east and the west.  For the ether also is such a subtle substance and so transparent that it needs not the space of a moment for light to pass through it.  Just as it carries our sight instantaneously to the object of vision, so without the least interval, with a rapidity that thought can not conceive, it receives these rays of light in its uttermost limits.  With light the ether becomes more pleasing and the waters more limpid.  These last, not content with receiving its splendor, return it by the reflection of light and in all directions send forth quivering flashes.  The divine word gives every object a more cheerful and a more attractive appearance, just as when men pour in oil into the deep sea they make the place about them smooth.  So, with a single word and in one instant the Creator of all things gave the boon of light to the world.

“Let there be light.”  The order was itself an operation, and a state of things was brought into being than which man’s mind can not even imagine a pleasanter one for our enjoyment It must be well understood that when we speak of the voice, of the word, of the command of God, this divine language does not mean to us a sound which escapes from the organs of speech, a collision of air struck by the tongue; it is a simple sign of the will of God, and, if we give it the form of an order, it is only the better to impress the souls whom we instruct.

“And God saw the light, that it was good.”  How can we worthily praise light after the testimony given by the Creator to its goodness?  The word, even among us, refers the judgment to the eyes, incapable of raising itself to the idea that the senses have already received.  But if beauty in bodies results from symmetry of parts and the harmonious appearance of colors how, in a simple and homogeneous essence like light, can this idea of beauty be preserved?  Would not the symmetry in light be less shown in its parts than in the pleasure and delight at the sight of it?  Such is also the beauty of gold, which it owes, not to the happy mingling of its parts, but only to its beautiful color, which has a charm attractive to the eyes.

Thus, again, the evening star is the most beautiful of the stars:  not that the parts of which it is composed form a harmonious whole, but thanks to the unalloyed and beautiful brightness which meets our eyes.  And further, when God proclaimed the goodness of light, it was not in regard to the charm of the eye, but as a provision for future advantage, because at that time there were as yet no eyes to judge of its beauty.

“And God divided the light from the darkness.”  That is to say, God gave them natures incapable of mixing, perpetually in opposition to each other, and put between them the widest space and distance.

“And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.”  Since the birth of the sun, the light that it diffuses in the air when shining on our hemisphere is day, and the shadow produced by its disappearance is night.  But at that time it was not after the movement of the sun, but following this primitive light spread abroad in the air or withdrawn in a measure determined by God, that day came and was followed by night.