a flat surface, over which the sky is spread like a dome, or, as
St. Augustine tells us, is stretched like a skin. In this the sun
and moon and stars move, so that they may give light by day and
by night to man. The earth was made of matter created by God out
of nothing, and, with all the tribes of animals and plants
inhabiting it, was finished in six days. Above the sky or
firmament is heaven; in the dark and fiery space beneath the
earth is hell. The earth is the central and most important body
of the universe, all other things being intended for and
subservient to it.

As to man, he was made out of the dust of the earth. At first he
was alone, but subsequently woman was formed from one of his
ribs. He is the greatest and choicest of the works of God. He was
placed in a paradise near the banks of the Euphrates, and was
very wise and very pure; but, having tasted of the forbidden
fruit, and thereby broken the commandment given to him, he was
condemned to labor and to death.

The descendants of the first man, undeterred by his punishment,
pursued such a career of wickedness that it became necessary to
destroy them. A deluge, therefore, flooded the face of the earth,
and rose over the tops of the mountains. Having accomplished its
purpose, the water was dried up by a wind.

From this catastrophe Noah and his three sons, with their wives,
were saved in an ark. Of these sons, Shem remained in Asia and
repeopled it. Ham peopled Africa; Japhet, Europe. As the Fathers
were not acquainted with the existence of America, they did not
provide an ancestor for its people.