St. Basil the Great

NINE HOMILIES ON THE HEXAEMERON

HOMILY I.

IN THE BEGINNING GOD MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH.

1. IT is right that any one beginning to narrate the formation of the

world should begin with the good order which reigns in visible

things. I am about to speak of the creation of heaven and earth,

which was not spontaneous, as some have imagined, but drew its

origin from God. What ear is worthy to hear such a tale? How

earnestly the soul should prepare itself to receive such high lessons!

How pure it should be from carnal affections, how unclouded by

worldly disquietudes, how active and ardent in its researches, how

eager to find in its surroundings an idea of God which may be

worthy of Him!

But before weighing the justice of these remarks, before examining

all the sense contained in these few words, let us see who addresses

them to us. Because, if the weakness of our intelligence does not

allow us to penetrate the depth of the thoughts of the writer, yet we

shall be involuntarily drawn to give faith to his words by the force of

his authority. Now it is Moses who has composed this history;

Moses, who, when still at the breast, is described as exceeding fair;

Moses, whom the daughter of Pharaoh adopted; who received from

her a royal education, and who had for his teachers the wise men of

Egypt; Moses, who disdained the pomp of royalty, and, to share the

humble condition of his compatriots, preferred to be persecuted with

the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting delights of sin;

Moses, who received from nature such a love of justice that, even

before the leadership of the people of God was committed to him, be

was impelled, by a natural horror of evil, to pursue malefactors even

to the point of punishing them by death; Moses, who, banished by

those whose benefactor he had been, hastened to escape from the

tumults of Egypt and took refuge in Ethiopia, living there far from

former pursuits, and passing forty years in the contemplation of

nature; Moses, finally, who, at the age of eighty, saw God, as far as it

is possible for man to see Him; or rather as it had not previously

been granted to man to see Him, according to the testimony of God

Himself, "If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make

myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a

dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house,

with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in

dark speeches." It is this man, whom God judged worthy to behold

Him, face to face, like the angels, who imparts to us what he has

learnt from God. Let us listen then to these words of truth written

without the help of the "enticing words of man's wisdom" by the

dictation of the Holy Spirit; words destined to produce not the

applause of those who hear them, but the salvation of those who are

instructed by them.

2. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." I stop

struck with admiration at this thought. What shall I first say? Where

shall I begin my story? Shall I show forth the vanity of the Gentiles?

Shall I exalt the truth of our faith? The philosophers of Greece have

made much ado to explain nature, and not one of their systems has

remained firm anti unshaken, each being overturned by its

successor. It is vain to refute them; they are sufficient in themselves

to destroy one another. Those who were too ignorant to rise to a

knowledge of a God, could not allow that an intelligent cause

presided at the birth of the Universe; a primary error that involved

them in sad consequences. Some had recourse to material

principles and attributed the origin of the Universe to the elements of

the world. Others imagined that atoms, and indivisible bodies,

molecules and ducts, form, by their union, the nature of the visible

world. Atoms reuniting or separating, produce births and deaths and

the most durable bodies only owe their consistency to the strength

of their mutual adhesion: a true spider's web woven by these writers

who give to heaven, to earth, and to sea so weak an origin and so

little consistency! It is because they knew not how to say "In the

beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Deceived by their

inherent atheism it appeared to them that nothing governed or ruled

the universe, and that was all was given up to chance. To guard us

against this error the writer on the creation, from the very first

words, enlightens our understanding with the name of God; "In the

beginning God created." What a glorious order! He first establishes a

beginning, so that it might not be supposed that the world never had

a beginning. Then be adds "Created" to show that which was made

was a very small part of the power of the Creator. In the same way

that the potter, after having made with equal pains a great number of

vessels, has not exhausted either his art or his talent; thus the Maker

of the Universe, whose creative power, far from being bounded by

one world, could extend to the infinite, needed only the impulse of

His will to bring the immensities of the visible world into being. If

then the world has a beginning, and if it has been created, enquire

who gave it this beginning, and who was the Creator: or rather, in the

fear that human reasonings may make you wander from the truth,

Moses has anticipated enquiry by engraving in our hearts, as a seal

and a safeguard, the awful name of God: "In the beginning God

created"--It is He, beneficent Nature, Goodness without measure, a

worthy object of love for all beings endowed with reason, the beauty

the most to be desired, the origin of all that exists, the source of life,

intellectual light, impenetrable wisdom, it is He who "in the

beginning created heaven and earth."

3. Do not then imagine, O man! that the visible world is without a

beginning; and because the celestial bodies move in a circular

course, and it is difficult for our senses to define the point where the

circle begins, do not believe that bodies impelled by a circular

movement are, from their nature, without a beginning. Without doubt

the circle (I mean the plane figure described by a single line) is

beyond our perception, and it is impossible for us to find out where

it begins or where it ends; but we ought not on this account to

believe it to be without a beginning. Although we are not sensible of

it, it really begins at some point where the draughtsman has begun

to draw it at a certain radius from the centre. Thus seeing that

figures which move in a circle always return upon themselves,

without for a single instant interrupting the regularity of their course,

do not vainly imagine to yourselves that the world has neither

beginning nor end. "For the fashion of this world passeth away" and

"Heaven and earth shall pass away." The dogmas of the end, and of

the renewing of the world, are announced beforehand in these short

words put at the head of the inspired history. "In the beginning God

made." That which was begun in time is condemned to come to an

end in time. If there has been a beginning do not doubt of the end. Of

what use men are geometry--the calculations of arithmetic--the study

of solids and far-famed astronomy, this laborious vanity, if those

who pursue them imagine that this visible world is co-eternal with

the Creator of all things, with God Himself; if they attribute to this

limited world, which has a material body, the same glory as to the

incomprehensible and invisible nature; if they cannot conceive that a

whole, of which the parts are subject to corruption and change, must

of necessity end by itself submitting to the fate of its parts? But they

have become "vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was

darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."

Some have affirmed that heaven co-exists with God from all eternity;

others that it is God Himself without beginning or end, and the cause

of the particular arrangement of all things.

4. One day, doubtless, their terrible condemnation will be the greater

for all this worldly wisdom, since, seeing so clearly into yam

sciences, they have wilfully shut their eyes to the knowledge of the

truth. These men who measure the distances of the stare and

describe them, both those of the North, always shining brilliantly in

our view, and those of the southern pole visible to the inhabitants of

the South, but unknown to us; who divide the Northern zone and the

circle of the Zodiac into an infinity of parts, who observe with

exactitude the course of the stars, their fixed places, their

declensions, their return and the time that each takes to make its

revolution; these men, I say, have discovered all except one tiring:

the fact that God is the Creator of the universe, and the just Judge

who rewards all the actions of life according to their merit. They have

not known how to raise themselves to the idea of the consummation

of all things, the consequence of the doctrine of judgment, and to

see that the world must change if souls pass from this life to a new

life. In reality, as the nature of the present life presents an affinity to

this world, so in the future life our souls will enjoy a lot conformable

to their new condition. But they are so far from applying these truths,

that they do but laugh when we announce to them the end of all

things and the regeneration of the age. Since the beginning naturally

precedes that which is derived from it, the writer, of necessity, when

speaking to us of things which had their origin in time, puts at the

head of his narrative these words--"In the beginning God created."

5. It appears, indeed, that even before this world an order of things

existed of which our mind can form an idea, but of which we can say

nothing, because it is too lofty a subject for men who are but

beginners and are still babes in knowledge. The birth of the world

was preceded by a condition of things suitable for the exercise of

supernatural powers, outstripping the limits of time, eternal and

infinite. The Creator and Demiurge of the universe perfected His

works in it, spiritual light for the happiness of all who love the Lord,

intellectual and invisible natures, all the orderly arrangement of pure

intelligences who are beyond the reach of our mind and of whom we

cannot even discover the names. They fill the essence of this

invisible world, as Paul teaches us. "For by him were all things

created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible

whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers" or

virtues or hosts of angels or the dignities of archangels. To this

world at last it was necessary to add a new world, both a school and

training place where the souls of men should be taught and a home

for beings destined to be born and to die. Thus was created, of a

nature analogous to that of this world and the animals and plants

which live thereon, the succession of time, for ever pressing on and

passing away and never stopping in its course. Is not this the nature

of time, where the past is no more, the future does not exist, and the

present escapes before being recognised? And such also is the

nature of the creature which lives in time,--condemned to grow or to

perish without rest and without certain stability. It is therefore fit that

the bodies of animals and plants, obliged to follow a sort of current,

and carried away by the motion which leads them to birth or to

death, should live in the midst of surroundings whose nature is in

accord with beings subject to change. Thus the writer who wisely

tells us of the birth of the Universe does not fail to put these words

at the head of the narrative. "In the beginning God created;" that is to

say, in the beginning of time. Therefore, if he makes the world

appear in the beginning, it is not a proof that its birth has preceded

that of all other things that were made. He only wishes to tell us that,

after the invisible and intellectual world, the visible world, the world

of the senses, began to exist.

The first movement is called beginning. "To do right is the beginning

of the good way." Just actions are truly the first steps towards a

happy life. Again, we call "beginning" the essential and first part

from which a thing proceeds, such as the foundation of a house, the

keel of a vessel; it is in this sense that it is said, "The fear of the Lord

is the beginning of wisdom," that is to say that piety is, as it were,

the groundwork and foundation of perfection. Art is also tile

beginning of the works of artists, the skill of Bezaleel began the

adornment of the tabernacle. Often even the good which is the final

cause is the beginning of actions. Thus the approbation of God is

the beginning of almsgiving, and the end laid up for us in the

promises the beginning of all virtuous efforts.

6. Such being the different senses of the word beginning, see if we

have not all the meanings here. You may know the epoch when the

formation of this world began, it, ascending into the past, you

endeavour to discover the first day. You will thus find what was the

first movement of time; then that the creation of the heavens and of

the earth were like the foundation and the groundwork, and

afterwards that an intelligent reason, as the word beginning

indicates, presided in the order of visible things. You will finally

discover that the world was not conceived by chance and without

reason, but for an useful end and for the great advantage of all

beings, since it is really the school where reasonable souls exercise

themselves, the training ground where they learn to know God; since

by the sight of visible and sensible things the mind is led, as by a

hand, to the contemplation of invisible things. "For," as the Apostle

says, "the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are

clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made."

Perhaps these words "In the beginning God created" signify the

rapid and imperceptible moment of creation. The beginning, in effect,

is indivisible and instantaneous. The beginning of the road is not yet

the road, and that of the house is not yet the house; so the beginning

of time is not yet time and not even the least par-title of it. If some

objector tell us that the beginning is a time, he ought then, as he

knows well, to submit it to the division of time--a beginning, a middle

and an end. Now it is ridiculous to imagine a beginning of a

beginning. Further, if we divide the beginning into two, we make two

instead of one, or rather make several, we really make an infinity, for

all that which is divided is divisible to the infinite. Thus then, if it is

said, "In the beginning God created," it is to teach us that at the will

of God the world arose in less than an instant, and it is to convey

this meaning more clearly that other interpreters have said: "God

made summarily" that is to say all at once and in a moment. But

enough concerning the beginning, if only to put a few points out of

many.

7. Among arts, some have in view production, some practice, others

theory. The object of the last is the exercise of thought, that of the

second, the motion of the body. Should it cease, all stops; nothing

more is to be seen. Thus dancing and music have nothing behind;

they have no object but themselves. In creative arts on the contrary

the work lasts after the operation. Such is architecture--such are the

arts which work in wood and brass and weaving, all those indeed

which, even when the artisan has disappeared, serve to show an

industrious intelligence and to cause the architect, the worker in

brass or the weaver, to be admired on account of his work. Thus,

then, to show that the world is a work of art displayed for the

beholding of all people; to make them know Him who created it,

Moses does not use another word. "In the beginning," he says "God

created." He does not say "God worked," "God formed," but" God

created." Among those who have imagined that the world co-existed

with God from all eternity, many have denied that it was created by

God, but say that it exists spontaneously, as the shadow of this

power. God, they say, is the cause of it, but an involuntary cause, as

the body is the cause of the shadow and the flame is the cause of the

brightness. It is to correct this error that the prophet states, with so

much precision, "In the beginning God created." He did not make the

thing itself the cause of its existence. Being good, He made it an

useful work. Being wise, He made it everything that was most

beautiful. Being powerful He made it very great. Moses almost shows

us the finger of the supreme artisan taking possession of the

substance of the universe, forming the different parts in one perfect

accord, and making a harmonious symphony result from the whole.

"In the beginning God made heaven and earth." By naming the two

extremes, he suggests the substance of the whole world, according

to heaven the privilege of seniority, and putting earth in the second

rank. All intermediate beings were created at the same time as the

extremities. Thus, although there is no mention of the elements, fire,

water and air, imagine that they were all compounded together, and

you will find water, air and fire, in the earth. For fire leaps out from

stones; iron which is dug from the earth produces under friction fire

in plentiful measure. A marvellous fact! Fire shut up in bodies lurks

there hidden without harming them, but no sooner is it released than

it consumes that which has hitherto preserved it. The earth contains

water, as diggers of wells teach us. It contains air too, as is shown

by the vapours that it exhales under the sun's warmth when it is

damp. Now, as according to their nature, heaven occupies the higher

and earth the lower position in space, (one sees, in fact, that all

which is light ascends towards heaven, and heavy substances fall to

the ground); as therefore height and depth are the points the most

opposed to each other it is enough to mention the most distant parts

to signify the inclusion of all which fills up intervening Space. Do not

ask, then, for an enumeration of all the elements; guess, from what

Holy Scripture indicates, all that is passed over in silence.

8. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." If we

were to wish to discover the essence of each of the beings which are

offered for our contemplation, or come under our senses, we should

be drawn away into long digressions, and the solution of the

problem would require more words than I possess, to examine fully

the matter. To spend time on such points would not prove to be to

the edification of the Church. Upon the essence of the heavens we

are contented with what Isaiah says, for, in simple language, he

gives us sufficient idea of their nature, "The heaven was made like

smoke," that is to say, He created a subtle substance, without

solidity or density, from which to form the heavens. As to the form of

them we also content ourselves with the language of the same

prophet, when praising God "that stretcheth out the heavens as a

curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in." In the same

way, 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. Do not let us seek for any nature

devoid of qualities by the conditions of its existence, but let us know

that all the phenomena with which we see it clothed regard the

conditions of its existence and complete its essence. Try to take

away by reason each of the qualities it possesses, and you will arrive

at nothing. Take away black, cold, weight, density, the qualities

which concern taste, in one word all these which we see in it, and the

substance vanishes.

If I ask you to leave these vain questions, I will not expect you to try

and find out the earth's point of support. The mind would reel on

beholding its reasonings losing themselves without end. Do you say

that the earth reposes on a bed of air? How, then, can this soft

substance, without consistency, resist the enormous weight which

presses upon it? How is it that it does not slip away in all directions,

to avoid the sinking weight, and to spread itself over the mass which

overwhelms it? Do you suppose that water is the foundation of the

earth? You will then always have to ask yourself how it is that so

heavy and opaque a body does not pass through the water; how a

mass of such a weight is held up by a nature weaker than itself. Then

you must seek a base for the waters, and you will be in much

difficulty to say upon what the water itself rests.

9. Do you suppose that a heavier body prevents the earth from

failing into the abyss? Then you must consider that this support

needs itself a support to prevent it from failing. Can we imagine one?

Our reason again demands vet another support, and thus we shall

fall into the infinite, always imagining a base for the base which we

have already found. And the further we advance in this reasoning the

greater force we are obliged to give to this base, so that it may be

able to support all the mass weighing upon it. Put then a limit to your

thought, so that your curiosity in investigating the incomprehensible

may not incur the reproaches of Job, and you be not asked by him,

"Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?" If ever you hear

in the Psalms, "I bear up the pillars of it;" see in these pillars the

power which sustains it. Because what means this other passage,

"He hath founded it upon the sea," if not that the water is spread all

around the earth? How then can water, the fluid element which flows

down every declivity, remain suspended without ever flowing? You

do not reflect that the idea of the earth suspended by itself throws

your reason into a like but even greater difficulty, since from its

nature it is

heavier. But let us admit that the earth rests upon itself, or let us say

that it rides the waters, we must still remain faithful to thought of true

religion and recognise that all is sustained by the Creator's power.

Let us then reply to ourselves, and let us reply to those who ask us

upon what support this enormous mass rests, "In His hands are the

ends of the earth." It is a doctrine as infallible for our own

information as profitable for our hearers.

10. There are inquirers into nature who with a great display of words

give reasons for the immobility of the earth. Placed, they say, in the

middle of the universe and not being able to incline more to one side

than the other because its centre is everywhere the same distance

from the surface, it necessarily rests upon itself; since a weight

which is everywhere equal cannot lean to either side. It is not, they

go on, without reason or by chance that the earth occupies the

centre of the universe. It is its natural and necessary position. As the

celestial body occupies the higher extremity of space all heavy

bodies, they argue, that we may suppose to have fallen from these

high regions, will be carried from all directions to the centre, and the

point towards which the parts are tending will evidently be the one to

which the whole mass will be thrust together. If stones, wood, all

terrestrial bodies, fall from above downwards, this must be the

proper and natural place of the whole earth. If, on the contrary, a

light body is separated from the centre, it is evident that it will

ascend towards the higher regions. Thus heavy bodies move from

the top to the bottom, and following this reasoning, the bottom is

none other than the centre of the world. Do not then be surprised

that the world never falls: it occupies the centre of the universe, its

natural place. By necessity it is obliged to remain in its place, unless

a movement contrary to nature should displace it. If there is anything

in this system which might appear probable to you, keep your

admiration for the source of such perfect order, for the wisdom of

God. Grand phenomena do not strike us the less when we have

discovered something of their wonderful mechanism. Is it otherwise

here? At all events let us prefer the simplicity of faith to the

demonstrations of reason.

