Jerome : "Then I said to myself concerning men: God has chosen them out, but only to see that they themselves are as beasts. For the fate of men and the fate of beast - they have one and the same fate: as one dies so the other dies, and they all have the same spirit. Man has no superiority over beast, for all is futile. All go to the same place; all originate from dust and return to dust. Who perceives that the spirit of man is the one that ascends on high while the spirit of the beast is the one that descends down into the earth?" It is not surprising that there is no distinction in this life between righteous and wicked, nor that none values virtues, but all things occur with uncertain outcome, where nothing seems to differ according to the worthlessness of the body between sheep and men: there is the same birth, common end in death; we proceed similarly towards the light and are equally dissolved into the dust. But there seems to be this difference, that the spirit of man ascends to the heavens, and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth, but from where do we know this for certain? Who can know whether what is hoped is true or false? But he says this, not because he thinks the spirit dies with the body, or that there's one place set aside for beasts and for man, but because before the arrival of Christ all were led equally to the nether regions. Jacob said that he was about to go down to those regions. [cfr Gen. 37, 35 ; 42, 38 ; 44, 31.] And Job complains that the pious and impious are held back in the lower world. [cfr Iob. 7, 9 ; 17, 13.16.] And the Gospel says that with an abyss blocking the way even Abraham and Lazarus were rich in prayers in the underworld. [cfr Luc. 16, 26.] And in fact before Christ accompanied by a robber opened the wheel of flames, and the fiery rumpias [A long missile weapon of barbarian nations.] and the gates of paradise, the heavens were closed and the equal unworthiness of the spirits of sheep and of men was abridged. One also seems to be dispersed and the other saved; but there is not much of a difference between dying with the body or being held in the darkness of the underworld. — Commentary on Ecclesiastes Jerome : "Then I said to myself concerning men: God has chosen them out, but only to see that they themselves are as beasts." I considered the eloquence of the sons of man, whom God chose. Only this eloquence, he says, God wanted to be between men and beasts, since we speak, they are mute; we possess the will for conversation, they are stupefied with silence. And though we only differ from beasts in language, though it is shown to us, how we are like the beasts - weak in body. — Commentary on Ecclesiastes