your morning feast, so that excessive satiety may not make you A sluggish for taking the evening meals. Moreover, may He who has filled all things with His creation, and who left us clear monuments of His wonders in everything, fill your hearts with all spiritual joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
HOMILY IX. On Terrestrial Things.
1. How does the morning banquet of words appear to you? For it occurred to me to compare my discourse to the benevolence of a certain poor host: who, desiring to be numbered among those who build up opulent tables, afflicts his guests on account of the scarcity of costly things, because he brings forward a poor preparation for the table too B lavishly, so that his ambition results in the reproach of absurdity for him. Such, indeed, might be our manner of proceeding here, unless you say something else. But whatever these things may be, they are by no means to be spurned by you. For neither did those who lived with Elisha turn away from him as a bad host, even though he received his friends with wild herbs. I know the laws of allegory, even if I have not devised them myself, but have stumbled upon the labors of others. Those who do not accept the common understandings of the Scriptures say that water is not water, but some other nature, and they interpret the plant and the fish according to their own opinion. Furthermore, they explain the generation of reptiles and cattle as twisted into their own allegories, just as certain interpreters of things appearing to the imagination during sleep, who adapt their interpretations to their own purpose. C But I, when I hear "grass," I understand grass; and plant, and fish, and beast, and cattle, I accept everything exactly as it was said. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Nor, because those who have written about the world have argued much about the shapes of the earth—whether the earth is a sphere, or a cylinder, or whether it is like a disk and turned equally from every side, or whether it has the appearance of a winnowing fan and is hollow in the middle (for indeed, those who have written about the world have fallen into all these opinions, each one dissolving the tenets of the others)—shall I therefore be induced to call our own account of creation less honorable, D since God's servant Moses spoke nothing about shapes, nor did he say that the earth is a sphere or a cylinder.
A And he did not measure how far the shadow of the earth extends during the motion of the sun beneath the earth, nor how this, when it comes upon the moon, causes eclipses. Because he passed over as useless to us things that have no bearing on us, shall I for this reason consider the oracles of the Spirit to be of less value than the wisdom that has been made foolish? Or shall I rather give glory to Him who did not occupy our minds with vanities, but ordained that all things should be written for our edification and for the perfecting of our souls? This is something which some, it seems to me, have failed to understand; for they have attempted to superimpose upon the written text a certain dignity from their own minds by means of various deductions and figurative interpretations. B But this is the act of one who makes himself wiser than the oracles of the Spirit, and who, under the pretext of interpretation, introduces his own ideas. Let it therefore be understood as it is written.
2. "Let the earth bring forth a living soul of cattle and wild beasts and creeping things."
2. Homily IX
Consider the Word of God passing through creation, which began at that time, and is effective even now, and is to pass through to the end, until the cosmos is completed. C For just as a sphere, when it has been pushed by someone and then has found a sloping place, is carried downward both by its own structure and by the suitability of the location, and does not stop before some flat ground receives it; so the nature of existing things, having been set in motion by a single command, moves evenly through creation in its generation and corruption, maintaining the successions of kinds through similarity, until it reaches the end itself. For a horse is made the successor of a horse, a lion of a lion, and an eagle of an eagle; and each of the animals, preserved by successive successions, it escorts until the consummation of the all. D No time makes the specific characteristics of animals corrupted or faded, but, as if just established, nature always runs alongside time, ever fresh. "Let the earth bring forth a living soul." This command remained in the earth, and it does not cease serving its Creator. For some things are brought forth from the succession of those that existed before; while others are shown, even now, to be brought to life from the earth itself. For it does not only send forth cicadas in rainy seasons, nor other countless kinds of birds wandering in the air, most of which are nameless because of their minuteness, but it also brings forth mice and frogs from itself; wherefore around Egyptian Thebes, when it rains heavily during heat waves, the country is immediately filled with field mice. And even eels...we have seen formed in no other way than from slime; whose succession neither an egg nor any other manner produces, but they have their origin from the earth. A 5. Bring forth, earth, a living soul. The beasts are earthly and inclined toward the earth. But man, who is a heavenly plant, differs just as much in the dignity of his soul as he does in the form of his bodily structure. What is the form of four-footed animals? Their head is inclined toward the earth, it looks at the belly, and it pursues its pleasure in every way. Your head is raised toward heaven; your eyes look at the things above 19. So that, if ever you also debase yourself with the passions of the flesh, serving the belly and the things beneath the belly, you are compared to the senseless beasts and made like unto them 18. A different care becomes you: to seek, namely, the things which are above, where Christ is 13, and to raise your mind above earthly things. As you have been formed, so also set your own life in order. Let your conversation be in the heavens: your true fatherland is the heavenly Jerusalem, citizens and tribesmen, the first-born themselves: Who are written in the heavens 15.