11. We might say the same thing of the heavens. With what a noise

of words the sages of this world have discussed their nature! Some

have said that heaven is composed of four elements as being

tangible and visible, and is made up of earth on account of its power

of resistance, with fire because it is striking to the eye, with air and

water on account of the mixture. Others have rejected this system as

improbable, and introduced into the world, to form the heavens, a

fifth element after their own fashioning. There exists. they say, an

aethereal body which is neither fire, air, earth, nor water, nor in one

word any simple body. These simple bodies have their own natural

motion in a straight line, light bodies upwards and heavy bodies

downwards; now this motion upwards and downwards is not the

same as circular motion; there is the greatest possible difference

between straight and circular motion. It therefore follows that bodies

whose motion is so various must vary also in their essence. But, it is

not even possible to suppose that the heavens should be formed of

primitive bodies which we call elements, because the reunion of

contrary forces could not produce an even and spontaneous motion,

when each of the simple bodies is receiving a different impulse from

nature. Thus it is a labour to maintain composite bodies in continual

movement, because it is impossible to put even a single one of their

movements in accord and harmony with all those that are in discord;

since what is proper to the light particle, is in warfare with that of a

heavier one. If we attempt to rise we are stopped by the weight of the

terrestrial element; if we throw ourselves down we violate the

igneous part of our being in dragging it down contrary to its nature.

Now this struggle of the elements effects their dissolution. A body to

which violence is done and which is placed in opposition to nature,

after a short but energetic resistance, is soon dissolved into as many

parts as it had elements, each of the constituent parts returning to

its natural place. It is the force of these reasons, say the inventors of

the fifth kind of body for the genesis of heaven and the stars, which

constrained them to reject the system of their predecessors and to

have recourse to their own hypothesis. But yet another fine speaker

arises and disperses and destroys this theory to give predominance

to an idea of his own invention.

Do not let us undertake to follow them for fear of falling into like

frivolities; let them refute each other, and, without disquieting

ourselves about essence, let us say with Moses "God created the

heavens and the earth." Let us glorify the supreme Artificer for all

that was wisely and skillfully made; by the beauty of visible things let

us raise ourselves to Him who is above all beauty; by the grandeur

of bodies, sensible and limited in their nature, let us conceive of the

infinite Being whose immensity and omnipotence surpass all the

efforts of the imagination. Because, although we ignore the nature of

created things, the objects which on all sides attract our notice are

so marvellous, that the most penetrating mind cannot attain to the

knowledge of the least of the phenomena of the world, either to give

a suitable explanation of it or to render due praise to the Creator, to

Whom belong all glory, all honour and all power world without end.

Amen.

HOMILY II.

"THE EARTH WAS INVISIBLE AND UNFINISHED."

1. IN the few words which have occupied us this morning we have

found such a depth of thought that we despair of penetrating further.

If such is the fore court of the sanctuary, if the portico of the temple

is so grand and magnificent, if the splendour of its beauty thus

dazzles the eyes of the soul, what will be the holy of holies? Who will

dare to try to gain access to the innermost shrine? Who will look into

its secrets? To gaze into it is indeed forbidden us, and language. is

powerless to express what the mind conceives. However, since there

are rewards, and most desirable ones, reserved by the just Judge for

the intention alone of doing good, do not let us hesitate to continue

our researches. Although we may not attain to the truth, if, with the

help of the Spirit, we do not fall away from the meaning of Holy

Scripture we shall not deserve to be rejected, and, with the help of

grace, we shall contribute to the edification of the Church of God.

"The earth," says Holy Scripture, "was invisible and unfinished." The

heavens and the earth were created without distinction. How then is

it that the heavens are perfect whilst the earth is still unformed and

incomplete? In one word, what was the unfinished condition of the

earth? And for what reason was it invisible? The fertility of the earth

is its perfect finishing; growth of all kinds of plants, the upspringing

of tall trees, both productive and sterile, flowers' sweet scents and

fair colours, and all that which, a little later, at the voice of God came

forth from the earth to beautify her, their universal Mother. As

nothing of all this yet existed, Scripture is right in calling the earth

"without form." We could also say of the heavens that they were still

imperfect and had not received their natural adornment, since at that

time they did not shine with the glory of the sun and of the moon and

were not crowned by the choirs of the stars. These bodies were not

yet created. Thus you will not diverge from the truth in saying that

the heavens also were "without form." The earth was invisible for

two reasons: it may be because man, the spectator, did not yet exist,

or because being submerged under the waters which over-flowed

the surface, it could not be seen, since the waters had not yet been

gathered together into their own places, where God afterwards

collected them, and gave them the name of seas. What is invisible?

First of all that which our fleshly eye cannot perceive; our mind, for

example; then that which, visible in its nature, is hidden by some

body which conceals it, like iron in the depths of the earth. It is in

this sense, because it was hidden under the waters, that the earth

was still invisible. However, as light did not yet exist, and as the

earth lay in darkness, because of the obscurity of the air above it, it

should not astonish us that for this reason Scripture calls it"

invisible."

2. But the corrupters of the truth, who, incapable of submitting their

reason to Holy Scripture, distort at will the meaning of the Holy

Scriptures, pretend that these words mean matter. For it is matter,

they say, which from its nature is without form and invisible,--being

by the conditions of its existence without quality and without form

and figure. The Artificer submitting it to the working of His wisdom

clothed it with a form, organized it, and thus gave being to the visible

world.

If matter is uncreated, it has a claim to the same honours as God,

since it must be of equal rank with Him. Is this not the summit of

wickedness, that an extreme deformity, without quality, without form,

shape, ugliness without configuration, to use their own expression,

should enjoy the same prerogatives with Him, Who is wisdom. power

and beauty itself, the Creator and the Demiurge of the universe? This

is not all. If matter is so great as to be capable of being acted on by

the whole wisdom of God, it would in a way raise its hypostasis to an

equality with the inaccessible power of God, since it would be able to

measure by itself all the extent of the divine intelligence. If it is

insufficient for the operations of God, then we fall into a more absurd

blasphemy, since we condemn God for not being able, on account of

the want of matter, to finish His own works. The poverty of human

nature has deceived these reasoners. Each of our crafts Is exercised

upon some special matter--the art of the smith upon iron, that of the

carpenter on wood. In all, there is the subject, the form and the work

which results from the form. Matter is taken from without--art gives

the form--and the work is composed at the same time of form and of

matter.

Such is the idea that they make for themselves of the divine work.

The form of the world is due to the wisdom of the supreme Artificer;

matter came to the Creator from without; and thus the world results

from a double origin. It hits received from outside its matter and its

essence, and from God its form and figure. They thus come to deny

that the mighty God has presided at the formation of the universe,

and pretend that He has only brought a crowning contribution to a

common work, that He has only contributed some small portion to

the genesis of beings: they are incapable from the debasement of

their reasonings of raising their glances to the height of truth. Here

below arts are subsequent to matter--introduced into life by the

indispensable need of them. Wool existed before weaving made it

supply one of nature's imperfections. Wood existed before

carpentering took possession of it, and transformed it each day to

supply new wants, and made us see all the advantages derived from

it, giving the oar to the sailor, the winnowing fan to the labourer, the

lance to the soldier. But God, before all those things which now

attract our notice existed, after casting about in His mind and

determining to bring into being time which had no being, imagined

the world such as it ought to be, and created matter in harmony with

the forth which He wished to give it. He assigned to the heavens the

nature adapted for the heavens, and gave to the earth an essence in

accordance with its form. He formed, as He wished, fire, air and

water, and gave to each the essence which the object of its existence

required. Finally, He welded all the diverse parts of the universe by

links of indissoluble attachment and established between them so

perfect a fellowship and harmony that the most distant, in spite of

their distance, appeared united in one universal sympathy. Let those

men therefore renounce their fabulous imaginations, who, in spite of

the weakness of their argument, pretend to measure a power as

incomprehensible to man's reason as it is unutterable by man's

voice.

3. God created the heavens and the earth, but not only half;--He

created all the heavens and all the earth, creating the essence with

the form. For He is not an inventor of figures, but the Creator even of

the essence of beings. Further let them tell us how the efficient

power of God could deal with the passive nature of matter, the latter

furnishing the matter without form, the former possessing the

science of the form without matter, both being in need of each other;

the Creator in order to display His art, matter in order to cease to be

without form and to receive a form. 2) But let us stop here and return

to our subject.

"The earth was invisible and unfinished." In saying "In the beginning

God created the heavens and the earth," the sacred writer passed

over many things in silence, water, air, fire and the results from

them, which, all forming in reality the true complement of the world,

were, without doubt, made at the same time as the universe. By this

silence, history wishes to train the activity or our intelligence, giving

it a weak point for starting, to impel it to the discovery of the truth.

Thus, we are not told of the creation of water; but, as we are told that

the earth was invisible, ask yourself what could have covered it, and

prevented it from being seen? Fire could not conceal it. Fire

brightens all about it, and spreads light rather than darkness around.

No more was it air that enveloped the earth. Air by nature is of little

density and transparent. It receives all kinds of visible object, and

transmits them to the spectators. Only one supposition remains; that

which floated on the surface of the earth was water--the fluid

essence which had not yet been confined to its own place. Thus the

earth was not only invisible; it was still incomplete. Even today

excessive damp is a hindrance to the productiveness of the earth.

The same cause at the same time prevents it from being seen, and

from being complete, for the proper and natural adornment of the

earth is its completion: corn waving in the valleys--meadows green

with grass and rich with many coloured flowers--fertile glades and

hill-tops shaded by forests. Of all this nothing was yet produced; the

earth was in travail with it in virtue of the power that she had

received from the Creator. But she was waiting for the appointed

time and the divine order to bring forth.

4. "Darkness was upon the face of the deep." A new source for

fables and most impious imaginations if one distorts the sense of

these words at the will of one's fancies. By "darkness" these wicked

men do not understand what is meant in reality--air not illumined, the

shadow produced by the interposition of a body, or finally a place for

some reason deprived of light. For them "darkness" is an evil power,

or rather the personification of evil, having his origin in himself in

opposition to, and in perpetual struggle with, the goodness of God. If

God is light, they say, without any doubt the power which struggles

against Him must be darkness, "Darkness" not owing its existence

to a foreign origin, but an evil existing by itself. "Darkness" is the

enemy of souls, the primary cause of death, the adversary of virtue.

The words of the Prophet, they say in their error, show that it exists

and that it does not proceed from God. From this what perverse and

impious dogmas have been imagined! What grievous wolves, tearing

the flock of the Lord, have sprung from these words to cast

themselves upon souls! Is it not from hence that have come forth

Marcions and Valentini, and the detestable heresy of the

Manicheans, which you may without going far wrong call the putrid

humour of the churches.

O man, why wander thus from the truth, and imagine for thyself that

which will cause thy perdition? The word is simple and within the

comprehension of all. "The earth was invisible." Why? Because the

"deep" was spread over its surface. What is "the deep"? A mass of

water of extreme depth. But we know that we can see many bodies

through clear and transparent water. How then was it that no part of

the earth appeared through the water? Because the air which

surrounded it was still without light and in darkness. The rays of the

sun, penetrating the water, often allow its to see the pebbles which

form the bed of the river, but in a dark night it is impossible for our

glance to penetrate under the water. Thus, these words "the earth

was invisible" are explained by those that follow; "the deep" covered

it and itself was in darkness. Thus, the deep is not a multitude of

hostile powers, as has been imagined; nor "darkness" an evil

sovereign force in enmity with good. In reality two rival principles of

equal power, if engaged without ceasing in a war o mutual attacks,

will end in self destruction. But if one should gain the mastery it

would

completely annihilate the conquered. Thus, to maintain the balance

in the struggle between good anti evil is to represent them as

engaged in a war without end and in perpetual destruction, where

the opponents are at the same time conquerors and conquered. If

good is the stronger, what is there to prevent evil being completely

annihilated? But if that be the case, the very utterance of which is

impious, I ask myself how it is that they themselves are not filled

with horror to think that they have imagined such abominable

blasphemies.

It is equally impious to say that evil has its origin from God; because

the contrary cannot proceed from its contrary. Life dots not

engender death; darkness is not the origin of light; sickness is not

the maker of health. In the changes of conditions there are

transitions from one condition to the contrary; but in genesis each

being proceeds from its like, and not from its contrary. If then evil is

neither uncreate nor created by God, from whence comes its nature?

Certainly that evil exists, no one living in the world will deny. What

shall we say then? Evil is not a living animated essence; it is the

condition of the soul opposed to virtue, developed in the careless on

account of their falling away from good.

5. Do not then go beyond yourself to seek for evil, and imagine that

there is an original nature of wickedness. Each of us, let us

acknowledge it, is the first author of his own vice. Among the

ordinary events of life, some come naturally, like old age and

sickness, others by chance like unforeseen occurrences, of which

the origin is beyond ourselves, often sad, sometimes fortunate, as

for instance the discovery of a treasure when digging a well, or the

meeting of a mad dog when going to the market place. Others

depend upon ourselves, such as ruling one's passions, or not

putting a bridle on one's pleasures, to be master of our anger, or to

raise the hand against him who irritates us, to tell the truth, or to lie,

to have a sweet and well-regulated disposition, or to be fierce and

swollen and exalted with pride. Here you are the master of your

actions. Do not look for the guiding cause beyond yourself, but

recognise that evil, rightly so called, has no other origin than our

voluntary falls. If it were involuntary, and did not depend upon

ourselves, the laws would not have so much terror for the guilty, and

the tribunals would not be so without pity when they condemn

wretches according to the measure of their crimes. But enough

concerning evil rightly so called. Sickness, poverty, obscurity, death,

finally all human afflictions, ought not to be ranked as evils; since we

do not count among the greatest boons things which are their

opposites. Among these afflictions, some are the effect of nature,

others have obviously been for many a source of advantage. Let us

then be silent for the moment about these metaphors and allegories,

and, simply following without vain curiosity the words of Holy

Scripture, let us take from darkness the idea which it gives us.

But reason asks, was darkness created with the world? Is it older

than light? Why in spite of its inferiority has it preceded it?

Darkness, we reply, did not exist in essence; it is a condition

produced in the air by the withdrawal of light. What then is that light

which disappeared suddenly from the world, so that darkness

should cover the face of the deep? If anything had existed before the

formation of this sensible and perishable world, no doubt we

conclude it would have been in light. The orders of angels, the

heavenly hosts, all intellectual natures named or unnamed, all the

ministering spirits, did not live in darkness, but enjoyed a condition

fitted for them in light and spiritual joy.

No one will contradict this; least of all he who looks for celestial light

as one of the rewards promised to virtues the light which, as

Solomon says, is always a light to the righteous, the light which

made the Apostle say "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath

made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in

light." Finally, if the condemned are sent into outer darkness

evidently those who are made worthy of God's approval, are at rest

in heavenly light. When then, according to the order of God, the

heaven appeared, enveloping all that its circumference included, a

vast and unbroken body separating outer things from those which it

enclosed, it necessarily kept the space inside in darkness for want of

communication with the outer light. Three things are, indeed, needed

to form a shadow, light, a body, a dark place. The shadow of heaven

forms the darkness of the world. Understand, I pray you, what I

mean, by a simple example; by raising for yourself at mid-day a tent

of some compact and impenetrable material, and shutting yourself

up in it in sudden darkness. Suppose that original darkness was like

this, not subsisting directly by itself, but resulting from some

external coasts. If it is said that it rested upon the deep, it is because

the extremity of air naturally touches the surface of bodies; and as at

that time the water covered everything, we are obliged to say that

darkness was upon the face of the deep.

6. And the Spirit of God was borne upon the face of the waters. Does

this spirit mean the diffusion of air? The sacred writer wishes to

enumerate to you the elements of the world, to tell you that God

created the heavens, the earth, water, and air and that the last was

now diffused and in motion; or rather, that which is truer and

confirmed by the authority of the ancients, by the Spirit of God, he

means the Holy Spirit. It is, as has been remarked, the special name,

the name above all others that Scripture delights to give to the Holy

Spirit. and always by the spirit of God the Holy Spirit is meant, the

Spirit which completes the divine and blessed Trinity. You will find it

better therefore to take it in this sense. How then did the Spirit of

God move upon the waters? The explanation that I am about to give

you is not an original one, but that of a Syrian, who was as ignorant

in the wisdom of this world as he was versed in the knowledge of the

Truth. He said, then, that the Syriac word was more expressive, and

that being more analogous to the Hebrew term it was a nearer

approach to the scriptural sense. This is the meaning of the word; by

"was borne" the Syrians, he says, understand: it cherished the

nature of the waters as one sees a bird cover the eggs with her body

and impart to them vital force from her own warmth. Such is, as

nearly as possible, the meaning of these words--the Spirit was

borne: let us understand, that is, prepared the nature of water to

produce living beings: a sufficient proof for those who ask if the

Holy Spirit took an active part in the creation of the world.

7. And God said, Let there be light: The first word of God created the

nature of light; it made darkness vanish, dispelled gloom, illuminated

the world, and gave to all beings at the same time a sweet and

gracious aspect. The heavens, until then enveloped in darkness,

appeared with that beauty which they still present to our eyes. The

air was lighted up, or rather made the light circulate mixed with its

substance, and, distributing its splendour rapidly in every direction,

so dispersed itself to its extreme limits. Up it sprang to the very

aether and heaven. In an instant it lighted up the whole extent of the

world, the North and the South, the East and the West. For the aether

also is such a subtle substance and so transparent that it needs not

the space of a moment for light to pass through it. Just as it carries

our sight instantaneously to the object of vision, so without the least

interval, with a rapidity I that thought cannot conceive, it receives

these rays of light in its uttermost limits. With light the aether

becomes more pleasing and the waters more limpid. These last, not

content with receiving its splendour, return it by the reflection of

light and in all directions send forth quivering flashes. The divine

word gives every object a more cheerful and a more attractive

appearance, just as when men in deep sea pour in oil they make the

place about them clear. So, with a single word and in one instant, the

Creator of all things gave the boon of light to the world.

Let there be light. The order was itself an operation, and a state of

things was brought into being, than which man's mind cannot even

imagine a pleasanter one for our enjoyment. It must be well

understood that when we speak of the voice, of the word, of the

command of God, this divine language does not mean to us a sound

which escapes from the organs of speech, a collision of air struck by

the tongue; it is a simple sign of the will of God, and, if we give it the

form of an order, it is only the better to impress the souls whom we

instruct.

And God saw the light, that it was good. How can we worthily praise

light after the testimony given by the Creator to its goodness? The

word, even among us, refers the judgment to the eyes, incapable of

raising itself to the idea that the senses have already received. But, if

beauty in bodies results from symmetry of parts, and the

harmonious appearance of colours, how in a simple and

homogeneous essence like light, can this idea of beauty be

preserved? Would not the symmetry in light be less shown in its

parts than in the pleasure and delight at the sight of it? Such is also

the beauty of gold, which it owes not to the happy mingling of its

parts, but only to its beautiful colour which has a charm attractive to

the eyes.

Thus again, the evening star is the most beautiful of the stars: not

that the parts of which it is composed form a harmonious whole; but

thanks to the unalloyed and beautiful brightness which meets our

eyes. And further, when God proclaimed the goodness of light, it

was not in regard to the charm of the eye but as a provision for

future advantage, because at that time there were as yet no eyes to

judge of its beauty. "And God divided the light from the darkness;

that is to say, God gave them natures incapable of mixing,

perpetually in opposition to each other, and put between them the

widest space and distance.

8. "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 hemisphere, is day; and the shadow produced by its

disappearance is night. But at that time it was not after the

movement of the sun, but following this primitive light spread abroad

in the air or withdrawn in a measure determined by God, that day

came and was followed by night.

"And the evening and the morning were the first day." Evening is

then the boundary common to day and night; and in the same way

morning constitutes the approach of night to day. It was to give day

the privileges of seniority that Scripture put the end of the first day

before that of the first night, because night follows day: for, before

the creation of light, the world was not in night, but in darkness. It is

the opposite of day which was called night, and it did not receive its

name until after day. Thus were created the evening and the

morning. Scripture means the space of a day and a night, and

afterwards no more says day and night, but calls them both under

the name of the more important: a custom which you will find

throughout Scripture. Everywhere the measure of time is counted by

days, without mention of nights. "The days of our years," says the

Psalmist. "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,"

said Jacob, and elsewhere "all the days of my life." Thus under the

form of history the law is laid down for what is to follow.

And the evening and the morning were one day. Why does Scripture

say "one day" not "the first day"? Before speaking to us of the

second, the third, and the fourth days, would it not have been more

natural to call that one the first which began the series? If it therefore

says "one day," it is from a wish to determine the measure of day

and night, and to combine the time that they contain. Now twenty 

four hours fill up the space of one day--we mean of a day and of a

night; and if, at the time of the solstices, they have not both an equal

length, the time marked by Scripture does not the less circumscribe

their duration. It is as though it said: twenty-four hours measure the

space of a day, or that, in reality a day is the time that the heavens

starting from one point take to return there. Thus, every time that, in

the revolution of the sun, evening and morning occupy the world,

their periodical succession never exceeds the space of one day.

But must we believe in a mysterious reason for this? God who made

the nature of time measured it out and determined it by intervals of

days; and, wishing to give it a week as a measure, he ordered the

week to revolve from period to period upon itself, to count the

movement of time, forming the week of one day revolving seven

times upon itself: a proper circle begins and ends with itself. Such is

also the character of eternity, to revolve upon itself and to end

nowhere. If then the beginning of time is called "one day" rather than

"the first day," it is because Scripture wishes to establish its

relationship with eternity. It was, in reality, fit and natural to call

"one" the day whose character is to be one wholly separated and

isolated from all the others. If Scripture

speaks to us of many ages, saying everywhere, "age of age, and

ages of ages," we do not see it enumerate them as first, second, and

third. It follows that we are hereby shown not so much limits, ends

and succession of ages, as distinctions between various states and

modes of action. "The day of the Lord," Scripture says, "is great and

very terrible," and elsewhere "Woe unto you that desire the day of

the Lord: to what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness

and not light." A day of darkness for those who are worthy of

darkness. No; this day without evening, without succession and

without end is not unknown to Scripture, and it is the day that the

Psalmist calls the eighth day, because it is outside this time of

weeks. Thus whether you call it day, or whether you call it eternity,

you express the same idea. Give this state the name of day; there are

not several, but only one. If you call it eternity still it is unique and

not manifold. Thus it is in order that you may carry your thoughts

forward towards a future life, that Scripture marks by the word "one"

the day which is the type of eternity, the first fruits of days, the

contemporary of light, the holy Lord's day honoured by the

Resurrection of our Lord. And the evening and the morning were one

day."

But, whilst I am conversing with you about the first evening of the

world, evening takes me by surprise, and puts an end to my

discourse. May the Father of the true light, Who has adorned day

with celestial light, Who has made the fire to shine which illuminates

us during the night, Who reserves for us in the peace of a future age

a spiritual and everlasting light, enlighten your hearts in the

knowledge of truth, keep you from stumbling, and grant that "you

may walk honestly as in the day." Thus shall you shine as the sun in

the midst of the glory of the saints, and I shall glory in you in the day

of Christ, to Whom belong all glory and power for ever and ever.

Amen.

HOMILY III.

ON THE FIRMAMENT.

1. WE have now recounted the works of the first day, or rather of one

day. Far be it from me indeed, to take from it the privilege it enjoys of

having been for the Creator a day apart, a day which is not counted

in the same order as the others. Our discussion yesterday treated of

the works of this day, and divided the narrative so as to give you

food for your souls in the morning, and joy in the evening. To-day we

pass on to the wonders of the second day. And here I do not wish to

speak of the narrator's talent, but of the grace of Scripture, for the

narrative is so naturally told that it pleases and delights all the

friends of truth. It is this charm of truth which the Psalmist

expresses so emphatically when he says, "How sweet are thy words

unto my taste. yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth." Yesterday

then, as far as we were able, we delighted our souls by conversing

about the oracles of God, and now to-day we are met together again

on the second day to contemplate the wonders of the second day.

I know that many artisans, belonging to mechanical trades, are

crowding around me. A day's labour hardly suffices to maintain

them; therefore I am compelled to abridge my discourse, so as not to

keep them too long from their work. What shall I say to them? The

time which you lend to God is not lost: he will return it to you with

large interest. Whatever difficulties may trouble you the Lord will

disperse them. To those who have preferred spiritual welfare, He will

give health of body, keenness of mind, success in business, and

unbroken prosperity. And, even if in this life our efforts should not

realise our hopes, the teachings of the Holy Spirit are none the less a

rich treasure for the ages to come Deliver your heart, then, from the

cares of this life and give close heed to my words. Of what avail will

it be to you if you are here in the body, and your heart is anxious

about your earthly treasure?

2. And God said "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,

and let it divide the waters from the waters." Yesterday we heard

God's decree, "Let there be light." To-day it is, "Let there be a

firmament." There appears to be something more in this. The word is

not limited to a simple command. It lays down the reason

necessitating the structure of the firmament: it is, it is said, to

separate the waters from the waters. And first let us ask how God

speaks? Is it in our manner? Does His intelligence receive an

impression from objects, and, after having conceived them, make

them known by particular signs appropriate to each of them? Has He

consequently recourse to the organs of voice to convey His

thoughts? Is He obliged to strike the air by the articulate movements

of the voice, to unveil the thought hidden in His heart? Would it not

seem like an idle fable to say that God should need such a circuitous

method to manifest His thoughts? And is it not more conformable

with true religion to say, that the divine will and the first impetus of

divine intelligence are the Word of God? It is He whom Scripture

vaguely represents, to show us that God has not only wished to

create the world, but to create it with the help of a co-operator.

Scripture might continue the history as it is begun: In the beginning

God created the heaven and the earth; afterwards He created light,

then He created the firmament. But, by making God command and

speak, the Scripture tacitly shows us Him to Whom this order and

these words are addressed. It is not that it grudges us the knowledge

of the truth, but that it may kindle our desire by showing us some

trace and indication of the mystery. We seize with delight, and

carefully keep, the fruit of laborious efforts, whilst a possession

easily attained is despised. Such is the road and the course which

Scripture follows to lead us to the idea of the Only begotten. And

certainly, God's immaterial nature had no need of the material

language of voice, since His very thoughts could be transmitted to

His fellow-worker. What need then of speech, for those Who by

thought alone could communicate their counsels to each other?

Voice was made for hearing, and hearing for voice. Where there is

neither air, nor tongue, nor ear, nor that winding canal which carries

sounds to the seat of sensation in the head, there is no need for

words thoughts of the soul are sufficient to transmit the will. As I

said then, this language is only a wise and ingenious contrivance to

set our minds seeking the Person to whom the words are addressed.

3. In the second place, does the firmament that is called heaven

differ from the firmament that God made in the beginning? Are there

two heavens? The philosophers, who discuss heaven, would rather

lose their tongues than grant this. There is only one heaven, they

pretend; and it is of a nature neither to admit of a second, nor of a

third, nor of several others. The essence of the celestial body quite

complete constitutes its vast unity. Because, they say, every body

which has a circular motion is one and finite. And if this body is used

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 put under the Creator's hand uncreated matter; a lie that follows

from the first fable. But we ask the Greek sages not to mock us

before they are agreed among themselves. Because there are among

them some who say there are infinite heavens and worlds. When

grave demonstrations shall have upset their foolish system, when

the laws of geometry shall have established that, according to the

nature of heaven, it is impossible that there should be two, we shall

only laugh the more at this elaborate scientific trifling. These learned

men see not merely one bubble but several bubbles formed by the

same cause, and they doubt the power of creative wisdom to bring

several heavens into being! We find, however, if we raise our eyes

towards the omnipotence of God, that the strength and grandeur of

the heavens differ from the drops of water bubbling on the surface of

a fountain. How ridiculous, then, is their argument of impossibility!

As for myself, far from not believing in a second, I seek for the third

whereon the blessed Paul was found worthy to gaze. And does not

the Psalmist in saying "heaven of heavens" give us an idea of their

plurality? Is the plurality of heaven stranger than the seven circles

through which nearly all the philosophers agree that the seven

planets pass,--circles which they represent to us as placed in

connection with each other like casks fitting the one into the other?

These circles, they say, carried away in a direction contrary to that of

the world, and striking the rather, make sweet and harmonious

sounds, unequalled by the sweetest melody. And if we ask them for

the witness of the senses, what do they say? That we, accustomed

to this noise from our birth, on account of hearing it always, have

lost the sense of it; like then in smithies with their ears incessantly

dinned. If I refuted this ingenious frivolity, the untruth of which is

evident from the first word, it would seem as though I did not know

the value of time. and mistrusted the intelligence of such an

audience.

But let me leave the vanity of outsiders to those who are without,

and return to the theme proper to the Church. If we believe some of

those who have preceded us, we have not here the creation of a new

heaven, but a new account of the first. The reason they give is, that

the earlier narrative briefly described the creation of heaven and

earth; while here scripture relates in greater detail the manner in

which each was created. I, however, since Scripture gives to this

second heaven another name and its own function, maintain that it is

different from the heaven which was made at the beginning; that it is

of a stronger nature and of an especial use to the universe.

4. "And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,

and let it divide the waters front the waters. And God made the

firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament

from the waters which were above the firmament." Before laying hold

of the meaning of Scripture let us try to meet objections from other

quarters. We are asked how, if the firmament is a spherical body, as

it appears to the eye, its convex circumference can contain the water

which flows and circulates in higher regions? What shall we answer?

One thing only: because the interior of a body presents a perfect

concavity it does not necessarily follow that its exterior surface is

spherical and smoothly rounded. Look at the stone vaults of baths,

and the structure of buildings of cave form; the dome, which forms

the interior, does not prevent the roof from having ordinarily a flat

surface. Let these unfortunate men cease, then, from tormenting us

and themselves about the impossibility of our retaining water in the

higher regions.

Now we must say something about the nature of the firmament, and

why it received the order to hold the middle place between the

waters. Scripture constantly makes use of the word firmament to

express extraordinary strength. "The Lord in firmament and refuge"

"I have strengthened the pillars of it" "Praise him in the firmament of

his power." The heathen writers thus call a strong body one which is

compact and full, to distinguish it from the mathematical body. A

mathematical body is a body which exists only in the three

dimensions, breadths depth, and height. A firm body, on the

contrary, adds resistance to the dimensions. It is the custom of

Scripture to call firmament all that is strong and unyielding. It even

uses the word to denote the condensation of the air: He, it says, who

strengthens the thunder. Scripture means by the strengthening of

the thunder, the strength and resistance of the wind, which,

enclosed in the hollows of the clouds, produces the noise of thunder

when it breaks through with violence. Here then, according to me, is

a firm substance, capable of retaining the fluid and unstable element

water; and as, according to the common acceptation, it appears that

the firmament owes its origin to water, we must not believe that it

resembles frozen water or any other matter produced by the filtration

of water; as, for example, rock crystal, which is said to owe its

metamorphosis to excessive congelation, or the transparent stone

which forms in mines. This pellucid stone, if one finds it in its natural

perfection, without cracks inside, or the least spot of corruption,

almost rivals the air in clearness. We cannot compare the firmament

to one of these substances. To hold such an opinion about celestial

bodies would be childish and foolish; and although everything may

be in everything, fire in earth, air in water, anti of the other elements

the one in the other; although none of those which come under our

senses are pure and without mixture, either with the element which

serves as a medium for it, or with that which is contrary to it; I,

nevertheless, dare not affirm that the firmament was formed of one

of these simple substances, or of a mixture of them, for I am taught

by Scripture not to allow my imagination to wander too far afield. But

do not let us forget to remark that, after these divine words "let there

be a firmament," it is not said "and the firmament was reader" but,

"and God made the firmament, and divided the waters." Hear, O ye

deaf! See, O ye blind!--who, then, is deaf? He who does not hear this

startling voice of the Holy Spirit. Who is blind? He who does not see

such clear proofs of the Only begotten. "Let there be a firmament." It

is the voice of the primary and principal Cause. "And God made the

firmament." Here is a witness to the active and creative power of

God.

5. But let us continue our explanation: "Let it divide the waters froth

the waters." The mass of waters, which from all directions flowed

over the earth, and was suspended in the air, was infinite, so that

there was no proportion between it and the other elements. Thus, as

it has been already said, the abyss covered the earth. We give the

reason for this abundance of water. None of you assuredly will

attack our opinion; not even those who have the most cultivated

minds, and whose piercing eye can penetrate this perishable and

fleeting nature; you will not accuse me of advancing impossible or

imaginary theories, nor will you ask me upon what foundation the

fluid clement rests. By the same reason which makes them attract

the earth, heavier than water, from the extremities of the world to

suspend it in the centre, they will grant us without doubt that it is

due both to its natural attraction downwards and its general

equilibrium, that this immense quantity of water rests motionless

upon the earth. Therefore the prodigious mass of waters was spread

around the earth; not in proportion with it and infinitely larger,

thanks to the foresight of the supreme Artificer, Who, from the

beginning, foresaw what was to come, and at the first provided all for

the future needs of the world. But what need was there for this

superabundance of water? The essence of fire is necessary for the

world, not only in the economy of earthly produce, but for the

completion of the universe; for it would be imperfect if the most

powerful and the most vital of its elements were lacking. Now fire

and water are hostile to and destructive of each other. Fire, if it is the

stronger, destroys water, and water, if in greater abundance,

destroys fire. As, therefore, it was necessary to avoid an open

struggle between these elements, so as not to bring about the

dissolution of the universe by the total disappearance of one or the

other, the sovereign Disposer created such a quantity of water that

in spite of constant diminution from the effects of fire, it could last

until the time fixed for the destruction of the world. He who planned

all with weight and measure, He who, according to the word of Job,

knows the number of the drops of rain, knew how long His work

would last, and for how much consumption of fire He ought to allow.

This is the reason of the abundance of water at the creation. Further,

there is no one so strange to life as to need to learn the reason why

fire is essential to the world. Not only all the arts which support life,

the art of weaving, that of shoemaking, of architecture, of

agriculture, have need of the help of fire, but the vegetation of trees,

the ripening of fruits, the breeding of land and water animals, and

their nourishment, all existed from heat from the beginning, and

have been since maintained by the action of heat. The creation of

heat was then indispensable for the formation and the preservation

of beings, and the abundance of waters was no less so in the

presence of the constant and inevitable consumption by fire.

6. Survey creation; you will see the power of heat reigning over all

that is born and perishes. On account of it comes all the water

spread over the earth, as well as that which is beyond our sight and

is dispersed in the depths of the earth. On account of it are

abundance of fountains, springs or wells, courses of rivers, both

mountain torrents and ever flowing streams, for the storing of

moisture in many and various reservoirs. From the East, from the

winter solstice flows the Indus, the greatest river of the earth,

according to geographers. From the middle of the East proceed the

Bactrus, the Choaspes, and the Araxes, from which the Tanais

detaches itself to fall into the Palus-Maeotis. Add to these the Phasis

which descends from Mount Caucasus, and countless other rivers,

which, from northern regions, flow into the Euxine Sea. From the

warm countries of the West, from the foot of the Pyrenees, arise the

Tartessus and the Ister, of which the one discharges itself into the

sea beyond the Pillars and the other, after flowing through Europe,

fails into Euxine Sea. Is there any need to enumerate those which the

Ripaean mountains pour forth in the heart of Scythia, the Rhone, and

so many other rivers, all navigable, which after having watered the

countries of the western Gauls and of Celts and of the neighbouring

barbarians, flow into the Western sea? And others from the higher

regions of the South flow through Ethiopia. to discharge themselves

some into our sea, others into inaccessible seas, the Aegon the

Nyses, the Chremetes, and above all the Nile, which is not of the

character of a river when, like a sea, it inundates Egypt. Thus the

habitable part of our earth is surrounded by water, linked together by

vast seas and irrigated by countless perennial rivers, thanks to the

ineffable wisdom of Him Who ordered all to prevent this rival clement

to fire from being entirely destroyed.

However, a time will come, when all shall be consumed by fire; as

Isaiah says of the God of the universe in these words, "That saith to

the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers." Reject then the foolish

wisdom of this world, and receive with me the more simple but

infallible doctrine of truth.

7. Therefore we read: "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the

waters, and let it divide life waters front the waters." have said what

the word firmament in Scripture means. It is not in reality a firm and

solid substance which has weight and resistance; this name would

otherwise have better suited the earth. But, as the substance of

superincumbent bodies is light, without consistency, and cannot be

grasped by any one of our senses, it is in comparison with these

pure and imperceptible substances that the firmament has received

its name. Imagine a place fit to divide the moisture, sending it, if pure

and filtered, into higher regions, and making it fall, if it is dense and

earthy; to the end that by the gradual withdrawal of the moist

particles the same temperature may be preserved from the beginning

to the end. You do not believe in this prodigious quantity of water;

but you do not take into account the prodigious quantity of heat, less

considerable no doubt in bulk, but exceedingly powerful

nevertheless, if you consider it as destructive of moisture. It attracts

surrounding moisture, as the melon shows us, and consumes it as

quickly when attracted, as the flame of the lamp draws to it the fuel

supplied by the wick and burns it up. Who doubts that the rather is

an ardent fire? If an impassable limit had not been assigned to it by

the Creator, what would prevent it from setting on fire and

consuming all that is near it, and absorbing sit the moisture from

existing things? The aerial waters which veil the heavens with

vapours that are sent forth by rivers, fountains, marshes, lakes, and

seas, prevent the aether from invading and burning up the universe.

Thus we see even this sun, in the summer season, dry up in a

moment a damp and marshy country, and make it perfectly arid.

What has become of all the water? Let these masters of omniscience

tell us. Is it not plain to every one that it has risen in vapour, and has

been consumed by the heat of the sun? They say, none the less, that

even the sun is without heat. What time they lose in words! And see

what proof they Jean upon to resist what is perfectly plain. Its colour

is white, and neither reddish nor yellow. It is not then fiery by nature,

and its heat results, they say, from the velocity of its rotation. What

do they gain? That the sun does not seem to absorb moisture? I do

not, however, reject this statement, although it is false, because it

helps my argument. I said that the consumption of heat required this

prodigious quantity of water. That the sun owes its heat to its nature,

or that heat results from its action, makes no difference, provided

that it produces the same effects upon the same matter. If you kindle

fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together, or if you light them by

holding them to a flame, you will have absolutely the same effect.

Besides, we see that the great wisdom of Him who governs all,

makes the sun travel from one region to another, for fear that, if it

remained always in the same place, its excessive heat would destroy

the order of the universe. Now it passes into southern regions about

the time of the winter solstice, now it returns to the sign of the

equinox; from thence it betakes itself to northern regions during the

summer solstice, and keeps up by this imperceptible passage a

pleasant temperature throughout all the world.

Let the learned people see if they do not disagree among

themselves. The water which the sun consumes is, they say, what

prevents the sea from rising and flooding the rivers; the warmth of

the sun leaves behind the salts and the bitterness of the waters, and

absorbs from them the pure and drinkable particles, thanks to the

singular virtue of this planet in attracting all that is light and in

allowing to fall, like mud and sediment, all which is thick and earthy.

From thence come the bitterness, the salt taste and the power of

withering and drying up which are characteristic of the sea. While as

is notorious, they hold these views, they shift their ground and say

that moisture cannot be lessened by the sun.

8. "And God called the firmament heaven." The nature of right

belongs to another, and the firmament only shares it on account of

its resemblance to heaven. We often find the visible region called

heaven, on account of the density and continuity of the air within our

ken, and deriving its name "heaven" from the word which means to

see. It is of it that Scripture says, "The fowl of the air," "Fowl that

may fly . . . in the open firmament of heave;" and, elsewhere, "They

mount up to heaven." Moses, blessing the tribe of Joseph, desires

for it the fruits and the dews of heaven, of the suns of summer and

the conjunctions of the moon, and blessings from the tops of the

mountains and from the everlasting hills," in one word, from all

which fertilises the earth. In the curses on Israel it is said, "And thy

heaven that is over thy head shall be brass." What does this mean? It

threatens him with a complete drought, with an absence of the aerial

waters which cause the fruits of the earth to be brought forth and to

grow.

Since, then, Scripture says that the dew or the rain fails from heaven,

we understand that it is from those waters which have been ordered

to occupy the higher regions. When the exhalations from the earth,

gathered together in the heights of the air, are condensed under the

pressure of the wind, this aerial moisture diffuses itself in vaporous

and light clouds; then mingling again, it forms drops which fall,

dragged down by their own weight; and this is the origin of rain.

When water beaten by the violence of the wind, changes into foam,

and passing through excessive cold quite freezes, it breaks the

cloud, and falls as snow. Yon can thus account for all the moist

substances that the air suspends over our heads.

And do not let any one compare with the inquisitive discussions of

philosophers upon the heavens, the simple and inartificial character

of the utterances of the Spirit; as the beauty of chaste women

surpasses that of a harlot, so our arguments are superior to those of

our opponents. They only seek to persuade by forced reasoning.

With us truth presents itself naked anti without artifice. But why

torment ourselves to refute the errors of philosophers, when it is

sufficient to produce their mutually contradictory books, and, as

quiet spectators, to watch the war? For those thinkers are not less

numerous, nor less celebrated, nor more sober in speech in fighting

their adversaries, who say that the universe is being consumed by

fire, and that from the seeds which remain in the ashes of the burnt

world all is being brought to life again. Hence in the world there is

destruction and palingenesis to infinity. All, equally far from the

truth, find each on their side by-ways which lead them to error.

9. But as far as concerns the separation of the waters I am obliged to

contest the opinion of certain writers in the Church who, under the

shadow of high and sublime conceptions, have launched out into

metaphor, and have only seen in the waters a figure to denote

spiritual and incorporeal powers. In the higher regions, above the

firmament, dwell the better; in the lower regions, earth and matter

are the dwelling place of the malignant. So, say they, God is praised

by the waters that are above the heaven, that is to say, by the good

powers, the purity of whose soul makes them worthy to sing the

praises of God. And the waters which are under the heaven

represent the wicked spirits, who from their natural height have

fallen into the abyss of evil. Turbulent, seditious, agitated by the

tumultuous waves of passion, they have received the name of sea,

because of the instability and the inconstancy of their movements.

Let us reject these theories as dreams and old women's tales. Let us

understand that by water water is meant; for the dividing of the

waters by the firmament let us accept the reason which has been

given us. Although, however, waters above the heaven are invited to

give glory to the Lord of the Universe, do not let us think of them as

intelligent beings; the heavens are not alive because they "declare

the glory of God," nor the firmament a sensible being because it

"sheweth His handiwork." And if they tell you that the heavens mean

contemplative powers, anti the firmament active powers which

produce good, we admire the theory as ingenious without being able

to acknowledge the truth of it. For thus dew, the frost, cold and heat,

which in Daniel are ordered to praise the Creator of all things, will be

intelligent and invisible natures. But this is only a figure, accepted as

such by enlightened minds, to complete the glory of the Creator.

Besides, the waters above the heavens, these waters privileged by

the virtue which they possess in themselves, are not the only waters

to celebrate the praises of God. "Praise the Lord from the earth, ye

dragons and all deeps." s Thus the singer of the Psalms does not

reject the deeps which our inventors of allegories rank in the

divisions of evil; he admits them to the universal choir of creation,

and the deeps sing in their language a harmonious hymn to the glory

of the Creator.

10. "And God saw that it was good." God does not judge of the

beauty of His work by the charm of the eyes, and He does not form

the same idea of beauty that we do. What He esteems beautiful is

that which presents in its perfection all the fitness of art, and that

which tends to the usefulness of its end. He, then, who proposed to

Himself a manifest design in His works, approved each one of them,

as fulfilling its end in accordance with His creative purpose. A hand,

an eye, or any portion of a statue lying apart from the rest, would

look beautiful to no one. But if each be restored to its own place, the

beauty of proportion, until now almost unperceived, would strike

even the most uncultivated. But the artist, before uniting the parts of

his work, distinguishes and recognises the beauty of each of them,

thinking of the object that he has in view. It is thus that Scripture

depicts to us the Supreme Artist, praising each one of His works;

soon. when His work is complete, He will accord well deserved

praise to the whole together. Let me here end my discourse on the

second day, to allow my industrious hearers to examine what they

have just heard. May their memory retain it for the profit of their soul;

may they by careful meditation inwardly digest and benefit by what I

say. As for those who live by their work, let me allow them to attend

all day to their business, so that they may come, with a soul free

from anxiety, to the banquet of my discourse in the evening. May

God who, after having made such great things, put such weak words

in my mouth, grant you the intelligence of His truth, so that you may

raise yourselves from visible things to the invisible Being, and that

the grandeur and beauty of creatures may give you a just idea of the

Creator. For the visible things of Him from the creation of the world

are clearly seen, and His power and divinity are eternal. Thus earth,

air, sky, water, day, night, all visible things, remind us of who is our

Benefactor. We shall not therefore give occasion to sin, we shall not

give place to the enemy within us, if by unbroken recollection we

keep God ever dwelling in our hearts, to Whom be all glory and all

adoration, now and for ever, world without end. Amen.

HOMILY IV.

UPON THE GATHERING TOGETHER OF THE WATERS.

1. THERE are towns where the inhabitants, from dawn to eve, feast

their eyes on the tricks of innumerable conjurors. They are never

tired of hearing dissolute songs which cause much impurity to

spring up in their souls, and they are often called happy, because

they neglect the cares of business and trades useful to life, and pass

the time, which is assigned to them on this earth, in idleness and

pleasure. They do not know that a theatre full of impure sights is, for

those who sit there, a common school of vice; that these melodious

and meretricious songs insinuate themselves into men's souls, and

all who hear them, eager to imitate the notes of harpers and pipers,

are filled with filthiness. Some others, who are wild after horses,

think they are backing their horses in their dreams; they harness

their chariots change their drivers, and even in sleep are not free

from the folly of the day. And shall we, whom the Lord, the great

worker of marvels, calls to the contemplation of His own works, tire

of looking at them, or be slow to hear the words of the Holy Spirit?

Shall we not rather stand around the vast and varied workshop of

divine creation and, carried back in mind to the times of old, shall we

not view all the order of creation? Heaven, poised like a dome, to

quote the words of the prophet; earth, this immense mass which

rests upon itself; the air around it, of a soft and fluid nature, a true

and continual nourishment for all who breathe it, of such tenuity that

it yields and opens at the least movement of the body, opposing no

resistance to our motions, while, in a moment, it streams back to its

place, behind those who cleave it; water, finally, that supplies drink

for man, or may be designed for our other needs, and the marvellous

gathering together of it into definite places which have been

assigned to it: such is the spectacle which the words which I have

just read will show you.

2. "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered

together unto one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so."

And the water which was under the heaven gathered together unto

one place; " And God called the dry land earth and the gathering

together of the waters called He seas." What trouble you have given

me in my previous discourses by asking me why the earth was

invisible, why all bodies are naturally endued with colour, and why

all colour comes under the sense of sight. And, perhaps, my reason

did not appear sufficient to you, when I said that the earth, without

being naturally invisible, was so to us, because of the mass of water

that entirely covered it. Hear then how Scripture explains itself. "Let

the waters be gathered together, and let the dry land appear." The

veil is lifted and allows the earth, hitherto invisible, to be seen.

Perhaps you will ask me new questions. And first, is it not a law of

nature that water flows downwards? Why, then, does Scripture refer

this to the fiat of the Creator? As long as water is spread over a level

surface, it does not flow; it is immovable. But when it finds any

slope, immediately the foremost portion falls, then the one that

follows takes its place, and that one is itself replaced by a third. Thus

incessantly they flow, pressing the one on the other, and the rapidity

of their course is in proportion to the mass of water that is being

carried, and the declivity down which it is borne. If such is the nature

of water, it was supererogatory to command it to gather into one

place. It was bound, on account of its natural instability, to fall into

the most hollow part of the earth and not to stop until the levelling of

its surface. We see how there is nothing so level as the surface of

water. Besides, they add, how did the waters receive an order to

gather into one place, when we see several seas, separated from

each other by the greatest distances? To the first question I reply:

Since God's command, you know perfectly well the motion of water;

you know that it is unsteady and unstable and fails naturally over

declivities and into hollow places. But what was its nature before

this command made it take its course? You do not know yourself, an

I you have heard from no eye-witness. Think, in reality, that a word of

God makes the nature, and that this order is for the creature a

direction for its future course. There was only one creation of day

and night, and since that moment they have incessantly succeeded

each other and divided time into equal parts.

3. "Let the waters be gathered together." It was ordered that it should

be the natural property of water to flow, and in obedience to this

order, the waters are never weary in their course. In speaking thus, I

have only in view the flowing property of waters. Some flow of their

own accord like springs and rivers, others are collected and

stationary. But I speak now of flowing waters. "Let the waters be

gathered together unto one place." Have you never thought, when

standing nears spring which is sending forth water abundantly, Who

makes this water spring from the bowels of the earth? Who forced it

up? Where are the store-houses which send it forth? To what place

is it hastening? How is it that it is never exhausted here, and never

overflows there? All this comes from that first command; it was for

the waters a signal for their course.

In all the story of the waters remember this first order, "let the waters

be gathered together." To take their assigned places they were

obliged to flow, and, once arrived there, to remain in their place and

not to go farther. Thus in the language of Ecclesiastes, "All the

waters run into the sea; yet the sea is notful." Waters flow in virtue of

God's order, and the sea is enclosed in limits according to this first

law, "Let the waters be gathered together unto one place." For fear

the water should spread beyond its bed, and in its successive

invasions cover one by one all countries, and end by flooding the

whole earth, it received the order to gather unto one place. Thus we

often see the furious sea raising mighty waves to the heaven, and,

when once it has touched the shore, break its impetuosity in foam

and retire. "Fear ye not me, saith the Lord. ... which have placed the

sand for the bound of the sea." A grain of sand, the weakest tiring

possible, curbs the violence of the ocean. For what would prevent

the Red Sea from invading the whole of Egypt, which lies lower, and

uniting itself to the other sea which bathes its shores, were it not

lettered by the fiat of the Creator? And if I say that Egypt is lower

than the Red Sea, it is because experience has convinced us of it

every time that an attempt has been made to join the sea of Egypt to

the Indian Ocean, of which the Red Sea is a part. Thus we have

renounced this enterprise, as also have the Egyptian Sesostris, who

conceived the idea, and Darius the Mede who afterwards wished to

carry it out.

I report this fact to make you understand the full force of the

command, "Let the waters be gathered unto one place"; that is to

say, let there be no other gathering, and, once gathered, let them not

disperse.

4. To say that the waters were gathered in one place indicates that

previously they were scattered in many places. The mountains,

intersected by deep ravines, accumulated water in their valleys,

when from every direction the waters betook themselves to the one

gathering place. What vast plains, in their extent resembling wide

seas, what valleys, what cavities hollowed in many different ways, at

that time full of water, must have been emptied by the command of

God! But we must not therefore say, that if the water covered the

face of the earth, all the basins which have since received the sea

were originally full. Where can the gathering of the waters have come

from if the basins were already full? These basins, we reply, were

only prepared at the moment when the water had to unite in a single

mass. At that time the sea which is beyond Gadeira and the vast

ocean, so dreaded by navigators, which surrounds the isle of Britain

and western Spain, did not exist. But, all of a sudden, God created

this vast space, and the mass of waters flowed in.

Now if our explanation of the creation of the world may appear

contrary to experience, (because it is evident that all the waters did

not flow together in one place,) many answers may be made, all

obvious as soon as they are stated. Perhaps it is even ridiculous to

reply to such objections. Ought they to bring forward in opposition

ponds and accumulations of rain water, and think that this is enough

to upset our reasonings? Evidently the chief and most complete

affluence of the waters was what received the name of gathering

unto one place. For wells are also gathering places for water, made

by the hand of man to receive the moisture diffused in the hollow of

the earth. This name of gathering does not mean any chance

massing of water, but the greatest and most important one, wherein

the element is shewn collected together. In the same way that fire, in

spite of its being divided into minute particles which are sufficient

for our needs here, is spread in a mass in the rather; in the same way

that air, in spite of a like minute division, has occupied the region

round the earth; so also water, in spite of the small amount spread

abroad everywhere, only forms one gathering together, that which

separates the whole element from the rest. Without doubt the lakes

as well those of the northern regions and those that are to be found

in Greece, in Macedonia, in Bithynia and in Palestine, are gatherings

together of waters; but here it means the greatest of all, that

gathering the extent of which equals that of the earth. The first

contain a great quantity of water; no one will deny this. Nevertheless

no one could reasonably give them the name of seas not even if they

are like the great sea, charged with salt and sand. They instance for

example, the Lacus Asphaltitis in Judaea, and the Serbonian lake

which extends between Egypt and Palestine in the Arabian desert.

These are lakes, and there is only one sea, as those affirm who have

travelled round the earth. Although some authorities think the

Hyrcanian and Caspian Seas are enclosed in their own boundaries, if

we are to believe the geographers, they communicate with each

other and together discharge themselves into the Great Sea. It is

thus that, according to their account, the Red Sea and that beyond

Gadeira only form one. Then why did God call the different masses

of water seas? This is the reason; the waters flowed into one place,

and their different accumulations, that is to say, the gulfs that the

earth embraced in her folds, received from the Lord the name of

seas: North Sea, South Sea, Eastern Sea, and Western Sea. The seas

have even their own names, the Euxine, the Propontis, the

Hellespont, the AEgean, the Ionian, the Sardinian, the Sicilian, the

Tyrrhene, and many other names of which an exact enumeration

would now be too long, and quite out of place. See why God calls the

gathering together of waters seas. But let us return to the point from

which the course of my argument has diverted me.

5. And God said: "Let the waters be gathered together unto one

place and let the dry land appear." He did not say let the earth

appear, so as not to show itself again without form, mud-like, and in

combination with the water, nor yet endued with proper form and

virtue. At the same time, lest we should attribute the drying of the

earth to the sun, the Creator shows it to us dried before the creation

of the sun. Let us follow the thought Scripture gives us. Not only the

water which was covering the earth flowed off from it, but all that

which had filtered into its depths withdrew in obedience to the

irresistible order of the sovereign Master. And it was so. This is quite

enough to show that the Creator's voice had effect: however, in

several editions, there is added "And the water which was under the

heavens gathered itself unto one place and the dry land was seen;"

words that other interpreters have not given, and which do not

appear conformable to Hebrew usage. In fact, after the assertion,

"and it was so," it is superfluous to repeat exactly the same thing. In

accurate copies these words are marked with an obelus, which is the

sign of rejection.

"And God called the dry land earth; and the gathering together of the

waters called He seas." Why does Scripture say above that the

waters were gathered together unto one place, and that the dry earth

appeared? Why does it add here the dry land appeared, and God

gave it the name of earth? It is that dryness is the property which

appears to characterize the nature of the subject, whilst the word

earth is only its simple name. Just as reason is the distinctive faculty

of man, and the word man serves to designate the being gifted with

this faculty, so dryness is the special and peculiar quality of the

earth. The element essentially dry receives therefore the name of

earth, as the animal who has a neigh for a characteristic cry is called

a horse. The other elements, like the earth, have received some

peculiar property which distinguishes them from the rest, and makes

them known for what they are. Thus water has cold for its

distinguishing property; air, moisture; fire, heat. But this theory

really applies only to the primitive elements of the world. The

elements which contribute to the formation of bodies, and come

under our senses, show us these qualities in combination, and in the

whole of nature our eyes and senses can find nothing which is

completely singular, simple and pure. Earth is at the same time dry

and cold; water, cold and moist; air, moist and warm; fire, warm and

dry. It is by the combination of their qualities that the different

elements can mingle. Thanks to a common quality each of them

mixes with a neighbouring element, and this natural alliance

attaches it to the contrary element. For example, earth, which is at

the same time dry and cold, finds in cold a relationship which unites

it to water, and by the means of water unites itself to air. Water

placed between the two, appears to give each a hand, and, on

account of its double quality, allies itself to earth by cold and to air

by moisture. Air, in its turn, takes the middle place and plays the part

of a mediator between the inimical natures of water and fire, united

to the first by moisture, and to the second by heat. Finally tire, of a

nature at the same time warm and dry, is linked to air by warmth, and

by its dryness reunites itself to the earth. And from this accord and

from this mutual mixture of elements, results a circle and an

harmonious choir whence each of the elements deserves its name. I

have said this in order to explain why God has given to the dry land

the name of earth, without however calling the earth dry. It is

because dryness is not one of those qualities which the earth

acquired afterwards, but one of those which constituted its essence

from the beginning. Now that which causes a body to exist, is

naturally antecedent to its posterior qualities and has a preeminence

over them. It is then with reason that God chose the most

ancient characteristic of the earth whereby to designate it.

6. "And God saw that it was good." Scripture does not merely wish

to say that a pleasing aspect of the sea presented itself to God. It is

not with eyes that the Creator views the beauty of His works. He

contemplates them in His ineffable wisdom. A fair sight is the sea all

bright in a settled calm; fair too, when, ruffled by a light breeze of

wind, its surface shows tints of purple and azure,--when, instead of

lashing with violence the neighbouring shores, it seems to kiss them

with peaceful caresses. However, it is not in this that Scripture

makes God find the goodness and charm of the sea. Here it is the

purpose of the work which makes the goodness.

In the first place sea water is the source of all the moisture of the

earth. It filters through imperceptible conduits, as is proved by the

subterranean openings and caves whither its waves penetrate; it is

received in oblique and sinuous canals; then, driven out by the wind,

it rises to the surface of the earth, and breaks it, having become

drinkable and free from its bitterness by this long percolation. Often,

moved by the same cause, it springs even from mines that it has

crossed, deriving warmth from them, and rises boiling, and bursts

forth of a burning heat, as may be seen in islands and on the sea

coast; even inland in certain places, in the neighbourhood of rivers,

to compare little things with great, almost the same phenomena

occur. To what do these words tend? To prove that the earth is all

undermined with invisible conduits, where the water travels

everywhere underground from the sources of the sea.

7. Thus, in the eyes of God, the sea is good, because it makes the

under current of moisture in the depths of the earth. It is good again,

because from all sides it receives the rivers without exceeding its

limits. It is good, because it is the origin and source of the waters in

the air. Warmed by the rays of the sun, it escapes in vapour, is

attracted into the high regions of the air, and is there cooled on

account of its rising high above the refraction of the rays from the

ground, and, the shade of the clouds adding to this refrigeration, it is

changed into rain and fattens the earth. If people are incredulous, let

them look at caldrons on the fire, which, though full of water, are

often left empty because all the water is boiled and resolved into

vapour. Sailors, too, boil even sea water, collecting the vapour in

sponges, to quench their thirst in pressing need.

Finally the sea is good in the eyes of God, because it girdles the

isles, of which it forms at the same time the rampart and the beauty,

because it brings together the most distant parts of the earth, and

facilitates the inter-communication of mariners. By this means it

gives us the boon of general information, supplies the merchant with

his wealth, and easily provides for the necessities of life, allowing

the rich to export their superfluities, and blessing the poor with the

supply of what they lack.

But whence do I perceive the goodness of the Ocean, as it appeared

in the eyes of the Creator? If the Ocean is good and worthy of praise

before God, how much more beautiful is the assembly of a Church

like this, where the voices of men, of children, and of women, arise in

our prayers to God mingling and resounding like the waves which

beat upon the shore. This Church also enjoys a profound calm, and

malicious spirits cannot trouble it with the breath of heresy. Deserve,

then, the approbation of the Lord by remaining faithful to such good

guidance, in our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power for

ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY V.

THE GERMINATION OF THE EARTH.

1. "And God said Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding

seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in

itself." It was deep wisdom that commanded the earth, when it rested

after discharging the weight of the waters, first to bring forth grass,

then wood as we see it doing still at this time. For the voice that was

then heard and this command were aS a natural and permanent law

for it; it gave fertility and the power to produce fruit for all ages to

come; "Let the earth bring forth." The production of vegetables

shows first germination. When the germs begin to sprout they form

grass; this develops and becomes a plant, which insensibly receives

its different articulations, and reaches its maturity in the seed. Thus

all things which sprout and are green are developed. "Let the earth

bring forth green grass." Let the earth bring forth by itself without

having any need of help from without. Some consider the sun as the

source of all productiveness on the earth. It is, they say, the action of

the sun's heat which attracts the vital force from the centre of the

earth to the surface. The reason why the adornment of the earth was

before the sun is the following; that those who worship the sun, as

the source of life, may renounce their error. If they be well persuaded

that the earth was adorned before the genesis of the sun, they will

retract their unbounded admiration for it, because they see grass

and plants vegetate before it rose. If then the food for the flocks was

prepared, did our race appear less worthy of a like solicitude? He,

who provided pasture for horses and cattle, thought before all of

your riches and pleasures. If he fed your cattle, it was to provide for

all the needs of your life. And what object was there in the bringing

forth of grain, if not for your subsistence? Moreover, many grasses

and vegetables serve for the food of man.

2. "Let the earth bring forth grass yielding seed after his kind." So

that although some kind of grass is of service to animals, even their

gain is our gain too, and seeds are especially designed for our use.

Such is the true meaning of the words that I have i quoted. "Let the

earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed after his kind." this

manner we can re-establish the order of the words, of which the

construction seems faulty in the actual version, and the economy of

nature will be rigorously observed. In fact, first comes germination,

then verdure, then the growth of the plant, which alter having

attained its full growth arrives at perfection in seed.

How then, they say, can Scripture describe all the plants of the earth

as seed-bearing, when the reed, couch-grass, mint, crocus, garlic,

and the flowering rush and countless other species, produce no

seed? To this we reply that many vegetables have their seminal

virtue in the lower part and in the roots. The need, for example, after

its annual growth sends forth a protuberance from its roots, which

takes the place of seed for future trees. Numbers of other vegetables

are the same and all over the earth reproduce by the roots. Nothing

then is truer than that each plant produces its seed or contains some

seminal virtue; this is what is meant by "after its kind." So that the

shoot of a reed does not produce an olive tree, but from a reed

grows another reed, and from one sort of seed a plant of the same

sort always germinates. Thus, all which sprang from the earth, in its

first bringing forth, is kept the same to our time, thanks to the

constant reproduction of kind.

"Let the earth bring forth." See how, at this short word, at this brief

command, the cold and sterile earth travailed and hastened to bring

forth its fruit, as it east away its sad and dismal covering to clothe

itself in a more brilliant robe, proud of its proper adornment and

displaying the infinite variety of plants.

I want creation to penetrate you with so much admiration that

everywhere, wherever you may be, the least plant may bring to yon

the clear remembrance of the Creator. If you see the grass of the

fields, think of human nature, and remember the comparison of the

wise Isaiah. "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as

the flower of the field." Truly the rapid flow of life, the short

gratification and pleasure that an instant of happiness gives a man,

all wonderfully suit the comparison of the prophet. To-day he is

vigorous in body, fattened by luxury, and in the prime of life, with

complexion fair like the flowers, strong and powerful and of

irresistible energy; tomorrow and he will be an object of pity,

withered by age or exhausted by sickness. Another shines in all the

splendour of a brilliant fortune. and around him are a multitude of

flatterers, an escort of false friends on the track of his good graces;

a crowd of kinsfolk, but of no true kin; a swarm Of servants who

crowd after him to provide for his food and for all his needs; and in

his comings and goings this innumerable suite, which he drags after

him, excites the envy of all whom he meets. To fortune may be added

power in the State, honours bestowed by the imperial throne, the

government of a province, or the command of armies; a herald who

precedes him is crying in a loud voice; lictors right and left also fill

his subjects with awe, blows, confiscations, banishments,

imprisonments, and all the means by which he strikes intolerable

terror into all whom he has to rule. And what then? One night, a

fever, a pleurisy, or an inflammation of the lungs, snatches away this

man from the midst of men, stripped in a moment of all his stage

accessories, and all this, his glory, is proved a mere dream.

Therefore the Prophet has compared human glory to the weakest

flower.

3. Up to this point, the order in which plants shoot bears witness to

their first arrangement. Every herb, every plant proceeds from a

germ. If, like the couch-grass and the crocus, it throws out a shoot

from its root and from this lower protuberance, it must always

germinate and start outwards. If it proceeds from a seed, there is

still, by necessity, first a germ, then the sprout, theft green foliage,

and finally the fruit which ripens upon a stalk hitherto dry and thick.

"Let the earth bring forth grass." When the seed falls into the earth,

which contains the right combination of heat and moisture, it swells

and becomes porous, and, grasping the surrounding earth, attracts

to itself all that is suitable for it and that has affinity to it. These

particles of earth, however small they may be, as they fall and

insinuate themselves into all the pores of the seed, broaden its bulk

and make it send forth roots below, and shoot upwards, sending

forth stalks no less numerous than the roots. As the germ is always

growing warm, the moisture, pumped up through the roots, and

helped by the attraction of heat, draws a proper amount of

nourishment from the soil, and distributes it to the stem, to the bark,

to the husk, to the steel itself and to the beards with which it is

armed. It is owing to these successive accretions that each plant

attains its natural development, as well corn as vegetables, herbs or

brushwood. A single plant, a blade of grass is sufficient to occupy all

your intelligence in the contemplation of the skill which produced it.

Why is the wheat stalk better with joints? Are they not like

fastenings, which help it to bear easily the weight of the ear, when it

is swollen with fruit and bends towards the earth? Thus, whilst oats,

which have no weight to bear at the top, are without these supports,

nature has provided them for wheat. It has hidden the grain in a

case, so that it may not be exposed to birds' pillage, and has

furnished it with a rampart of barbs, which, like darts, protect it

against the attacks of tiny creatures.

4. What shall I say? What shall I leave unsaid? In the rich treasures

of creation it is difficult to select what is most precious; the loss of

what is omitted is too severe. "Let the earth bring forth grass;" and

instantly, with useful plants, appear noxious plants; with corn,

hemlock; with the other nutritious plants, hellebore, monkshood,

mandrake and the juice of the poppy. What then? Shall we show no

gratitude for so many beneficial gifts, and reproach the Creator for

those which may be harmful to our life? And shall we not reflect that

all has not been created in view of the wants of our bellies? The

nourishing plants, which are destined for our use, are close at hand,

and known by all the world. But in creation nothing exists without a

reason. The blood of the bull is a poison: ought this animal then,

whose strength is so serviceable to man, not to have been created,

or, if created, to have been bloodless? But you have sense enough

in yourself to keep you free froth deadly things. What! Sheep and

goats know how to turn away from what threatens their life,

discerning danger by instinct alone: and you, who have reason and

the art of medicine to supply what you need, and the experience of

your forebears to tell you to avoid all that is dangerous, you tell me

that you find it difficult to keep yourself from poisons! But not a

single thing has been created without reason, not a single thing is

useless. One serves as food to some animal; medicine has found in

another a relief for one of our maladies. Thus the starling eats

hemlock, its constitution rendering it insusceptible to the action of

the poison.

Thanks to the tenuity of the pores of its heart, the malignant juice is

on sooner swallowed than it is digested, before its chill can attack

the vital parts. The quail, thanks to its peculiar temperament,

whereby it escapes the dangerous effects, feeds on hellebore. There

are even circumstances where poisons are useful to men; with

mandrake doctors give us sleep; with opium they lull violent pain.

Hemlock has ere now been used to appease the rage of unruly

diseases; and many times hellebore has taken away long standing

disease. These plants, then, instead of making you accuse the

Creator, give you a new subject for gratitude.

5. "Let the earth bring forth grass." What spontaneous provision is

included in these words,--that which is present in the root, in the

plant itself, and in the fruit, as well as that which our labour and

husbandry add! God did not command the earth immediately to give

forth seed and fruit, but to produce germs, to grow green, and to

arrive at maturity in the seed; so that this first command teaches

nature what she has to do in the course of ages. But, they ask, is it

true that the earth produces seed after his kind, when often, after

having sown wheat, we gather black grain? This is not a change of

kind, but an alteration, a disease of the grain. It has not ceased to be

wheat; it is on account of having been burnt that it is black, as one

can learn from its name. If a severe frost had burnt it, it would have

had another colour and a different flavour. They even pretend that, if

it could find suitable earth and moderate temperature, it might return

to its first form. Thus, you find nothing in nature contrary to the

divine command. As to the darnel and all those bastard grains which

mix themselves with the harvest, the tares of Scripture, far from

being a variety of corn, have their own origin and their own kind;

image of those who alter the doctrine of the Lord and, not being

rightly instructed in the word, but, corrupted by the teaching of the

evil one, mix themselves with the sound body of the Church to

spread their pernicious errors secretly among purer souls. The Lord

thus compares the perfection of those who believe in Him to the

growth of seed, "as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and

should sleep and rise, night and day, and the seed should spring and

grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of

herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the

ear." "Let the earth bring forth grass." In a moment earth began by

germination to obey the laws of the Creator, completed every stage

of growth, and brought germs to perfection. The meadows were

covered with deep grass, the fertile plains quivered with harvests,

and the movement of the corn was like the waving of the sea. Every

plant, every herb, the smallest shrub, the least vegetable, arose from

the earth in all its luxuriance. There was no failure in this first

vegetation: no husbandman's inexperience, no inclemency of the

weather, nothing could injure it; then the sentence of condemnation

was not fettering the earth's fertility. All this was before the sin which

condemned us to eat our bread by the sweat of our brow.

6. "Let the earth," the Creator adds, "bring forth the fruit tree yielding

fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself."

At this command every copse was thickly planted; all the trees, fir,

cedar, cypress, pine, rose to their greatest height, the shrubs were

straightway clothed with thick foliage. The plants called crownplants,

roses, myrtles, laurels, did not exist; in one moment they

came into being, each one with its distinctive peculiarities. Most

marked differences separated them from other plants, and each one

was distinguished by a character of its own. But then the rose was

without thorns; since then the thorn has been added to its beauty, to

make us feel that sorrow is very near to pleasure, and to remind us

of our sin, which condemned the earth to produce thorns and

caltrops. But, they say, the earth has received the command to

produce trees "yielding fruit whose seed was in itself," and we see

many trees which have neither fruit, nor seed. What shall we reply?

First, that only the more important trees are mentioned; and then,

that a careful examination will show us that every tree has seed, or

some property which takes the place of it. The black poplar, the

willow, the elm, the white poplar, all the trees of this family, do not

produce any apparent fruit; however, an attentive observer finds

seed in each of them. This grain which is at the base of the leaf, and

which those who busy themselves with inventing words call

mischos, has the property of seed. And there are trees which

reproduce by their branches, throwing out roots from them. Perhaps

we ought even to consider as seeds the saplings which spring from

the roots of a tree: for cultivators tear them out to multiply the

species. But, we have already said, it is chiefly a question of the

trees which contribute most to out life; which offer their various

fruits to man and provide him with plentiful nourishment. Such is the

vine, which produces wine to make glad the heart of man; such is

the olive tree, whose fruit brightens his face with oil. How many

things in nature are combined in the same plant! In a vine, roots,

green and flexible branches, which spread themselves far over the

earth, buds, tendrils, bunches of sour grapes and ripe grapes. The

sight of a vine, when observed by an intelligent eye, serves to

remind you of your nature. Without doubt you remember the parable

where the Lord calls Himself a vine and His Father the husbandman,

and every one of us who are grafted by faith into the Church the

branches. He invites us to produce fruits in abundance, for fear lest

our sterility should condemn us to the fire. He constantly compares

our souls to vines. "My well beloved," says He, "hath a vineyard in a

very fruitfull hill," and elsewhere, I have "planted a vineyard and

hedged it round about." Evidently He calls human souls His vine,

those souls whom He has surrounded with the authority of His

precepts and a guard of angels. "The angel of the Lord encampeth

round shout them that fear him." And further: He has planted for us,

so to say, props, in establishing in His Church apostles, prophets,

teachers; and raising our thoughts by the example of the blessed in

olden times, He has not allowed them to drag on the earth and be

crushed under foot. He wishes that the claspings of love, like the

tendrils of the vine, should attach us to our neighbours and make us

rest on them, so that, in our continual aspirations towards heaven,

we may imitate these vines, which raise themselves to the tops of

the tallest trees. He also asks us to allow ourselves to be dug about;

and that is what the soul does when it disembarrasses itself from the

cares of the world, which are a weight on our hearts. He, then, who is

freed from carnal affections and from the love of riches, and, far from

being dazzled by them, disdains and despises this miserable vain

glory, is, so to say, dug about and at length breathes, free from the

useless weight of earthly thoughts. Nor must we, in the spirit of the

parable, put forth too much wood, that is to say, live with

ostentation, and gain the applause of the world; we must bring forth

fruits, keeping the proof of our works for the husbandman. Be "like a

green olive tree in the house of God," never destitute of hope, but

decked through faith with the bloom of salvation. Thus you will

resemble the eternal verdure of this plant and will rival it in

fruitfulness, if each clay sees you giving abundantly in alms.

7. But let us return to the examination of the ingenious contrivances

of creation. How many trees then arose, some to give us their fruits,

others to roof our houses, others to build our ships, others to feed

our fires! What a variety in the disposition of their several parts! And

yet, how difficult is it to find the distinctive property of each of them,

and to grasp the difference which separates them from other

species. Some strike deep roots, others do not; some shoot straight

up and have only one stem, others appear to love the earth and, from

their root upwards, divide into several shoots. Those whose long

branches stretch up afar into the air, have also deep roots which

spread within a large circumference, a true foundation placed by

nature to support the weight of the tree. What variety there is in bark!

Some plants have smooth bark, others rough, some have only one

layer, others several. What a marvellous thing! You may find in the

youth and age of plants resemblances to those of man. Young and

vigorous, their bark is distended; when they grow old, it is rough and

wrinkled. Cut one, it sends forth new buds; the other remains

henceforward sterile and as if struck with a mortal wound. But

further, it has been observed that pines, cut down, or even submitted

to the action of fire, are changed into a forest of oaks. We know

besides that the industry of agriculturists remedies the natural

defects of certain trees. Thus the sharp pomegranate and bitter

almonds, if the trunk of the tree is pierced near the root to introduce

into the middle of the pith a fat plug of pine, lose the acidity of their

juice, and become delicious fruits. Let not the sinner then despair of

himself, when he thinks, if agriculture can change the juices of

plants, the efforts of the soul to arrive at virtue, can certainly triumph

over all infirmities.

Now there is such a variety of fruits in fruit trees that it is beyond all

expression; a variety not only in the fruits of trees of different

families, but even in those of the same species, if it be true, as

gardeners say, that the sex of a tree influences the character of its

fruits. They distinguish male from female in palms; sometimes we

see those which they call female lower their branches, as though

with passionate desire. and invite the embraces of the male. Then,

those who take care of these plants shake over these palms the

fertilizing dust from the male palm-tree, the psen as they call it: the

tree appears to share the pleasures of enjoyment; then it raises its

branches, and its foliage resumes its usual form. The same is said of

the fig tree. Some plant wild fig trees near cultivated fig trees, and

there are others who, to remedy the weakness of the productive fig

tree of our gardens, attach to the branches unripe figs and so retain

the fruit which had already begun to drop and to be lost. What lesson

does nature here give us? That we must often borrow, even from

those who are strangers to the faith, a certain vigour to show forth

good works. If you see outside the Church, in pagan life, or in the

midst of a pernicious heresy, the example of virtue and fidelity to

moral laws, redouble your efforts to resemble the productive fig tree,

who by the side of the wild fig tree, gains strength, prevents the fruit

from being shed, and nourishes it with more care.

8. Plants reproduce themselves in so many different ways, that we

can only touch upon the chief among them. As to fruits themselves,

who could review their varieties, their forms, their colours, the

peculiar flavour, and the use of each of them? Why do some fruits

ripen when exposed bare to the rays of the sun, while others fill out

while encased in shells? Trees of which the fruit is tender have, like

the fig tree, a thick shade of leaves; those, on the contrary, of which

the fruits are stouter, like the nut, are only covered by a light shade.

The delicacy of the first requires more care; if the latter had a thicker

case, the shade of the leaves would be harmful. Why is the vine leaf

serrated, if not that the bunches of grapes may at the same time

resist the injuries of the air and receive through the openings all the

rays of the sun? Nothing has been done without motive, nothing by

chance. All shows ineffable wisdom.

What discourse can touch all? Can the human mind make an exact

review, remark every distinctive property, exhibit all the differences,

unveil with certainty so many mysterious causes? The same water,

pumped up through the root, nourishes in a different way the root

itself, the bark of the trunk, the wood and the pith. It becomes leaf, it

distributes itself among the branches and twigs and makes the fruits

swell -- it gives to the plant its gum and its sap. Who will explain to

us the difference between all these? There is a difference between

the gum of the mastich and the juice of the balsam, a difference

between that which distils in Egypt arid Libya from the fennel. Amber

is, they say, the crystallized sap of plants. And for a proof, see the

bits of straws and little insects which have been caught in the sap

while still liquid and imprisoned there. In one word, no one without

long experience could find terms to express the virtue of it. How,

again, does this water become wine in the vine, and oil in the olive

tree? Yet what is marvellous is, not to see it become sweet in one

fruit, fat and unctuous in another, but to see in sweet fruits an

inexpressible variety of flavour. There is one sweetness of the grape,

another of the apple, another of the fig, another of the date. I shall

willingly give you the gratification of continuing this research. How

is it that this same water has sometimes a sweet taste, softened by

its remaining in certain plants, and at other times stings the palate

because it has become acid by passing through others? How is it,

again, that it attains extreme bitterness, and makes the mouth rough

when it is found in wormwood and in scammony? That it has in

acorns and dogwood a sharp and rough flavour? That in the

turpentine tree and the walnut tree it is changed into a soft and oily

matter?

9. But what need is there to continue. when in the same fig tree we

have the most opposite flavours, as bitter in the sap as it is sweet in

the fruit? And in the vine, is it not as sweet in the grapes as it is

astringent in the branches? And what a variety of colour! Look how

in a meadow this same water becomes red in one flower, purple in

another, blue in this one, white in that. And this diversity of colours,

is it to be compared to that of scents? But I perceive that an

insatiable curiosity is drawing out my discourse beyond its limits. If I

do not stop and recall it to the law of creation, day will fail me whilst

making you see great wisdom in small things.

"Let the earth bring forth the fruit tree yielding fruit." Immediately the

tops of the mountains were covered with foliage: paradises were

artfully laid out, and an infinitude of plants embellished the banks of

the rivers. Some were for the adornment of man's table; some to

nourish animals with their fruits and their leaves; some to provide

medicinal help by giving us their sap, their juice, their chips, their

bark or their fruit. In a word, the experience of ages, profiting from

every chance, has not been able to discover anything useful, which

the penetrating foresight of the Creator did not first perceive and call

into existence. Therefore, when you see the trees in our gardens, or

those of the forest, those which love the water or the land, those

which bear flowers, or those which do not flower, I should like to see

you recognising grandeur even in small objects, adding incessantly

to your admiration of, and redoubling your love for the Creator. Ask

yourself why He has made some trees evergreen and others

deciduous; why, among the first, some lose their leaves, and others

always keep them. Thus the olive and the pine shed their leaves,

although they renew them insensibly and never appear to be

despoiled of their verdure. The palm tree, on the contrary, from its

birth to its death, is always adorned with the same foliage. Think

again of the double life of the tamarisk; it is an aquatic plant, and yet

it covers the desert. Thus, Jeremiah compares it to the worst of

characters -- the double character.

10. "Let the earth bring forth." This short command was in a moment

a vast nature, an elaborate system. Swifter than thought it produced

the countless qualities of plants. It is this command which, still at

this day, is imposed on the earth, and in the course of each year

displays all the strength of its power to produce herbs, seeds and

trees. Like tops, which after the first impulse, continue their

evolutions, turning upon themselves when once fixed in their centre;

thus nature, receiving the impulse of this first command, follows

without interruption the course of ages, until the consummation of

all things. Let us all hasten to attain to it, full of fruit and of good

works; and thus, planted in the house of the Lord we shall flourish in

the court of our God, in our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and

power for ever and ever. Amen.

HOMILY VI. THE CREATION OF LUMINOUS BODIES.

1. AT the shows in the circus the spectator must join in the efforts of

the athletes. This the laws of the show indicate, for they prescribe

that all should have the head uncovered when present at the

stadium. The object of this, in my opinion, is that each one there

should not only be a spectator of the athletes, but be, in a certain

measure, a true athlete himself. Thus, to investigate the great and

prodigious show of creation, to understand supreme and ineffable

wisdom, you must bring personal light for the contemplation of the

wonders which I spread before your eyes, and help me, according to

your power, in this struggle, where you are not so much judges as

fellow combatants, for fear lest the truth might escape you, and lest

my error might turn to your common prejudice. Why these words? It

is because we propose to study the world as a whole, and to

consider the universe not by the light of worldly wisdom, but by that

with which God wills to enlighten His servant, when He speaks to

him in person and without enigmas. It is because it is absolutely

necessary that all lovers of great and grand shows should bring a

mind well prepared to study them. If sometimes, on a bright night,

whilst gazing with watchful eyes on the inexpressible beauty of the

stars, you have thought of the Creator of all things; if you have

asked yourself who it is that has dotted heaven with such flowers,

and why visible things are even more useful than beautiful; if

sometimes, in the day, you have studied the marvels of light, if you

have raised yourself by visible things to the invisible Being, then you

are a well prepared auditor, and you can take your

place in this august and blessed amphitheatre. Come in the same

way that any one not knowing a town is taken by the hand and led

through it; thus I am going to lead you, like strangers, through the

mysterious marvels of this great city of the universe. Our first

country was in this great city, whence the murderous daemon whose

enticements seduced man to slavery expelled us. There you will see

man's first origin and his immediate seizure by death, brought forth

by sin, the first born of the evil spirit. You will know that you are

formed of earth, but the work of God's hands; much weaker than the

brute, but ordained to command beings without reason and soul;

inferior as regards natural advantages, but, thanks to the privilege of

reason, capable of raising yourself to heaven. If we are penetrated by

these truths, we shall know ourselves, we shall know God, we shall

adore our Creator, we shall serve our Master, we shall glorify our

Father, we shall love our Sustainer, we shall bless our Benefactor,

we shall not cease to honour the Prince of present and future life,

Who, by the riches that He showers upon us in this world, makes us

believe in His promises and uses present good things to strengthen

our expectation of the future. Truly, if such are the good things of

time, what will be those of eternity? If such is the beauty of visible

things, what shall we think of invisible

things? If the grandeur of heaven exceeds the measure of human

intelligence, what mind shall be able to trace the nature of the

everlasting? If the sun, subject to corruption, is so beautiful, so

grand. so rapid in its move-meat, so invariable in its course; if its

grandeur is in such perfect harmony with and due proportion to the

universe: if, by the beauty of its nature, it shines like a brilliant eye in

the middle of creation; if finally, one cannot tire of contemplating it,

what will be the beauty of the Sun of Righteousness? If the blind

man suffers from not seeing the material sun, what a deprivation is it

for the sinner not to enjoy the true light l

2. "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven

to give light upon the earth, and to divide the day from the night."

Heaven and earth were the first; after them was created light; the day

had been distinguished from the night, then had appeared the

firmament and the dry element. The water had been gathered into the

reservoir assigned to it, the earth displayed its productions, it had

caused many kinds of herbs to germinate and it was adorned with all

kinds of plants. However, the sun and the moon did not yet exist, in

order that those who live in ignorance of God may not consider the

sun as the origin and the father of light, or as the maker of all that

grows out of the earth. That is why there was a fourth day, and then

God said: "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven."

When once you have learnt Who spoke, think immediately of the

hearer. God said, "Let there be lights . . . and God made two great

lights." Who spoke? and Who made? Do you not see a double

person? Everywhere, in mystic language, history is sown with the

dogmas of theology.

The motive follows which caused the lights to be created. It was to

illuminate the earth. Already light was created; why therefore say

that the sun was created to give light? And, first, do not laugh at the

strangeness of this expression. We do not follow your nicety about

words, and we trouble ourselves but little to give them a harmonious

turn. Our writers do not amuse

themselves by polishing their periods, and everywhere we prefer

clearness of words to sonorous expressions. See then if by this

expression "to light up," the sacred writer sufficiently made his

thought understood. He has put "to give light" instead of"

illumination." Now there is nothing here contradictory to what has

been said of light. Then the actual nature of light was produced: now

the sun's body is constructed to be a vehicle for that original light. A

lamp is not fire. Fire has the property of illuminating, and we have

invented the lamp to light us in darkness. In the same way, the

luminous bodies have been fashioned as a vehicle for that pure,

clear, and immaterial light. The Apostle speaks to us of certain lights

which shine in the world without being confounded with the true

light of the world, the possession of which made the saints

luminaries of the souls which they instructed and drew from the

darkness of ignorance. This is why the Creator of all things, made

the sun in addition to that glorious light, and placed it shining in the

heavens.

3. And let no one suppose it to be a thing incredible that the

brightness of the light is one thing, and the body which is its

material vehicle is another. First, in all composite things, we

distinguish substance susceptible of quality, and the quality which it

receives. The nature of whiteness is one thing, another is that of the

body which is whitened; thus the natures differ which we have just

seen reunited by the power of the Creator. And do not tell me that it

is impossible to separate them. Even I do not pretend to be able to

separate light from the body of the sun; but I maintain that that which

we separate in thought, may be separated in reality by the Creator of

nature. You cannot, moreover, separate the brightness of fire from

the virtue of burning which it possesses; but God, who wished to

attract His servant by a wonderful sight, set a fire in the burning

bush, which displayed all the brilliancy of flame while its devouring

property was dormant. It is that which the Psalmist affirms in saying

"The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire." Thus, in the

requital which awaits us after this life, a mysterious voice seems to

tell us that the double nature of fire will be divided; the just will enjoy

its light, and the torment of its heat will be the torture of the wicked.

In the revolutions of the moon we find a new proof of what we have

advanced. When it stops and grows less it does not consume itself

in all its body, but in the measure that it deposits or absorbs the light

which surrounds it, it presents to us the image of its decrease or of

its increase. If we wish an evident proof that the moon does not

consume its body whet, at rest, we have only to open our eyes. If you

look at it in a cloudless and clear sky, you observe, when it has

taken the complete form of a crescent, that the part, which is dark

and not lighted up, describes a circle equal to that which the full

moon forms. Thus the eye can take in the whole circle, if it adds to

the illuminated part this obscure and dark curve. And do not tell me

that the light of the moon is borrowed, diminishing or increasing in

proportion as it approaches or recedes from the sun. That is not now

the object of our research; we only wish to prove that its body differs

from the light which makes it shine. I wish you to have the same idea

of the sun; except however that the one, after having once received

light and having mixed it with its substance, does not lay it down

again, whilst the other, turn by turn, putting off and reclothing itself

again with light, proves by that which takes place in itself what we

have said of the sun.

The sun and moon thus received the command to divide the day

from the night. God had already separated light from darkness; then

He placed their natures in opposition, so that they could not mingle,

and that there could never be anything in common between

darkness and light. You see what a shadow is during the day; that is

precisely the nature of darkness during the night. If, at the

appearance of a light, the shadow always falls on the opposite side;

if in the morning it extends towards the setting sun; if in the evening

it inclines towards the rising sun, and at mid-day turns towards the

north; night retires into the regions opposed to the rays of the sun,

since it is by nature only the shadow of the earth. Because, in the

same way that, daring the day, shadow is produced by a body which

intercepts the light, night comes naturally when the air which

surrounds the earth is in shadow. And this is precisely what

Scripture says, "God divided the light from the darkness." Thus

darkness fled at the approach of light, the two being at their first

creation divided by a natural antipathy. Now God commanded the

sun to measure the day, and the moon, whenever she rounds her

disc, to rule the night. For then these two luminaries are almost

diametrically opposed; when the sun rises, the full moon disappears

from the horizon, to re-appear in the east at the moment the sun

sets. It matters little to our subject if in other phases the light of the

moon does not correspond exactly with night. It is none the less

true, that when at its perfection it makes the stars to turn pale and

lightens up the earth with the splendour of its light, it reigns over the

night, and in concert with the sun divides the duration of it in equal

parts.

4. "And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and

years." The signs which the luminaries give are necessary to human

life. In fact what useful observations will long experience make us

discover, if we ask without undue curiosity! What signs of rain, of

drought, or of the rising of the wind, partial or general, violent or

moderate Our Lord indicates to us one of the signs given by the sun

when He says, "It will be foul weather to-day; for the sky is red and

lowering." In fact, when the sun rises through a fog, its rays are

darkened, but the disc appears burning like a coal and of a bloody

red colour. It is the thickness of the air which causes this

appearance; as the rays of the sun do not disperse such amassed

and condensed air, it cannot certainly be retained by the waves of

vapour which exhale from the earth, and it will cause from

superabundance of moisture a storm in the countries over which it

accumulates. In the same way, when the moon is surrounded with

moisture, or when the sun is encircled with what is called a halo, it is

the sign of heavy rain or of a violent storm; again, in the same way, if

mock suns accompany the sun in its course they foretell certain

celestial phenomena. Finally, those straight lines, like the colours of

the rainbow, which are seen on the clouds, announce rain,

extraordinary tempests, or, in one word, a complete change in the

weather.

Those who devote themselves to the observation of these bodies

find signs in the different phases of the moon, as if the air, by which

the earth is enveloped, were obliged to vary to correspond with its

change of form. Towards the third day of the new moon, if it is sharp

and clear, it is a sign of fixed fine weather. If its horns appear thick

and reddish it threatens us either with heavy rain or with a gale from

the South. Who does not know how useful are these signs in

life? Thanks to them, the sailor keeps back his vessel in the harbour,

foreseeing the perils with which the winds threaten him, and the

traveller beforehand takes shelter from harm, waiting until the

weather has become fairer. Thanks to them, husbandmen, busy with

sowing seed or cultivating plants, are able to know which seasons

are favourable to their labours. Further, the Lord has announced to

us that at the dissolution of the universe, signs will appear in the

sun, in the moon and in the stars. The sun shall be turned into blood

and the moon shall not give her light, signs of the consummation of

all things.

5. But those who overstep the borders, making the words of

Scripture their apology for the art of casting nativities, pretend that

our lives depend upon the motion of the heavenly bodies, and that

thus the Chaldaeans read in the planets that which will happen to us.

By these very simple words "let them be for signs," they understand

neither the variations of the weather, nor the change of seasons;

they only see in them, at the will of their imagination, the distribution

of human destinies. What do they say in reality? When the planets

cross in the signs of the Zodiac, certain figures formed by their

meeting give birth to certain destinies, and others produce different

destinies.

Perhaps for clearness sake it is not useless to enter into more detail

about this vain science. I will say nothing of my own to refute them; I

will use their words, bringing a remedy for the infected, and for

others a preservative from falling. The inventors of astrology seeing

that in the extent of time many signs escaped them, divided it and

enclosed each part in narrow limits, as if in the least and shortest

interval, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, to speak with the

Apostle, the greatest difference should be found between one birth

and another. Such an one is born in this moment; he will be a prince

over cities and will govern the people,

in the fulness of riches and power. Another is born the instant after;

he will be poor, miserable, and will wander daily from door to door

begging his bread. Consequently they divide the Zodiac into twelve

parts, and, as the sun takes thirty days to traverse each of the twelve

divisions of this unerring circle, they divide them into thirty more.

Each of them forms sixty new ones, and these last are again divided

into sixty. Let us see then if, in determining the birth of an infant, it

will be possible to observe this rigorous division of time. The child is

born. The nurse ascertains the sex; then she awaits the wail which is

a sign of its life. Until then how many moments have passed do you

think? The nurse announces the birth of the child to the Chaldaean:

how many minutes would you count before she opens her mouth,

especially if he who records the hour is outside the women's

apartments? And we know that he who consults the dial, ought,

whether by day or by night, to mark the hour with the most precise

exactitude. What a swarm of seconds passes during this time! For

the planet of nativity ought to be found, not only in one of the twelve

divisions of the Zodiac, and even in one of its first subdivisions, but

again in one of the sixtieth parts which divide this last, and even, to

arrive at the exact truth, in one of the sixtieth subdivisions that this

contains in its turn. And to obtain such minute knowledge, so

impossible to grasp from this moment, each planet must be

questioned to find its position as regards the signs of the Zodiac and

the figures that the planets form at the moment of the child's birth.

Thus, if it is impossible to find exactly the hour of birth, and if the

least change can upset all, then both those who give themselves up

to this imaginary science and those who listen to them openmouthed,

as if they could learn from them the future, are supremely

ridiculous.

6. But what effects are produced? Such an one will have curly hair

and bright eyes, because he is born under the Ram; such is the

appearance of a ram. He will have noble feelings; because the Ram

is born to command. He will be liberal and fertile in resources,

because this animal gets rid of its fleece without trouble, and nature

immediately hastens to reclothe it. Another is born under the Bull: he

will be enured to hardship and of a slavish character, because the

bull bows under the yoke. Another is born under the Scorpion; like

to this venomous reptile he will be a striker. He who is born under

the Balance will be just, thanks to the justness of our balances. Is

not this the height of folly? This Ram, from whence you draw the

nativity of man, is the twelfth part of the heaven, and in entering into

it the sun reaches the spring. The Balance and the Bull are likewise

twelfth parts of the Zodiac. How can you see there the principal

causes which influence the life of man? And why do you take

animals to characterize the manners of men who enter this world?

He who is born under the Ram will be liberal, not because this part of

heaven gives this characteristic, but because such is the nature of

the beast. Why then should we frighten ourselves by the names of

these stars and undertake to persuade ourselves with these

bleatings? If heaven has different characteristics derived from these

animals, it is then itself subject to external influences since its

causes depend on the brutes who graze in our fields. A ridiculous

assertion; but how much more ridiculous the pretence of arriving at

the influence on each other of things which have not the least

connexion! This pretended science is a true spider's web; if a gnat or

a fly, or some insect equally feeble falls into it it is held entangled; if

a stronger animal approaches, it passes through without trouble,

carrying the weak tissue away with it.

7. They do not, however, stop here; even our acts, where each one

feels his will ruling, I mean, the practice of virtue or of vice, depend,

according to them, on the influence of celestial bodies. It would be

ridiculous seriously to refute such an error, but, as it holds a great

many in its nets, perhaps it is better not to pass it over in silence. I

would first ask them if the figures which the stars describe do not

change a thousand times a day. In the perpetual motion of planets,

some meet in a more rapid course, others make slower revolutions,

and often in an hour we see them look at each other and then hide

themselves. Now, at the hour of birth, it is very important whether

one is looked upon by a beneficent star or by an evil one, to speak

their language. Often then the astrologers do not seize the moment

when a good star shows itself, and, on account of having let this

fugitive moment escape, they enrol the newborn under the influence

of a bad genius. I am compelled to use their own words. What

madness! But, above all, what impiety! For the evil stars throw the

blame of their wickedness upon Him Who trade them. If evil is

inherent in their nature, the

Creator is the author of evil. If they make it themselves, they are

animals endowed with the power of choice, whose acts will be free

and voluntary. Is it not the height of folly to tell these lies about

beings without souls? Again, what a want of sense does it show to

distribute good and evil without regard to personal merit; to say that

a star is beneficent because it occupies a certain place; that it

becomes evil, because it is viewed by another star; and that if it

moves ever so little from this figure it loses its malign influence.

But let us pass on. If, at every instant of duration, the stars vary their

figures, then in these thousand changes, many times a day, there

ought to be reproduced the configuration of royal births. Why then

does not every day see the birth of a king? Why is there a

succession on the throne from father to son? Without doubt there

has never been a king who has taken measures to have his son born

under the star of royalty. For what man possesses such a power?

How then did Uzziah beget Jotham, Jotham Ahaz, Ahaz Hezekiah?

And by what chance did the birth of none of them happen in an hour

of slavery? If the origin of our virtues and of our vices is not in

ourselves, but is the fatal consequence of our birth, it is useless for

legislators to prescribe for us what we ought to do, and what we

ought to avoid; it is useless for judges to honour virtue and to

punish vice. The guilt is not in the robber, not in the assassin: it was

willed for him; it was impossible for him to hold back his hand, urged

to evil by inevitable necessity. Those who laboriously cultivate the

arts are the maddest of men. The labourer will make an abundant

harvest without sowing seed and without sharpening his sickle.

Whether he wishes it or not, the merchant will make his fortune, and

will be flooded with riches by fate. As for us Christians, we shall see

our great hopes vanish, since from the moment that man does not

act with freedom, there is neither reward for justice, nor punishment

for sin. Under the reign of necessity and of fatality there is no place

for merit, the first condition of all righteous judgment. But let us

stop. You who are sound in yourselves have no need to hear more,

and time does not allow us to make attacks without limit against

these unhappy men.

8. Let its return to the words which follow. "Let them be for signs and

for seasons and for days and years." We have spoken about signs.

By times, we understand the succession of seasons, winter, spring,

summer and autumn, which we see follow each other in so regular a

course, thanks to the regularity of the movement of the luminaries. It

is winter when the sun sojourns in the south and produces in

abundance the shades of night in our region. The air spread over the

earth is chilly, and the damp exhalations, which gather over our

heads, give rise to rains, to frosts, to innumerable flakes of snow.

When, returning from the southern regions, the sun is in the middle

of the heavens and divides day and night into equal parts, the more

it sojourns above the earth the more it brings back a mild

temperature to us. Then comes spring, which makes all the plants

germinate, and gives to the greater part of the trees their new life,

and, by successive generation, perpetuates all the land and water

animals. From thence the sun, returning to the summer solstice, in

the direction of the North, gives us the longest days. And, as it

travels farther in the air, it burns that which is over our heads, dries

up the earth, ripens the grains and hastens the maturity of the fruits

of the trees. At the epoch 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. Thus the longest days are those when the

shadows are shortest, in the same way that the shortest days are

those when the shadows are longest. It is this which happens to all

of us "Hetero-skii" (shadowed-on-one-side) who inhabit the northern

regions of the earth. But there are people who, two days in the year,

are completely without shade at mid-day, because the sun, being

perpendicularly over their heads, lights them so equally from all

sides, that it could through a narrow opening shine at the bottom of

a well. Thus there are some who call them "askii" (shadowless). For

those who live beyond the land of spices 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 are given the name of

"amphiskii," (shadowed-on-bothsides).

All these phenomena happen whilst the sun is passing into

northern regions: they give us an idea of the heat thrown on the air,

by the rays of the sun and of the effects that they produce. Next we

pass to autumn, which breaks up the excessive heat, lessening the

warmth little by little, and by a moderate temperature brings us back

without suffering to winter, to the time when the sun returns from the

northern regions to the southern. It is thus that seasons, following

the course of the sun, succeed each other to rule our life

"Let them be for days" says Scripture, not to produce them but to

rule them; because day and night tire older than the creation of the

luminaries and it is this that the psalm declares to us. "The sun to

rule 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 horizon than it drives away darkness and

brings us day. Thus we might, without self deception, define day as

air lighted by the sun, or as the space of time that the sun passes in

our hemisphere. The functions of the sun and moon serve further to

mark years. The moon, after having twelve times run her course,

forms a 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. As to the solar year, it is the time

that the sun, having started from a certain sign, takes to return to it

in its normal progress.

9. "And God made two great lights " The word "great," if, for example

we say it of the heaven of the earth or of the sea, may have an

absolute sense; but ordinarily it has only a relative meaning, as a

great horse, or a great ox. It is not that these animals are of an

immoderate size, but that in comparison with their like they deserve

the title of great. What idea shall we ourselves form here of

greatness? Shall it be the idea that we have of it in the ant and in all

the little creatures of nature, which we call great in comparison with

those like themselves, and to show their superiority over them? Or

shall we predicate greatness of the luminaries, as of the natural

greatness inherent in them? As for me, I think so. If the sun and

moon are great, it is not in comparison with the smaller stars, but

because they have such a circumference that the splendour which

they diffuse lights up the heavens and the air, embracing at the same

time earth and sea. In whatever part of heaven they may be, whether

rising, or setting, or in mid heaven, they appear always the same in

the eyes of men, a manifest proof of their prodigious size. For the

whole extent of heaven cannot make them appear greater in one

place and smaller in another. Objects which we see afar off appear

dwarfed to our eyes, and in measure as they approach us we can

form a juster idea of their size. But there is no one who can be nearer

or more distant from the sun. All the inhabitants of the earth see it at

the same distance. Indians and Britons see it of the same size. The

people of the East do not see it decrease in magnitude when it sets;

those of the West do not find it smaller when it rises. If it is in the

middle of the heavens it does not vary in either aspect. Do not be

deceived by mere appearance, and because it looks a cubit's

breadth, imagine it to be no bigger. At a very great distance objects

always lose size in our eyes; sight, not being able to clear the

intermediary space, is as it were exhausted in the middle of its

coarse, and only a small part of it reaches the visible object. Our

power of sight is small and makes all we see seem small, affecting

what it sees by its own condition. Thus, then, if sight is mistaken its

testimony is fallible. Recall your own impressions and you will find

in yourself the proof of my words. If you bare ever from the top of a

high mountain looked at a large and level plain, how big did the

yokes of oxen appear to you? How big were the ploughmen

themselves? Did they not look like ants? If from the top of a

commanding rock, looking over the wide sea, you cast your eyes

over the vast extent how big did the greatest islands appear to

you? How large did one of those barks of great tonnage, which

unfurl their white sails to the blue sea, appear to you. Did it not look

smaller than a dove? It is because sight, as I have just told you,

loses itself in the air, becomes weak and cannot seize with

exactness the object which it sees. And further: your sight shows

you high mountains intersected by valleys as rounded and smooth,

because it reaches only to the salient parts, and is not able, on

account of its weakness, to penetrate into the valleys which separate

them. It does not even preserve the form of objects, and thinks that

all square towers are round. Thus all proves that at a great distance

sight only presents to us obscure and confused objects. The

luminary is then great, according to the witness of Scripture, and

infinitely greater than it appears.

10. See again another evident proof of its greatness. Although the

heaven may be full of stars without number, the light contributed by

them all could not disperse the gloom of night. The sun alone, from

the time that it appeared on the horizon, while it was still expected

and had not yet risen completely above the earth, dispersed the

darkness, outshone the stars, dissolved and diffused the air, which

was hitherto thick and condensed over our heads, and produced

thus the morning breeze and the dew which in fine weather streams

over the earth. Could the earth with such a wide extent be lighted up

entirely in one moment if an immense disc were not pouring forth its

light over it? Recognise here the wisdom of the Artificer. See how He

made the heat of the sun proportionate to this distance. Its heat is so

regulated that it neither consumes the earth by excess, nor lets it

grow cold and sterile by defect.

To all this the properties of the moon are near akin; she, too, has an

immense body, whose splendour only yields to that of the sun. Our

eyes, however, do not always see her in her full size. Now she

presents a perfectly rounded disc, now when diminished and

lessened she shows a deficiency on one side. When waxing she is

shadowed on one side, and when she is waning another side is

hidden. Now it is not without a secret reason of the divine Maker of

the universe, that the moon appears from time to time under such

different forms. It presents a striking example of our nature. Nothing

is stable in man; here from nothingness he raises himself to

perfection; there after having hasted to put forth his strength to

attain his full greatness he suddenly is subject to gradual

deterioration, and is destroyed by diminution. Thus, the sight of the

moon, making us think of the rapid vicissitudes of human things,

ought to teach us not to pride ourselves on the good things of this

life, and not to glory in our power, not to be carried away by

uncertain riches, to despise our flesh which is subject to change,

and to take care of the soul, for its good is unmoved. If you cannot

behold without sadness the moon losing its splendour by gradual

and imperceptible decrease, how much more distressed should you

be at the sight of a soul, who, after having possessed virtue, loses

its beauty by neglect, and does not remain constant to its affections,

but is agitated and constantly changes because its purposes are

unstable. What Scripture says is very true, "As for a fool he changeth

as the moon."

I believe also that the variations of the moon do not take place

without exerting great influence upon the organization of animals

and of all living things. This is because bodies are differently

disposed at its waxing and waning. When she wanes they lose their

density and become void. When she waxes and is approaching her

fulness they appear to fill themselves at the same time with her,

thanks to an imperceptible moisture that she emits mixed with heat,

which penetrates everywhere. For proof, see how those who sleep

under the moon feel abundant moisture filling their heads; see how

fresh meat is quickly turned under the action of the moon; see the

brain of animals, the moistest part of marine animals, the pith of

trees. Evidently the moon must be, as Scripture says, of enormous

size and power to make all nature thus participate in her changes.

11. On its variations depends also the condition of the air, as is

proved by sudden disturbances

which often come after the new moon, in the midst of a

calm and of a stillness in the winds, to agitate the clouds and to hurl

them against each other; as the flux and reflux in straits, and the ebb

and flow of the ocean prove, so that those who live on its shores see

it regularly following the revolutions of the moon. The waters of

straits approach and retreat from one shore to the other during the

different phases of the moon; but, when she is new, they have not an

instant of rest, and move in perpetual swaying to and fro, until the

moon, reappearing, regulates their reflux. As to the Western sea, we

see it in its ebb and flow now return into its bed, and now overflow,

as the moon draws it back by her respiration and then, by her

expiration, urges it to its own boundaries.

I have entered into these details, to show you the grandeur of the

luminaries, and to make you see that, in the inspired words, there is

not one idle syllable. And yet my sermon has scarcely touched on

any important point; there are many other discoveries about the size

and distance of the sun and 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. Let me then ingenuously make an avowal of my

weakness, for fear that you should measure the mighty works of the

Creator by my words. The little that I have said ought the rather to

make you conjecture the marvels on which I have omitted to dwell.

We must not then measure the moon with the eye, but with the

reason. Reason, for the discovery of truth, is much surer than the

eye.

Everywhere ridiculous old women's tales, imagined in the delirium of

drunkenness, have been circulated; such as that enchantmeats can

remove the moon from its place and make it descend to the earth.

How could a magician's charm shake that of which the Most High

has laid the foundations? And if once torn out what place could hold

it?

Do you wish from slight indications to have a proof of the moon's

size? All the towns in the world, however distant from each other,

equally receive the light from the moon in those streets that are

turned towards its rising If she did not look on all face to face, those

only would be entirely lighted up which were exactly opposite; as to

those beyond the extremities of her disc, they would only receive

diverted and oblique rays. It is this effect which the light of lamps

produces in houses; if a lamp is surrounded by several persons,

only the shadow of the person who is directly opposite to it is cast in

a straight line, the others follow inclined lines on each side. In the

same way, if the body of the moon were not of an immense and

prodigious size she could not extend herself alike to all. In reality,

when the moon rises in the equinoctial regions, all equally enjoy her

light, both those who inhabit the icy zone, under the revolutions of

the Bear, and those who dwell in the extreme south in the

neighbourhood of the torrid zone. She gives us an idea of her size by

appearing to be face to face with all people. Who then can deny the

immensity of a body which divides itself equally over such a wide

extent?

But enough on the greatness of the sun and moon. May He Who has

given us intelligence to recognise in the smallest objects of creation

the great wisdom of the Contriver make us find in great bodies a still

higher idea of their Creator. However, compared with their Author,

the sun and moon are but a fly and an ant. The 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 help of the

smallest insects and of the least plants, that we raise ourselves to

Him. Content with these words let us offer our thanks, I to Him who

has given me the ministry of the Word, you to Him who feeds you

with spiritual food; Who, even at this moment, makes you find in my

weak voice the strength of barley bread. May He feed you for ever,

and in proportion to your faith grant you the manifestation of the

Spirit in Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever

and ever. Amen.

HOMILY VII. THE CREATION OF MOVING CREATURES.

1. "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving

creature that hath life" after their kind, "and fowl that may fly above

the earth" after their kind. After the creation of the luminaries the

waters are now filled with living beings and its own adornment is

given to this part of the world. Earth had received hers from her own

plants, the heavens had received the flowers of the stars, and, like

two eyes, the great luminaries beautified them in concert. It still

retained for the waters to receive their adornment. The command

was given, and immediately the rivers and lakes becoming fruitful

brought forth their natural broods; the sea travailed with all kinds of

swimming creatures; not even in mud and marshes did the water

remain idle; it took its part in creation. Everywhere from its ebullition

frogs, gnats and flies came forth. For that which we see to-day is the

sign of the past. Thus everywhere the water hastened to obey the

Creator's command. Who could count the species which the great

and ineffable power of God caused to be suddenly seen living and

moving, when this command had empowered the waters to bring

forth life? Let the waters bring forth moving creatures that have life.

Then for the first time is made a being with life and feeling. For

though plants and trees be said to live, seeing that they share the

power of being nourished and growing; nevertheless they are neither

living beings, nor have they life. To create these last God said, "Let

the water produce moving creatures."

Every creature that swims, whether it skims on the surface of the

waters, or cleaves the depths, is of the nature of a moving creature,

since it drags itself on the body of the water. Certain aquatic animals

have feet and walk; especially amphibia, such as seals, crabs,

crocodiles, river horses and frogs; but they are above all gifted with

the power of swimming. Thus it is said, Let the waters produce

moving creatures. In these few words what species is omitted?

Which is not included in the command of the Creator? Do we not see

viviparous animals, seals, dolphins, rays and all cartilaginous

animals? Do we not see oviparous animals comprising every sort of

fish, those which have a skin and those which have scales, those

which have fins and those which have not? This command has only

required one word, even less than a word, a sign, a motion of the

divine will, and it has such a wide sense that it includes all the

varieties and all the families of fish. To review them all would be to

undertake to count the waves of the ocean or to measure its waters

in the hollow of the hand. "Let the waters produce moving

creatures." That is to say, those which people the high seas and

those which love the shores; those which inhabit the depths and

those which attach themselves to rocks; those which are gregarious

and those which live dispersed, the cetaceous, the huge, and the

tiny. It is from the same power, the same command, that all, small

and great receive their existence. "Let the waters bring forth." These

words show you the natural affinity of animals which swim in the

water; thus, fish, when drawn out of the water, quickly die, because

they have no respiration such as could attract our air and water is

their element, as air is that of terrestrial animals. The reason for it is

clear. With us the lung, that porous and spongy portion of the inward

parts which receives air by the dilatation of the chest, disperses and

cools interior warmth; in fish the motion of the gills, which open and

shut by turns to take in and to eject the water, takes the place of

respiration. Fish have a peculiar lot, a special nature, a nourishment

of their own, a life apart. Thus they cannot be tamed and cannot bear

the touch of a man's hand.

2. "Let the waters bring forth moving creatures after their kind." God

caused to be born the firstlings of each species to serve as seeds for

nature. Their multitudinous numbers are kept up in subsequent

succession, when it is necessary for them to grow and multiply. Of

another kind is the species of testacea, as muscles, scallops, sea

snails, conches, and the infinite variety of oysters. Another kind is

that of the crustacea, as crabs and lobsters; another of fish without

shells, with soft and tender flesh, like polypi and cuttle fish. And

amidst these last what an innumerable variety! There are weevers,

lampreys and eels, produced in the mud of rivers and ponds, which

more resemble venomous reptiles than fish in their nature. Of

another kind is the species of the ovipara; of another, that of the

vivipara. Among the latter are sword-fish, cod, in one word, all

cartilaginous fish, and even the greater part of the cetacea, as

dolphins, seals, which, it is said, if they see their little ones, still

quite young, frightened, take them back into their belly to protect

them.

Let the waters bring forth after kind. The species of the cetacean is

one; another is that of small fish. What infinite variety in the different

kinds! All have their own names, different food, different form,

shape, and quality of flesh. All present infinite variety, and are

divided into innumerable classes. Is there a tunny fisher who can

enumerate to us the different varieties of that fish? And yet they tell

us that at the sight of great swarms of fish they can almost tell the

number of the individual ones which compose it. What man is there

of all that have spent their long lives by coasts and shores, who can

inform us with exactness of the history of all fish?

Some are known to the fishermen of the Indian ocean, others to the

toilers of the Egyptian gulf, others to the islanders, others to the men

of Mauretania. Great and small were all alike created by this first

command by this ineffable power. What a difference in their food!

What a variety in the manner in which each species reproduces

itself! Most fish do not hatch eggs like birds; they do not build nests;

they do not feed their young with toil; it is the water which receives

and vivifies the egg dropped into it. With them the reproduction of

each species is invariable, and natures are not mixed. There are

none of those unions which, on the earth, produce mules and certain

birds contrary to the nature of their species. With fish there is no

variety which, like the ox and the sheep, is armed with a halfequipment

of teeth, none which ruminates except, according to

certain writers, the scar. All have serried and very sharp teeth, for

fear their food should escape them if they masticate it for too long a

time. In fact, if it were not crushed and swallowed as soon as

divided, it would be carried away by the water.

3. The food of fish differs according to their species. Some feed on

mud; others eat sea weed; others content themselves with the herbs

that grow in water. But the greater part devour each other, and the

smaller is food for the larger, and if one which has possessed itself

of a fish weaker than itself becomes a prey to another, the conqueror

and the conquered are both swallowed up in the belly of the last.

And we mortals, do we act otherwise when we press our inferiors?

What difference is there between the last fish and the man who,

impelled by devouring greed, swallows the weak in the folds of his

insatiable avarice? Yon fellow possessed the goods of the poor; you

caught him and made him a part of your abundance. You have

shown yourself more unjust than the unjust, and more miserly than

the miser. Look to it lest you end like the fish, by hook, by weel, or

by net. Surely we too, when we have done the deeds of the wicked,

shall not escape punishment at the last.

Now see what tricks, what cunning, are to be found in a weak animal,

and learn not to imitate wicked doers. The crab loves the flesh of the

oyster; but, sheltered by its shell, a solid rampart with which nature

has furnished its soft and delicate flesh, it is a difficult prey to seize.

Thus they call the oyster "sherd-hide." Thanks to the two shells with

which it is enveloped, and which adapt themselves perfectly the one

to the other, the claws of the crab are quite powerless. What does he

do? When he sees it, sheltered from the wind, warming itself with

pleasure, and half opening its shells to the sun, he secretly throws in

a pebble, prevents them from closing, and takes by cunning what

force had lost. Such is the malice of these animals, deprived as they

are of reason and of speech. But I would that you should at once

rival the crab in cunning and industry, and abstain from harming

your neighbour; this animal is the image of him who craftily

approaches his brother, takes advantage of his neighbour's

misfortunes, and finds his delight in other men's troubles. O copy

not the damned! Content yourself with your own lot. Poverty, with

what is necessary, is of more value in the eyes of the wise than all

pleasures.

I will not pass in silence the cunning and trickery of the squid, which

takes the colour of the rock to which it attaches itself. Most fish

swim idly up to the squid as they might to a rock, and become

themselves the prey of the crafty creature. Such are men who court

ruling powers, bending themselves to all circumstances and not

remaining for a moment in the same purpose; who praise selfrestraint

in the company of the self-restrained, and license in that of

the licentious, accommodating their feelings to the pleasure of each.

It is difficult to escape them and to put ourselves on guard against

their mischief; because it is trader the mask of friendship that they

hide their clever wickedness. Men like this are ravening wolves

covered with sheep's clothing, as the Lord calls them. Flee then

fickleness and pliability; seek truth, sincerity, simplicity. The serpent

is shifty; so he has been condemned to crawl. The just is an honest

man, like Job. Wherefore God setteth the solitary in families. So is

this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable,

both small and great beasts. Yet a wise and marvellous order reigns

among these animals. Fish do not always deserve our reproaches;

often they offer us useful examples. How is it that each sort of fish,

content with the region that has been assigned to it, never travels

over its own limits to pass into foreign seas? No surveyor has ever

distributed to them their habitations, nor enclosed them in walls, nor

assigned limits to them; each kind has been naturally assigned its

own home. One gulf nourishes one kind of fish, another other sorts;

those which swarm here are absent elsewhere. No mountain raises

its sharp peaks between them; no rivers bar the passage to them; it

is a law of nature, which according to the needs of each kind, has

allotted to them their dwelling places with equality and justice.

4. It is not thus with us. Why? Because we incessantly move the

ancient landmarks which our fathers have set. We encroach, we add

house to house, field to field, to enrich ourselves at the expense of

our neighbour. The great fish know the sojourning place that nature

has assigned to them; they occupy the sea far from the haunts of

men, where no islands lie, and where are no continents rising to

confront them, because it has never been crossed and neither

curiosity nor need has persuaded sailors to tempt it. The monsters

that dwell in this sea are in size like high mountains, so witnesses

who have seen tell us, and never cross their boundaries to ravage

islands and seaboard towns. Thus each kind is as if it were stationed

in towns, in villages, in an ancient country, and has for its dwelling

place the regions of the sea which have been assigned to it.

Instances have, however, been known of migratory fish, who, as if

common deliberation transported them into strange regions, all start

on their march at a given sign. When the time marked for breeding

arrives, they, as if awakened by a common law of nature, migrate

from gulf to gulf, directing their course toward the North Sea. And at

the epoch of their return you may see all these fish streaming like a

torrent across the Propontis towards the Euxine Sea. Who puts them

in marching array? Where is the prince's order? Has an edict affixed

in the public place indicated to them their day of departure? Who

serves them as a guide? See how the divine order embraces all and

extends to the smallest object. A fish does not resist God's law, and

we men cannot endure His precepts of salvation! Do not despise fish

because they are dumb and quite unreasoning; rather fear lest, in

your resistance to the disposition of the Creator, you have even less

reason than they. Listen to the fish, who by their actions all but

speak and say: it is for the perpetuation of our race that we

undertake this long voyage.

They have not the gift of reason, but they have the law of nature

firmly seated within them, to show them what they have to do. Let us

go, they say, to the North Sea. Its water is sweeter than that of the

rest of the sea; for the sun does not remain long there, and its rays

do not draw up all the drinkable portions. Even sea creatures love

fresh watery TIres one often sees them enter into rivers and swim far

up them from the sea. This is the reason which makes them prefer

the Euxine Sea to other gulfs, as the most fit for breeding and for

bringing up their young. When they have obtained their object the

whole tribe returns home. Let us hear these dumb creatures tell us

the reason. The Northern sea, they say, is shallow and its surface is

exposed to the violence of the wind, and it has few shores and

retreats. Thus the winds easily agitate it to its bottom and mingle the

sands of its bed with its waves. Besides, it is cold in winter, filled as

it is from all directions by large rivers. Wherefore after a moderate

enjoyment of its waters, during the summer, when the winter comes

they hasten to reach warmer depths and places heated by the sun,

and after fleeing froth the stormy tracts of the North, they seek a

haven in less agitated seas.

5. I myself have seen these marvels, and I have admired the wisdom

of God in all things, If beings deprived of reason are capable of

thinking and of providing for their own preservation; if a fish knows

what it ought to seek and what to shun, what shall we say, who are

honoured with reason. instructed by law, encouraged by the

promises, made wise by the Spirit, and are nevertheless less

reasonable about our own affairs than the fish? They know how to

provide for the future, but we renounce our hope of the future and

spend our life in brutal indulgence. A fish traverses the extent of the

sea to find what is good for it; what will you say then--you who live in

idleness, the mother of all vices? Do not let any one make his

ignorance an excuse. There has been implanted in us natural reason

which tells us to identify ourselves with good, and to avoid all that is

harmful. I need not go far from the sea to find examples, as that is

the object of our researches. I have heard it said by one living near

the sea, that the sea urchin, a little contemptible creature, often

foretells calm and tempest to sailors. When it foresees a disturbance

of the winds, it gets under a great pebble, and clinging to it as to an

anchor, it tosses about in safety, retained by the weight which

prevents it from becoming the plaything of the waves. It is a certain

sign for sailors that they are threatened with a violent agitation of the

winds. No astrologer, no Chaldaean, reading in the rising of the stars

the disturbances of the air, has ever communicated his secret to the

urchin: it is the Lord of the sea and of the winds who has impressed

on this little animal a manifest proof of His great wisdom. God has

foreseen all, He has neglected nothing. His eye, which never sleeps,

watches over all. He is present everywhere and gives to each being

the means of preservation. If God has not left the sea urchin outside

His providence, is He without care for you?

"Husbands love your wives." Although formed of two bodies you are

united to live in the communion of wedlock. May this natural link,

may this yoke imposed by the blessing, reunite those who are

divided. The viper, the cruelest of reptiles, unites itself with the sea

lamprey, and, announcing its presence by a hiss, it calls it from the

depths to conjugal union. The lamprey obeys, and is united to this

venomous animal. What does this mean? However hard, however

fierce a husband may be, the wife ought to hear with him, and not

wish to find any pretext for breaking the union. He strikes you, but

he is your husband. He is a drunkard, but he is united to you by

nature. He is brutal and cross, but he is henceforth one of your

members, and the most precious of all.

6. Let husbands listen as well: here is a lesson for them. The viper

vomits forth its venom in respect for marriage; and you, will you not

put aside the barbarity and the inhumanity of your soul, out of

respect for your union? Perhaps the example of the viper contains

another meaning. The union of the viper and of the lamprey is an

adulterous violation of nature. You, who are plotting against other

men's wedlock, learn what creeping creature you are like. I have only

one object, to make all I say turn to the edification of the Church. Let

then libertines put a restraint on their passions, for they are taught

by the examples set by creatures of earth and sea.

My bodily infirmity and the lateness of the hour force me to end my

discourse. However, I have still many observations to make on the

products of the sea, for the admiration of my attentive audience. To

speak of the sea itself, how does its water change into salt? How is it

that coral, a stone so much esteemed, is a plant in the midst of the

sea, and when once exposed to the air becomes hard as a rock?

Why has nature enclosed in the meanest of animals, in an oyster, so

precious an object as a pearl? For these pearls, which are coveted

by the caskets of kings, are cast upon the shores, upon the coasts,

upon sharp rocks, and enclosed in oyster shells. How can the sea

pinna produce her fleece of gold, which no dye has ever imitated?

How can shells give kings purple of a brilliancy not surpassed by the

flowers of the field?

"Let the waters bring forth." What necessary object was there that

did not immediately appear? What object of luxury was not given to

man? Some to supply his needs, some to make him contemplate the

marvels of creation. Some are terrible, so as to take oar idleness to

school. "God created great whales." Scripture gives them the name

of "great" not because they are greater than a shrimp and a sprat,

but because the size of their bodies equals that of great hills. Thus

when they swim on the surface of the waters one often sees them

appear like islands. But these monstrous creatures do not frequent

our coasts and shores; they inhabit the Atlantic ocean. Such are

these animals created to strike us with terror and awe. If now you

hear say that the greatest vessels, sailing with full sails, are easily

stopped by a very small fish, by the remora, and so forcibly that the

ship remains motionless for a long time, as if it had taken root in the

middle of the sea, do you not see in this little creature a like proof of

the power of the Creator? