"the creature without the Creator melts into thin air"

Philip Halling

"If by the autonomy of earthly affairs we mean that created things and societies themselves enjoy their own laws and values which must be gradually deciphered, put to use, and regulated by men, then it is entirely right to demand that autonomy. . . . For by the very circumstance of their having been created, all things are endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order. Man must respect these as he isolates them by the appropriate methods of the individual sciences or arts. . . .
     "But if the expression 'the independence of temporal affairs' is taken to mean that created things do not depend on God, and that man can use them without any reference to their Creator, anyone who acknowledges God will see how false such a meaning is [(nemo qui Deum agnoscit non sentit quam falsa huiusmodi placita sint)]. For without the Creator the creature would disappear [(Creatura enim sine creatore evanescit, For the creature without the Creator melts into thin air)]. . . ."

     Gaudium et spes 36, as trans. Liturgy of the hours.  Tanner, vol. 2, pp. 1090-1091:  "And all believers of whatever religion have always sensed the voice and manifestation of the creator in the utterances [(loquela)] of creatures.  If God is ignored the creature itself is impoverished [(Immo, per oblivionem Dei ipsa creatura obscuratur, So no, by [its] forgetfulness of God the creature itself is rendered indistinct)]."