16 3. Bring forth, earth, a living soul. Therefore, the soul of the brute animals did not emerge as something recondite in the earth, but it came into being together with the command. And there is but one soul of the brute animals; for the privation of reason is its distinguishing mark. But by different properties each of the animals is distinguished 21. For the ox is steady and firm, the ass is sluggish, the horse bold toward the desire of the female 22, the wolf is untameable, the fox is wily, the deer is timid, the ant is industrious, C the dog is pleasing and mindful of friendship. For as soon as any animal was created, the property of its own nature was introduced with it. A vehement spirit was born together with the lion, a solitary manner of living, a character somewhat unsociable toward its own tribesmen. For, like a certain tyrant of the brute animals, because of the pride of his nature, he does not allow many to be his peers and equals. He, indeed, neither admits yesterday’s food, nor does he return to the remains of his own prey: to whom nature has also given such organs of voice that many animals, far swifter than he, are often captured by his roar alone. The panther is vehement and quick to sudden attacks; its body is suited for agility and lightness, and it is joined to such as corresponds to the movements of its soul. The nature of the bear is sluggish, its character is peculiar, its habits are D wily and deeply hidden 24. It is also clothed...
with a body—heavy, compact, and with joints not clearly articulated—befitting a creature that truly dwells in a frozen lair. If we were to pursue with our discourse how great an untaught and natural care for their own lives resides in these irrational creatures, or if we were to be moved toward the preservation of ourselves and the concern for the salvation of our souls, we would be either more highly motivated or further condemned, when we are found failing even the imitation of the beasts. A A bear, often wounded with very deep gashes, heals itself, using all sorts of devices to cover its wounds with this flame-like substance which has a naturally dry quality. You might also see a fox healing itself with the tears of a pine tree. A tortoise, having gorged itself on the flesh of a viper, escapes the harm of the venomous creature through the contrary nature of marjoram. And a snake, having fed on fennel, remedies the injury to its eyes. B And what rational prudence does not exceed their foreknowledge of the change of the air? For instance, when winter is approaching, a sheep eagerly consumes its food, as if it were laying in provisions for the coming scarcity; and oxen, having been kept shut up for a long time during the winter season, when at last the spring begins to approach, perceiving the change by natural sense, look from their stalls toward the exits, and all, as if by a single signal, change their position. Indeed, some of the diligent have even observed that the land hedgehog constructs two breathing vents in its lair, blocking the northern vent when the north wind is going to blow, and again, when the south wind takes over, moving toward the northern one. What is indicated to us men by these things? C Not only that the care of Him who created us extends through all things, but also that there is some sense of the future in the irrational creatures, so that we too might not be glued to the present life, but might bestow all our zeal upon the future age. Will you not work zealously for yourself, O man? Will you not store up in the present age things that pertain to the rest of the future age, when you have looked to the example of the ant? Which in summer stores up for itself its winter food, and does not, because the discomforts of winter are not yet present, pass the time in sloth; but with an inexorable zeal it stretches itself toward the work, until it has stored up sufficient food in its storehouses; and it does not even do this flippantly, but with a certain wise ingenuity D [it manages] for the food to last for the longest possible time; for it slices the middle of the grains with its claws, lest...
they sprout and become useless for its food. And it dries them out when it senses that they have become damp; and it does not bring them out at just any time, but when it foresees that the air will remain in a calm state. A Indeed, you would not see rain flowing down from the clouds as long as the wheat is spread out by the ants. What language could attain this? What hearing could contain it? What time would suffice to tell and narrate all the miracles of the Creator? Let us also say with the Prophet: "How magnified are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you have made them all." Therefore, we will not be able to excuse ourselves on the grounds that we have not been taught the things that are beneficial in books, since we are permitted by the law of nature to choose that which is useful without instruction. You know what good you ought to do for your neighbor? What you wish to happen to yourself from another. You know what evil is? What you yourself would not wish to suffer from another. No art of cutting roots, nor any experience of herbs, has brought to brute animals a knowledge of what is useful; but naturally each animal has known the means of procuring its own salvation, and possesses a certain ineffable tendency toward what is according to nature.
