satisfies. But what here most satisfies is to give glory to God for this benefit, and to marvel at the providence of him who knew and was able to do this. And very coarse must he be who does not understand this. Once a very rough black man, passing with his master the river that is between Cordoba and Castro del Rio, and seeing its water run, turned to his master with his rough tongue, and said: Running, running, and never filling; running, running, and never ending: a great thing is God. Therefore this rough black man on one part confounds us, and on another obliges us to praise the Creator for this benefit. But that angel of the Apocalypse obliges us more, who, as Saint John relates, “came flying through the midst of heaven, crying out and saying to the dwellers of the earth: Fear the Lord, and glorify him, because the hour of his judgment draws near, and adore him who made the heaven, the earth and the sea, and all that there is in them, and the fountains of the waters.” In which words, passing over in silence all the marvels that we see in the other elements, of the fountains of waters alone (as of a thing more admirable) he made special mention.
Therefore what shall I say of the medicinal waters that spring from the earth for the cure of many illnesses? For there are some that relax contracted members, of which the crippled make use; others on the contrary tighten those that are loose and relaxed; some dry up the abundance of phlegms, others serve to cure melancholy; some avail against gout, others against the stone, others heal half-rotten wounds: so great is the power that the Creator placed in so simple a medicine, and all directed and provided for the health and remedy of ungrateful man, who receives the benefit, and does not answer with due thanksgiving.
And above all this, how so great is the power that that divine president gave to the earth with one word and commandment that in the beginning he put upon it, which every year without ceasing gives us abundance of wheat, of wine, of oil, of fruits, of legumes, and of pasture for maintenance of the animals that serve us. Men pass easily through these things, and neither consider this marvelous fertility that the Creator gave to the earth, nor the admirable power that he placed in a grain of wheat and in all the other seeds, because the custom of seeing this every day took admiration away from things so admirable. They marvel only at rare and unaccustomed things, not because they are greater, but because they are less used. But for those who know how to weigh the works of God, as Saint Augustine says, these daily things are matter of greater admiration and knowledge of God than all the others, however rare and new they may be.