St. Basil the Great Homilies at Hexaemeron

8/7/2019 St. Basil the Great Homilies at Hexaemeron

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HOMILIES AT HEXAEMERON(fragments from the book Homilies at Hexaemeron by St. Basil the Great)

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In the Beginning God made the Heaven and the EarthBy naming the two extremes, he suggests the substance of the whole world, according to heaventhe rivilege of seniority, and utting earth in the second rank. !ll intermediate beings were createdat the same time as the extremities. "hus, although there is no mention of the elements, fire, water and air, imagine that they were all comounded together, and you will find water, air and fire, in theearth. #or fire leas out from stones$ iron which is dug from the earth roduces under friction fire inlentiful measure. ! marvellous fact% #ire shut u in bodies lurks there hidden without harmingthem, but no sooner is it released than it consumes that which has hitherto reserved it. "he earth

contains water, as diggers of wells teach us. &t contains air too, as is shown by the vaours that itexhales under the sun's warmth when it is dam. ow, as according to their nature, heavenoccuies the higher and earth the lower osition in sace, (one sees, in fact, that all which is lightascends towards heaven, and heavy substances fall to the ground)$ as therefore height and dethare the oints the most oosed to each other it is enough to mention the most distant arts tosignify the inclusion of all which fills u intervening Sace. o not ask, then, for an enumeration of all the elements$ guess, from what Holy Scriture indicates, all that is assed over in silence.

&f we were to wish to discover the essence of each of the beings which are offered for our contemlation, or come under our senses, we should be drawn away into long digressions, and thesolution of the roblem would re*uire more words than & ossess, to examine fully the matter. "osend time on such oints would not rove to be to the edification of the +hurch. on theessence of the heavens we are contented with what &saiah says, for, in simle language, he givesus sufficient idea of their nature, -"he heaven was made like smoke,- that is to say, He created asubtle substance, without solidity or density, from which to form the heavens. !s to the form of them we also content ourselves with the language of the same rohet, when raising God -thatstretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and sreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.- &n the sameway, as concerns the earth, let us resolve not to torment ourselves by trying to find out its essence,not to tire our reason by seeking for the substance which it conceals. o not let us seek for anynature devoid of *ualities by the conditions of its existence, but let us know that all the henomenawith which we see it clothed regard the conditions of its existence and comlete its essence. "ry totake away by reason each of the *ualities it ossesses, and you will arrive at nothing. "ake awayblack, cold, weight, density, the *ualities which concern taste, in one word all these which we see

in it, and the substance vanishes. &f & ask you to leave these vain *uestions, & will not exect you totry and find out the earth's oint of suort. "he mind would reel on beholding its reasonings losingthemselves without end. o you say that the earth reoses on a bed of air How, then, can thissoft substance, without consistency, resist the enormous weight which resses uon it How is it

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an even and sontaneous motion, when each of the simle bodies is receiving a different imulsefrom nature. "hus it is a labour to maintain comosite bodies in continual movement, because it isimossible to ut even a single one of their movements in accord and harmony with all those thatare in discord$ since what is roer to the light article, is in warfare with that of a heavier one. &f we attemt to rise we are stoed by the weight of the terrestrial element$ if we throw ourselvesdown we violate the igneous art of our being in dragging it down contrary to its nature. ow this

struggle of the elements effects their dissolution. ! body to which violence is done and which islaced in oosition to nature, after a short but energetic resistance, is soon dissolved into asmany arts as it had elements, each of the constituent arts returning to its natural lace. &t is theforce of these reasons, say the inventors of the fifth kind of body for the genesis of heaven and thestars, which constrained them to re6ect the system of their redecessors and to have recourse totheir own hyothesis. But yet another fine seaker arises and diserses and destroys this theory togive redominance to an idea of his own invention. o not let us undertake to follow them for fear of falling into like frivolities$ let them refute each other, and, without dis*uieting ourselves aboutessence, let us say with 7oses -God created the heavens and the earth.- 4et us glorify thesureme !rtificer for all that was wisely and skillfully made$ by the beauty of visible things let usraise ourselves to Him who is above all beauty$ by the grandeur of bodies, sensible and limited intheir nature, let us conceive of the infinite Being whose immensity and omniotence surass all the