4. Moreover, there are also in us virtues according to nature, B toward which the affinity of the soul exists, not from the teaching of men, but from nature itself. For just as no schooling teaches us to hate disease, but of our own accord we turn away from those things that cause us distress, so too there is in the soul a mode of instruction-less avoidance of evil. For every vice is an illness of the soul, but virtue holds the position of health. For some have rightly defined health as the stability of the natural operations. And he who says the same concerning the healthy state of the soul will not stray from what is fitting. Hence the soul is, without instruction, appetitive of that which is proper to it and according to its nature. C Therefore, temperance is praised by all, and justice is approved, and courage is worthy of admiration, and prudence is greatly sought after. These virtues pertain more properly to the soul than health does to the body. "Children, love your parents." "You parents, do not provoke your children to wrath." Does not nature itself say these things? Paul advises nothing new, but strengthens the bonds of nature. If the lioness loves her offspring and the wolf fights for its cubs, D what shall a man say who disobeys the commandment and corrupts nature, when a child dishonors the old age of a parent, or a parent through a second…
marriage forgets his A earlier children? Great is the affection in irrational animals between offspring and parents, because God, who created them, compensated for their lack of reason with a greater capacity for perception. For whence does a lamb, leaping out from among countless sheep in the folds, recognize the color and voice of its mother, and hasten toward her, seeking its own fountains of milk? And even if it encounters poor, empty teats, it is content with them, having passed by many teats that are full and heavy. And how does the mother, among so many lambs, recognize her own? The voice is one, the appearance is the same, the scent is similar to all, as far as our sense of smell can discern; yet there is in them a certain sense, sharper than our own understanding, by which it is possible for each to distinguish what is its own. B The puppy does not yet have teeth, and yet it defends itself with its mouth against those who annoy it. The calf does not yet have horns, and yet it knows where its weapons will grow. These things prove that the natures of all things are untaught, and that there is nothing disorderly or improvident in existing things, but that all things bear the traces of the wisdom of their Creator, showing in themselves that they were produced well-equipped for the preservation of their own safety. The dog is devoid of reason, yet it possesses a sense not inferior to reason. For those things which the wise men of the world, spending much of their life in leisure, have barely discovered—I mean the complexities of syllogisms—these things the dog shows himself to have been taught by nature. For when he investigates the track of a wild beast, C and finds it broken in many ways, having gone over the turnings leading in every direction, he all but utters the syllogistic voice through the actions he performs: "The beast," he says, "turned either this way, or that way, or in this direction; but it did not go this way, nor that way; it remains that it must have rushed this way." And thus, by the elimination of the false, he finds the true. What more do those who sit gravely over their diagrams, drawing lines in the dust, and, rejecting two of three propositions, find the truth in the one that remains? Furthermore, the memory of a kindness preserved by this animal—what ungrateful man toward his benefactors does it not shame? Since many dogs are D remembered for having died alongside their masters who were killed in the wilderness. Indeed, some dogs, while the slaughter was still fresh, have even become guides to those searching for the murderers, and have been the cause of the evildoers being brought to justice. What are they to say who not only do not love the Lord who created and feeds them, but even >
associate with those who speak iniquity against God, and partake of the same table as those who speak against Him, and endure at that very banquet the blasphemies uttered against Him who feeds them? B
5. But let us return to the contemplation of creation. The animals that are more easily caught are more prolific. For this reason, hares, wild goats, and wild sheep are prolific, producing twins, so that the species may not fail by being consumed by those that hunt for raw flesh. But those that destroy others are less prolific. Hence, a lioness is scarcely the mother of a single lion. For, as they say, having lacerated the womb with the point of its claws, it emerges, just as vipers also are born by eating through the womb, paying back the deserved reward to the mother who bore them. C So nothing in existence is without providence, nor lacking the care that is due to it. And if you examine the very limbs of animals, you will find that the Creator has added nothing superfluous, nor taken anything away from what is necessary. He has fitted sharp teeth to carnivorous animals; for such were needed for that kind of food. But those that are only half-armed with teeth, He has equipped with many and various receptacles for food. For because the food is not sufficiently ground up by them