Still in face of such texts as, The heavens are telling the glory of God (Ps. xviii): Praise ye him, O sun and moon: praise ye him, all ye stars and light (Ps. cxlviii): it is hard to deny that God might have chosen to erect a monument to His glory in the shape of a world of irrational creatures, and even of inanimate nature alone. Such creatures would have been, in Aristotelian and Thomist phrase, 'natural slaves,' paying their service immediately to God; and of them the text would have been verified: The Lord shall rejoice in his works (Ps. ciii).

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