efforts of the imagination. Because, although we ignore the nature of created things, the ob6ectswhich on all sides attract our notice are so marvellous, that the most enetrating mind cannot attainto the knowledge of the least of the henomena of the world, either to give a suitable exlanationof it or to render due raise to the +reator, to 3hom belong all glory, all honour and all ower worldwithout end. !men.

"he orders of angels, the heavenly hosts, all intellectual natures named or unnamed, all theministering sirits, did not live in darkness, but en6oyed a condition fitted for them in light andsiritual 6oy. o one will contradict this$ least of all he who looks for celestial light as one of therewards romised to virtue, the light which, as Solomon says, is always a light to the righteous, thelight which made the !ostle say -Giving thanks unto the #ather, which hath made us meet to beartakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.- #inally, if the condemned are sent into outer darkness evidently those who are made worthy of God's aroval, are at rest in heavenly light.3hen then, according to the order of God, the heaven aeared, enveloing all that itscircumference included, a vast and unbroken body searating outer things from those which itenclosed, it necessarily ket the sace inside in darkness for want of communication with the outer light. "hree things are, indeed, needed to form a shadow, light, a body, a dark lace. "he shadowof heaven forms the darkness of the world.

And God said, Let there be light."he first word of God created the nature of light$ it made darkness vanish, diselled gloom,illuminated the world, and gave to all beings at the same time a sweet and gracious asect. "heheavens, until then enveloed in darkness, aeared with that beauty which they still resent to

our eyes. "he air was lighted u, or rather made the light circulate mixed with its substance, and,distributing its slendour raidly in every direction, so disersed itself to its extreme limits. itsrang to the very aether and heaven. &n an instant it lighted u the whole extent of the world, theorth and the South, the 8ast and the 3est. #or the aether also is such a subtle substance and sotransarent that it needs not the sace of a moment for light to ass through it. 2ust as it carriesour sight instantaneously to the ob6ect of vision, so without the least interval, with a raidity thatthought cannot conceive, it receives these rays of light in its uttermost limits. 3ith light the aether becomes more leasing and the waters more limid. "hese last, not content with receiving itsslendour, return it by the reflection of light and in all directions send forth *uivering flashes. "hedivine word gives every ob6ect a more cheerful and a more attractive aearance, 6ust as whenmen in dee sea our in oil they make the lace about them clear. So, with a single word and inone instant, the +reator of all things gave the boon of light to the world.

94et there be light:. "he order was itself an oeration, and a state of things was brought into being,than which man's mind cannot even imagine a leasanter one for our en6oyment. &t must be wellunderstood that when we seak of the voice, of the word, of the command of God, this divine

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language does not mean to us a sound which escaes from the organs of seech, a collision of air struck by the tongue$ it is a simle sign of the will of God, and, if we give it the form of an order, it isonly the better to imress the souls whom we instruct. 9!nd God saw the light, that it was good.:

And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night.Since the birth of the sun, the light that it diffuses in the air, when shining on our hemishere, is

day$ and the shadow roduced by its disaearance is night. But at that time it was not after themovement of the sun, but following this rimitive light sread abroad in the air or withdrawn in ameasure determined by God, that day came and was followed by night. -!nd the evening and themorning were the first day.- 8vening is then the boundary common to day and night$ and in thesame way morning constitutes the aroach of night to day. &t was to give day the rivileges of seniority that Scriture ut the end of the first day before that of the first night, because nightfollows day5 for, before the creation of light, the world was not in night, but in darkness. &t is theoosite of day which was called night, and it did not receive its name until after day. "hus werecreated the evening and the morning. Scriture means the sace of a day and a night

