Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.47

47.1. "But if God is not the parent and begetter of souls," you say, "by what author were they begotten and by what reason brought forth?" — If you wish to hear it unpainted and not drawn from any show of voice, we likewise confess that we are ignorant of that, do not know it, and judge that knowledge of so great a matter surpasses not only our weakness and fragility but even that of all the powers that are in the world and that have seized for themselves by mortals' opinions the name of divinities.

2. But because we deny they are of God, must we show whose they are? That does not follow of necessity. For if we deny that flies, beetles and bugs, dormice, weevils and moths are the work of the almighty King, it is not to be demanded of us in consequence that we say who made and instituted them: we can without any blame not know who gave them origin too, and still maintain that things so superfluous, so empty, so pertaining to no reasons—nay sometimes even harmful and bringing injuries upon necessities—were not brought forth by God from on high.