[1.14.9] "Children, do not rejoice and do not revel too early, but weep and first repent together with me and Eve our great sin and consider what we have lost! There is nothing to the earthly paradise and all its advantages, for, as I and you see it with me, the Lord has reconstituted us with so much in His overwhelming, unlimited mercy that we could all easily forget the loss of the opulent properties of the earthly paradise over this new, great, abundant wealth of His too great love. But look at the fast approaching animals of the air as well as the solid earth, look at the grass, the plants, the bushes, and all the trees, large and small, and the flowing air, and ask these things and listen whether there will be an answer anywhere!

[1.14.10] I did it the moment after awakening and convinced myself that all these things have become mute to me and they did not understand the sound of my voice. The chirping of the birds, the howling of the animals, the whirling of the little fountain brook, and all the noise of the grass, the plants, the bushes, and all the trees reached my ears immediately. But how frightened I was to my bones and still am, since from all that I understood nothing at all!