!s & said then, this language is only a wise and ingenious contrivance to set our minds seeking the1erson to whom the words are addressed. &n the second lace, does the firmament that is calledheaven differ from the firmament that God made in the beginning !re there two heavens "hehilosohers, who discuss heaven, would rather lose their tongues than grant this. "here is onlyone heaven, they retend$ and it is of a nature neither to admit of a second, nor of a third, nor of several others. "he essence of the celestial body *uite comlete constitutes its vast unity.Because, they say, every body which has a circular motion is one and finite. !nd if this body isused in the construction of the first heaven, there will be nothing left for the creation of a second or a third. Here we see what those imagine who ut under the +reator's hand uncreated matter$ a liethat follows from the first fable. But we ask the Greek sages not to mock us before they are agreedamong themselves. Because there are among them some who say there are infinite heavens andworlds. 3hen grave demonstrations shall have uset their foolish system, when the laws of

geometry shall have established that, according to the nature of heaven, it is imossible that thereshould be two, we shall only laugh the more at this elaborate scientific trifling. "hese learned mensee not merely one bubble but several bubbles formed by the same cause, and they doubt theower of creative wisdom to bring several heavens into being% 3e find, however, if we raise our eyes towards the omniotence of God, that the strength and grandeur of the heavens differ fromthe dros of water bubbling on the surface of a fountain. How ridiculous, then, is their argument of imossibility% !s for myself, far from not believing in a second, & seek for the third whereon theblessed 1aul was found worthy to ga;e. !nd does not the 1salmist in saying -heaven of heavens-give us an idea of their lurality &s the lurality of heaven stranger than the seven circles throughwhich nearly all the hilosohers agree that the seven lanets ass,<<circles which they reresentto us as laced in connection with each other like casks fitting the one into the other "hesecircles, they say, carried away in a direction contrary to that of the world, and striking the aether,

make sweet and harmonious sounds, une*ualled by the sweetest melody. !nd if we ask them for the witness of the senses, what do they say "hat we, accustomed to this noise from our birth, onaccount of hearing it always, have lost the sense of it$ like men in smithies with their ears

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Let it divide the aters from the aters" "he mass of waters, which from all directions flowed over the earth, and was susended in the air,was infinite, so that there was no roortion between it and the other elements. "hus, as it hasbeen already said, the abyss covered the earth. 3e give the reason for this abundance of water.one of you assuredly will attack our oinion$ not even those who have the most cultivated minds,and whose iercing eye can enetrate this erishable and fleeting nature$ you will not accuse me

of advancing imossible or imaginary theories, nor will you ask me uon what foundation the fluidelement rests. By the same reason which makes them attract the earth, heavier than water, fromthe extremities of the world to susend it in the centre, they will grant us without doubt that it is dueboth to its natural attraction downwards and its general e*uilibrium, that this immense *uantity of water rests motionless uon the earth."herefore the rodigious mass of waters was sread around the earth$ not in roortion with it andinfinitely larger, thanks to the foresight of the sureme !rtificer, 3ho, from the beginning, foresawwhat was to come, and at the first rovided all for the future needs of the world.< But what need was there for this suerabundance of water< "he essence of fire is necessary for the world, not only in the economy of earthly roduce, but for the comletion of the universe$ for it would be imerfect if the most owerful and the most vital of its elements were lacking. ow fire and water are hostile to and destructive of each other. #ire, if it

is the stronger, destroys water, and water, if in greater abundance, destroys fire. !s, therefore, itwas necessary to avoid an oen struggle between these elements, so as not to bring about thedissolution of the universe.

=e6ect then the foolish wisdom of this world, and receive with me the more simle but infallibledoctrine of truth.

