Rav rules that “it is forbidden to say, 'How beautiful is that idolatress!'” However, the Talmud raises a difficulty: Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel “saw a heathen woman who was particularly beautiful, and exclaimed, 'How great are Thy works, O Lord!'”
The entire purpose of rain and earth is to aid man, to provide him with life in order that he be able to fulfill his role in the world - “Without either, man could not exist.” On the other hand, the earth and the rain are immaterial without man.