the first time, they have been given the faculty of bringing back the swallowed food, so that, ground by rumination, it may be made suitable for the one being nourished. The stomachs, the omasum, the reticulum, and the large intestines are not placed in the animals that have them for no purpose; rather, each fulfills the need of what is necessary. The camel's neck is long so that it may be on a level with D its feet and reach the grass upon which it lives. The neck of the bear, and of the lion, and of the tiger, and of the others of this genus is short and set into the shoulders; because grass is not their food, nor have they any need to bow down to the ground, being carnivorous and sustaining themselves from the prey of animals. What is the intent of the proboscis in the elephant? Because it is a great animal, and the greatest of land animals, brought forth to strike terror into those it encounters, it had to have a fleshy and obese body. If a large neck, equal to its feet, had been granted to it, it would have been difficult to manage, inasmuch as—
A vergeret. Now, however, the head is joined to the spine by only a few vertebrae of the neck; but it possesses a proboscis, discharging the office and duty of a neck, through which it takes in food and draws up drink. Moreover, its feet are without joints, like solid columns, supporting its weight. For if loose and flexible limbs had been placed under it, constant dislocations of the joints would have occurred, as they would not have been sufficient to relieve the weight while it was crouching or rising. But now, a small talus lies beneath the elephant's foot, nor is it jointed either into a hock or into a knee. For the slippery nature of joints could not have borne the great corpulence of the animal, poured around it and trembling. Hence the need for that trunk which descends to the feet. Do you not see how in wars they go before the line of battle like certain living towers? Or how, like certain fleshy hills, they break through the dense ranks of the enemy when driven by an unbearable momentum? To which, if the parts below did not correspond, the animal could not persist for any length of time. But now some report that the elephant lives for three hundred years and more; for this reason its limbs are compact and not articulated. And the trunk, as we have said, carries food up from the ground to its height, being something serpentine and of a more flexible nature. Thus the saying is true, that nothing superfluous or lacking can be found in created things. Yet God has put this creature of such magnitude under our control (so that it may even be taught to understand, and to endure being struck), clearly teaching us that He subjected all things to us, because we were made in the image of the Creator. And it is possible to perceive B the unsearchable wisdom, not only in great animals, but also to collect no less miracles in the very smallest things. For just as I do not wonder more at the great mountain summits, which due to their nearness to the clouds preserve the winter chill through continuous currents, than at the hollows in the valleys, which not only avoid the violence of high winds but also always hold warm air; so in the composition of animals, I do not admire the elephant C more for its size than the mouse, which is feared by the elephant; or the very fine sting of the scorpion, how the Craftsman himself hollowed it out like a flute, so that through it the venom might be injected into those wounded. And let no one blame the Maker for this reason, that He introduced poisonous, destructive, and hostile animals into our life; for either D
A one could with equal reason blame a tutor who brings the levity and instability of boys into order, and who chastises their wantonness and insolence with blows and scourges.
6. What! Do you lack faith? *You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample the lion and the dragon* (Ps. xc, 13). You have through faith the power to walk upon serpents and scorpions. Do you not see that when the viper fastened itself upon Paul, who was gathering sticks, it caused him no harm, because the saint was found to be full of faith? But if you are faithless, fear not the beast so much as your own unbelief, by which you have made yourself vulnerable to every corruption.
But I perceive that I have long been asked for an explanation of the generation of man, and I seem all but to hear the listeners crying out in their hearts that we are being taught what we are by nature, but we are ignorant of ourselves. It is necessary, therefore, having cast aside all hesitation that held us back, to discuss these things. And indeed, to know oneself appears to be the most difficult thing of all. For not only does the eye B looking outward not use its sight to see itself, but our own mind, while sharply observing the sins of others, is slow to recognize its own failings. For this reason, even now, our discourse, though it has diligently gone through the affairs of others, is sluggish and full of hesitation in investigating those things which pertain to us; although it is not possible to know God more from heaven and earth than from our own constitution, at least for one who has prudently examined himself, as the Prophet says: *Thy knowledge is become wonderful from me* (Ps. cxxxviii, 6); that is, when I knew myself, I learned of the excellence of the wisdom that is in Thee.
And God said: *Let us make man* (Gen. i, 26). Where, I ask, is the Jew, who in what went before, while the light of theology shone out as if through certain windows, and while the second Person was C mystically shown, though not yet clearly manifested, was fighting against the truth and asserting that God was talking to Himself? For He said, he claims, and He Himself did it. *Let there be light, and there was light* (Gen. i, 3). Even then, there was an obvious and manifest absurdity in their words. For what smith, or carpenter, or shoemaker, sitting alone among the tools of his craft, with no one helping him, says to himself: "Let us make the sword, or let us fashion the plow, or let us complete the shoe," and does not rather perform the work that is appropriate for him in silence? For they are indeed notable follies if someone sits and commands, and exercises authority over himself, D and acts toward himself in a lordly and severe manner.
A Yet those who have not hesitated to slander the Lord Himself, what would they not say, having a tongue practiced in falsehood? But the present utterance entirely stops their mouths: *And God said, Let us make man.* Tell me, is the person also singular here? For it is not written, "Let man be made," but, *Let us make man.* As long as the one being taught was not apparent, the proclamation of theology was hidden in the depths; but when the generation of man is expected, the faith is laid bare, and the dogma of the truth is more clearly revealed. *Let us make man.* You hear, O opponent of Christ, that He speaks to the partner of the creation, *through whom also He made the ages*, and who *upholds all things by the word of His power*. But the opponent of piety does not quietly accept the word; but just as the most man-hating of beasts, when locked in cages, roar within their enclosures, displaying the bitterness and ferocity of their nature, yet are unable to fulfill their madness, so also that race hostile to the truth, the Jews, being pressed into a corner, say B that there are many persons to whom the word of God has come. For He says to the angels standing by Him, "Let us make man." This is a Jewish fabrication, a myth born of their ease; that they might not accept the One, they introduce thousands. And rejecting the Son, they attach the dignity of the counsel to servants, and make our fellow-servants the masters of our creation. Man, when perfected, is raised to the dignity of the angels. Yet what creature can be equal to the Creator? Consider also what follows: *According to our image.* What do you say to this? Is there one image of God and of the angels? For as regards the Son and the Father, it is entirely necessary that there be the same form—the form, that is to say, understood in a manner worthy of God, not in a bodily figure, but in the peculiarity of the Godhead. Hear also, you who are of the new concision, who practice Judaism under the guise of Christianity. To whom does He say, *According to our image*? To whom else but to the *outshining of the glory, and the express image of His substance*, who is the *image of the invisible God*? To His own living image, therefore, the One who said, *I and the Father are one*, and, *Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father*, to Him He says, *Let us make man according to our image*. Where there is one image,
how it was that there was dissimilarity. *And God made man.* Not, *They made*. He avoided in this place a multitude of persons. But after He had by those means instructed the Jew, and by these latter means excluded the error of the pagans, He returned safely to the unity, so that you might understand the Son with the Father, and escape the danger of a multitude of gods. B *In the image of God He made him.* Again, He brought in the person of Him who was working with Him; for He did not say, *In the image of Himself*, but, *In the image of God*. Now, in what respect man may possess the *according to the image of God*, and in what way he participates in the *according to likeness*, will be stated in what follows, God granting it. But for the present, let this much be said: if there is one image, whence did it come into your mind to profess an impiety so intolerable as to call the Son unlike to the Father? O ungrateful soul! Since you have been made a participant in that likeness, do you not render it back to the author of the benefit? Do you consider those things which were granted to you as a gift to remain your own property, yet you do not permit the Son to possess the likeness to His Begetter received from nature? But the approaching time, C inasmuch as it has long since sent the sun to the west, imposes silence upon us. Here, therefore, let us also be content with what has been said, and put our discourse to rest. For the present, we have touched upon the subject only so far as was sufficient to stir up your zeal; but we shall provide a more perfect examination of the matters proposed in the following sessions, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Depart rejoicing, O Christ-loving assembly, and instead of every sumptuous feast and various condiments, adorn your honorable tables with the memory of what we have said. Let the man who introduces dissimilarity be confounded: let the Jew be put to shame: let the pious man rejoice in the dogmas of truth: let the Lord be glorified, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
MONITUM
We have judged that the orations of Basil on the Psalms should be published after the *Opus sex dierum* (the Hexaemeron). For it seemed right not to separate Scripture from Scripture. But if we wish to compare both series of orations—those on the Hexaemeron and those on the Psalms—with each other, I will not indeed deny that the former were far more celebrated among the ancients than the latter; but I would not easily concede that they are more useful. And to say once what I think, if eloquence and variety of argument are considered, I would allow the Hexaemeron to be preferred; if fruit and utility, not so. Basil interpreted only a few Psalms, or at least only the interpretation of a few has reached us.