Let there be a firmament in the midst of the aters, and let it divide the aters from theaters" & have said what the word 9firmament: in Scriture means. &t is not in reality a 9firm: and solidsubstance which has weight and resistance$ this name would otherwise have better suited theearth. But, as the substance of suerincumbent bodies is light, without consistency, and cannot begrased by any one of our senses, it is in comarison with these ure and imercetiblesubstances that the firmament has received its name. &magine a lace fit to divide the moisture,sending it, if ure and filtered, into higher regions, and making it fall, if it is dense and earthy$ to theend that by the gradual withdrawal of the moist articles the same temerature may be reservedfrom the beginning to the end. /ou do not believe in this rodigious *uantity of water$ but you donot take into account the rodigious *uantity of heat, less considerable no doubt in bulk, butexceedingly owerful nevertheless, if you consider it as destructive of moisture. &t attractssurrounding moisture, as the melon shows us, and consumes it as *uickly when attracted, as theflame of the lam draws to it the fuel sulied by the wick and burns it u. 3ho doubts that theaether is an ardent fire &f an imassable limit had not been assigned to it by the +reator, whatwould revent it from setting on fire and consuming all that is near it, and absorbing all the

moisture from existing things "he aerial waters which veil the heavens with vaours that are sentforth by rivers, fountains, marshes, lakes, and seas, revent the aether from invading and burningu the universe. "hus we see even this sun, in the summer season, dry u in a moment a damand marshy country, and make it erfectly arid.< 3hat has become of all the water< 4et these masters of omniscience tell us. &s it not lain to every one that it has risen in vaour,and has been consumed by the heat of the sun < <<"hey say, none the less, that even the sun iswithout heat.< 3hat time they lose in words% !nd see what roof they lean uon to resist what is erfectly lain.&ts colour is white, and neither reddish nor yellow. &t is not then fiery by nature, and its heat results,they say, from the velocity of its rotation. 3hat do they gain "hat the sun does not seem to absorbmoisture & do not, however, re6ect this statement, although it is false, because it hels my

argument. & said that the consumtion of heat re*uired this rodigious *uantity of water. "hat thesun owes its heat to its nature, or that heat results from its action, makes no difference, rovidedthat it roduces the same effects uon the same matter. &f you kindle fire by rubbing two ieces of

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wood together, or if you light them by holding them to a flame, you will have absolutely the sameeffect. Besides, we see that the great wisdom of Him who governs all, makes the sun travel fromone region to another, for fear that, if it remained always in the same lace, its excessive heatwould destroy the order of the universe. ow it asses into southern regions about the time of thewinter solstice, now it returns to the sign of the e*uinox$ from thence it betakes itself to northernregions during the summer solstice, and kees u by this imercetible assage a leasant

temerature throughout all the world.

ow if our exlanation of the creation of the world may aear contrary to exerience, (because itis evident that all the waters did not flow together in one lace,) many answers may be made, allobvious as soon as they are stated. 1erhas it is even ridiculous to rely to such ob6ections.

And God said# $Let the aters be gathered together !nto one %lace and let the dry land a%%ear.$ He did not say 9let the earth aear:, so as not to show itself again without form, mud<like, and incombination with the water, nor yet endued with roer form and virtue. !t the same time, lest weshould attribute the drying of the earth to the sun, the +reator shows it to us dried before thecreation of the sun. 4et us follow the thought Scriture gives us. ot only the water which was

covering the earth flowed off from it, but all that which had filtered into its deths withdrew inobedience to the irresistible order of the sovereign 7aster>

Let the earth bring forth green grass. 4et the earth bring forth by itself without having any need of hel from without. Some consider thesun as the source of all roductiveness on the earth. &t is, they say, the action of the sun's heatwhich attracts the vital force from the centre of the earth to the surface. "he reason why theadornment of the earth was before the sun is the following$ that those who worshi the sun, as thesource of life, may renounce their error. &f they be well ersuaded that the earth was adornedbefore the genesis of the sun, they will retract their unbounded admiration for it, because they see

grass and lants vegetate before it rose...

"his is what is meant by -after its kind.- So that the shoot of a reed does not roduce an olive tree,but from a reed grows another reed, and from one sort of seed a lant of the same sort alwaysgerminates. "hus, all which srang from the earth, in its first bringing forth, is ket the same to our time, thanks to the constant reroduction of 9kind:...

