y, by way of recapitulation.
Whence our text reads: "The Lord God had planted a paradise of
pleasure from the beginning" (Gen. 2:8).
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SECOND ARTICLE [I, Q. 102, Art. 2]

Whether Paradise Was a Place Adapted to Be the Abode of Man?

Objection 1: It would seem that paradise was not a place adapted to
be the abode of man. For man and angels are similarly ordered to
beatitude. But the angels from the very beginning of their existence
were made to dwell in the abode of the blessed--that is, the empyrean
heaven. Therefore the place of man's habitation should have been
there also.

Obj. 2: Further, if some definite place were required for man's
abode, this would be required on the part either of the soul or of
the body. If on the part of the soul, the place would be in heaven,
which is adapted to the nature of the soul; since the desire of
heaven is implanted in all. On the part of the body, there was no
need for any other place than the one provided for other animals.
Therefore paradise was not at all adapted to be the abode of man.

Obj. 3: Further, a place which contains nothing is useless. But after
sin, paradise was not occupied by man. Therefore if it were adapted
as a dwelling-place for man, it seems that God made paradise to no
purpose.

Obj. 4: Further, since man is of an even temperament, a fitting place
for him should be of even temperature. But paradise was not of an
even temperature; for it is said to have been on the equator--a
situation of extreme heat, since twice in the year the sun passes
vertically over the heads of its inhabitants. Therefore paradise was
not a fit dwelling-place for man.

_On the contrary,_ Damascene says (De Fide Orth. ii, 11): "Paradise
was a divinely ordered region, and worthy of him who was made to
God's image."

_I answer that,_ As above stated (Q. 97, A. 1), Man was incorruptible
and immortal, not because his body had a disposition to
incorruptibility, but because in his soul there was a power
preserving the body from corruption. Now the human body may be
corrupted from within or from without. From within, the body is
corrupted by the consumption of the humors, and by old age, as above
explained (Q. 97, A. 4), and man was able to ward off such corruption
by food. Among those things which corrupt the body from without, the
chief seems to be an atmosphere of unequal temperature; and to such
corruption a remedy is found in an atmosphere of equable natu