&n a moment earth began by germination to obey the laws of the +reator, comleted every stage of growth, and brought germs to erfection. "he meadows were covered with dee grass, the fertilelains *uivered with harvests, and the movement of the corn was like the waving of the sea. 8verylant, every herb, the smallest shrub, the least vegetable, arose from the earth in all its luxuriance."here was no failure in this first vegetation5 no husbandman's inexerience, no inclemency of theweather, nothing could in6ure it$ then the sentence of condemnation (Genesis ?5@A<@) was notfettering the earth's fertility. !ll this was before the sin which condemned us to eat our bread by thesweat of our brow (Genesis ?5@C).

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Let the earth bring forth"his short command was in a moment a vast nature, an elaborate system. Swifter than thought itroduced the countless *ualities of lants. &t is this command which, still at this day, is imosed onthe earth, and in the course of each year dislays all the strength of its ower to roduce herbs,seeds and trees. 4ike tos, which after the first imulse, continue their evolutions, turning uon

themselves when once fixed in their centre$ thus nature, receiving the imulse of this firstcommand, follows without interrution the course of ages, until the consummation of all things> $Let the earth,$ the &reator adds, $bring forth the fr!it tree yielding fr!it after his kind,hose seed is in itself.$ !t this command every cose was thickly lanted$ all the trees, fir, cedar, cyress, ine, rose totheir greatest height D...E, in one moment they came into being, each one with its distinctiveeculiarities. 7ost marked differences searated them from other lants, and each one wasdistinguished by a character of its own>-4et the earth bring forth the fruit tree yielding fruit.- &mmediately the tos of the mountains werecovered with foliage5 aradises were artfully laid out, and an infinitude of lants embellished thebanks of the rivers.

94et the earth bring forth: "his short command was in a moment a vast nature, an elaboratesystem. Swifter than thought it roduced the countless *ualities of lants.

&n the revolutions of the moon we find anew roof of what we have advanced. 3hen it stos andgrows less it does not consume itself in all its body, but in the measure that it deosits or absorbsthe light which surrounds it, it resents to us the image of its decrease or of its increase. &f we wishan evident roof that the moon does not consume its body when at rest, we have only to oen our eyes. &f you look at it in a cloudless and clear sky, you observe, when it has taken the comleteform of a crescent, that the art, which is dark and not lighted u, describes a circle e*ual to thatwhich the full moon forms. "hus the eye can take in the whole circle, if it adds to the illuminatedart this obscure and dark curve. !nd do not tell me that the light of the moon is borrowed,diminishing or increasing in roortion as it aroaches or recedes from the sun. "hat is not nowthe ob6ect of our research$ we only wish to rove that its body differs from the light which makes itshine. & wish you to have the same idea of the sun$ excet however that the one, after having oncereceived light and having mixed it with its substance, does not lay it down again, whilst the other,

turn by turn, utting off and reclothing itself again with light, roves by that which takes lace initself what we have said of the sun.

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"he sun and moon thus received the command to divide the day from the night. God had alreadysearated light from darkness$ then He laced their natures in oosition, so that they could notmingle, and that there could never be anything in common between darkness and light. /ou seewhat a shadow is during the day$ that is recisely the nature of darkness during the night. &f, at theaearance of a light, the shadow always falls on the oosite side$ if in the morning it extendstowards the setting sun$ if in the evening it inclines towards the rising sun, and at mid<day turnstowards the north$ night retires into the regions oosed to the rays of the sun, since it is by natureonly the shadow of the earth. Because, in the same way that, during the day, shadow is roducedby a body which intercets the light, night comes naturally when the air which surrounds the earthis in shadow. !nd this is recisely what Scriture says, -God divided the light from the darkness.-"hus darkness fled at the aroach of light, the two being at their first creation divided by a naturalantiathy. ow God commanded the sun to measure the day, and the moon, whenever she roundsher disc, to rule the night. #or then these two luminaries are almost diametrically oosed$ whenthe sun rises, the full moon disaears from the hori;on, to re<aear in the east at the momentthe sun sets.

And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years3e have soken about signs. By times, we understand the succession of seasons, winter, sring,summer and autumn, which we see follow each other in so regular a course, thanks to theregularity of the movement of the luminaries. &t is winter when the sun so6ourns in the south androduces in abundance the shades of night in our region. "he air sread over the earth is chilly,and the dam exhalations, which gather over our heads, give rise to rains, to frosts, to innumerableflakes of snow. 3hen, returning from the southern regions, the sun is in the middle of the heavensand divides day and night into e*ual arts, the more it so6ourns above the earth the more it bringsback a mild temerature to us. "hen comes sring, which makes all the lants germinate, andgives to the greater art of the trees their new life, and, by successive generation, eretuates allthe land and water animals. #rom thence the sun, returning to the summer solstice, in the directionof the orth, gives us the longest days. !nd, as it travels farther in the air, it burns that which is

over our heads, dries u the earth, riens the grains and hastens the maturity of the fruits of thetrees. !t the eoch of its greatest heat, the shadows which the sun makes at mid<day are short,because it shines from above, from the air over our heads>"hus the longest days are those when the shadows are shortest, in the same way that the shortestdays are those when the shadows are longest. &t is this which haens to all of us -Hetero<skii-(shadowed<on<one<side) who inhabit the northern regions of the earth. But there are eole who,two days in the year, are $ompete# witho%t sha&e at mid<day, because the sun, beingerendicularly over their heads, lights them so e*ually from all sides, that it could through anarrow oening shine at the bottom of a well. "hus there are some who call them -askii-(shadowless). #or those who live beyond the land of sices see their shadow now on one side,now on another, the only inhabitants of this land of which the shade falls at mid<day$ thus they aregiven the name of -amhiskii,- (shadowed<on<both<sides ). !ll these henomena haen whilst thesun is assing into northern regions5 they give us an idea of the heat thrown on the air, by the raysof the sun and of the effects that they roduce. ext we ass to autumn, which breaks u theexcessive heat, lessening the warmth little by little, and by a moderate temerature brings us back

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without suffering to winter, to the time when the sun returns from the northern regions to thesouthern. &t is thus that seasons, following the course of the sun, succeed each other to rule our life.-4et them be for days- says Scriture, not to roduce them but to rule them$ because day and nightare older than the creation of the luminaries and it is this that the salm declares to us. -"he sun torule by day... the moon and stars to rule by night.-

< How does the sun rule by day< Because carrying everywhere light with it, it is no sooner risen above the hori;on than it drivesaway darkness and brings us day. "hus we might, without self decetion, define day as air lightedby the sun, or as the sace of time that the sun asses in our hemishere. "he functions of the sunand moon serve further to mark 9years:. "he moon, after having twelve times run her course, formsa year which sometimes needs an intercalary month to make it exactly agree with the seasons.Such was formerly the year of the Hebrews and of the early Greeks. !s to the solar year, it is thetime that the sun, having started from a certain sign, takes to return to it in its normal rogress.

And God made to great lights."he word -great,- if, for examle we say it of the heaven of the earth or of the sea, may have anabsolute sense$ but ordinarily it has only a relative meaning, as a great horse, or a great ox. &t is

not that these animals are of an immoderate si;e, but that in comarison with their like theydeserve the title of great. 3hat idea shall we ourselves form here of greatness Shall it be the ideathat we have of it in the ant and in all the little creatures of nature, which we call great incomarison with those like themselves, and to show their sueriority over them 0r shall weredicate greatness of the luminaries, as of the natural greatness inherent in them !s for me, &think so. &f the sun and moon are great, it is not in comarison with the smaller stars, but becausethey have such a circumference that the slendour which they diffuse lights u the heavens andthe air, embracing at the same time earth and sea. &n whatever art of heaven they may be,whether rising, or setting, or in mid heaven, they aear always the same in the eyes of men, amanifest roof of their rodigious si;e. #or the whole extent of heaven cannot make them aear greater in one lace and smaller in another. 0b6ects which we see afar off aear dwarfed to our eyes, and in measure as they aroach us we can form a 6uster idea of their si;e. But there is no

one who can be nearer or more distant from the sun. !ll the inhabitants of the earth see it at thesame distance. &ndians and Britons see it of the same si;e. "he eole of the 8ast do not see itdecrease in magnitude when it sets$ those of the 3est do not find it smaller when it rises. &f it is inthe middle of the heavens it does not vary in either asect.

+ould the earth with such a wide extent be lighted u entirely in one moment if an immense discwere not ouring forth its light over it =ecognise here the wisdom of the !rtificer. See how Hemade the heat of the sun roortionate to this distance. &ts heat is so regulated that it neither consumes the earth by excess, nor lets it grow cold and sterile by defect."o all this the roerties of the moon are near akin$ she, too, has an immense body, whoseslendour only yields to that of the sun. 0ur eyes, however, do not always see her in her full si;e.

ow she resents a erfectly rounded disc, now when diminished and lessened she shows adeficiency on one side. 3hen waxing she is shadowed on one side, and when she is waninganother side is hidden. ow it is not without a secret reason of the divine 7aker of the universe,that the moon aears from time to time under such different forms. &t resents a striking examleof our nature. othing is stable in man$ here from nothingness he raises himself to erfection$ thereafter having hasted to ut forth his strength to attain his full greatness he suddenly is sub6ect togradual deterioration, and is destroyed by diminution. "hus, the sight of the moon, making us thinkof the raid vicissitudes of human things, ought to teach us not to ride ourselves on the goodthings of this life, and not to glory in our ower, not to be carried away by uncertain riches, todesise our flesh which is sub6ect to change, and to take care of the soul, for its good is unmoved.&f you cannot behold without sadness the moon losing its slendour by gradual and imercetibledecrease, how much more distressed should you be at the sight of a soul, who, after having

ossessed virtue, loses its beauty by neglect, and does not remain constant to its affections, but isagitated and constantly changes because its uroses are unstable. 3hat Scriture says is verytrue, -!s for a fool he changeth as the moon.-

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& believe also that the variations of the moon do not take lace without exerting great influenceuon the organi;ation of animals and of all living things. "his is because bodies are differentlydisosed at its waxing and waning. 3hen she wanes they lose their density and become void.3hen she waxes and is aroaching her fullness they aear to fill themselves at the same timewith her, thanks to an imercetible moisture that she emits mixed with heat, which enetrateseverywhere. #or roof, see how those who slee under the moon feel abundant moisture filling

their heads$ see how fresh meat is *uickly turned under the action of the moon$ see the brain of animals, the moistest art of marine animals, the ith of trees. 8vidently the moon must be, asScriture says, of enormous si;e and ower to make all nature thus articiate in her changes.

0n its variations deends also the condition of the air, as is roved by sudden disturbances whichoften come after the new moon, in the midst of a calm and of a stillness in the winds, to agitate theclouds and to hurl them against each other$ as the flux and reflux in straits, and the ebb and flow of the ocean rove, so that those who live on its shores see it regularly following the revolutions of themoon. "he waters of straits aroach and retreat from one shore to the other during the differenthases of the moon$ but, when she is new, they have not an instant of rest, and move in eretualswaying to and fro, until the moon, reaearing, regulates their reflux. !s to the 3estern sea, wesee it in its ebb and flow now return into its bed, and now overflow, as the moon draws it back by

her resiration and then, by her exiration, urges it to its own boundaries.& have entered into these details, to show you the grandeur of the luminaries, and to make you seethat, in the insired words, there is not one idle syllable. !nd yet my sermon has scarcely touchedon any imortant oint$ there are many other discoveries about the si;e and distance of the sunand moon to which any one who will make a serious study of their action and of their characteristics may arrive by the aid of reason. 4et me then ingenuously make an avowal of myweakness, for fear that you should measure the mighty works of the +reator by my words. "he littlethat & have said ought the rather to make you con6ecture the marvels on which & have omitted todwell. 3e must not then measure the moon with the eye, but with the reason. =eason, for thediscovery of truth, is much surer than the eye.8verywhere ridiculous old women's tales, imagined in the delirium of drunkenness, have beencirculated$ such as that enchantments can remove the moon from its lace and make it descend to

the earth. How could a magician's charm shake that of which the 7ost High has laid thefoundations !nd if once torn out what lace could hold it o you wish from slight indications tohave a roof of the moon's si;e !ll the towns in the world, however distant from each other,e*ually receive the light from the moon in those streets that are turned towards its rising. &f she didnot look on all face to face, those only would be entirely lighted u which were exactly oosite$ asto those beyond the extremities of her disc, they would only receive diverted and obli*ue rays. &t isthis effect which the light of lams roduces in houses$ if a lam is surrounded by several ersons,only the shadow of the erson who is directly oosite to it is cast in a straight line, the othersfollow inclined lines on each side. &n the same way, if the body of the moon were not of animmense and rodigious si;e she could not extend herself alike to all. &n reality, when the moonrises in the e*uinoctial regions, all e*ually en6oy her light, both those who inhabit the icy ;one,

under the revolutions of the Bear, and those who dwell in the extreme south in the neighbourhoodof the torrid ;one. She gives us an idea of her si;e by aearing to be face to face with all eole.3ho then can deny the immensity of a body which divides itself e*ually over such a wide extentBut enough on the greatness of the sun and moon. 7ay He 3ho has given us intelligence torecognise in the smallest ob6ects of creation the great wisdom of the +ontriver make us find ingreat bodies a still higher idea of their +reator. However, comared with their !uthor, the sun andmoon are but a fly and an ant. "he whole universe cannot give us a right idea of the greatness of God$ and it is only by signs, weak and slight in themselves, often by the hel of the smallestinsects and of the least lants, that we raise ourselves to Him.

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>"he command was given, and immediately the rivers and lakes becoming fruitful brought forththeir natural broods$ the sea travailed with all kinds of swimming creatures$ not even in mud andmarshes did the water remain idle$ it took its art in creation...

>but in genesis each being roceeds from its like, and not from its contrary>

umbers of other vegetables are the same and all over the earth reroduce by the roots. othingthen is truer than that each lant roduces its seed or contains some seminal virtue$ this is what ismeant by -after its kind.- So that the shoot of a reed does not roduce an olive tree, but from areed grows another reed, and from one sort of seed a lant of the same sort always germinates."hus, all which srang from the earth, in its first bringing forth, is ket the same to our time, thanksto the constant reroduction of kind>

!s to the darnel and all those bastard grains which mix themselves with the harvest, the tares of Scriture, far from being a variety of corn, have their own origin and their own kind>

!t these words -4et the earth bring forth,- it did not roduce a germ contained in it, but He whogave the order at the same time gifted it with the grace and ower to bring forth. 3hen the earthhad heard this command -4et the earth bring forth grass and the tree yielding fruit,- it was notgrass that it had hidden in it that it caused to sring forth, it did not bring to the surface a alm tree,an oak, a cyress, hitherto ket back in its deths. &t is the word of God which forms the nature of things created>

!s a ball, which one ushes, if it meet a declivity, descends, carried by its form and the nature of the ground and does not sto until it has reached a level surface$ so nature, once ut in motion bythe ivine command, traverses creation with an e*ual ste, through birth and death, and kees uthe succession of kinds through resemblance, to the last. ature always makes a horse succeed toa horse, a lion to a lion, an eagle to an eagle, and reserving each animal by these uninterrutedsuccessions she transmits it to the end of all things> "hus when the soul of brutes aeared it wasnot concealed in the earth, but it was born by the command of God>

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Documents

St. Basil the Great Homilies at Hexaemeron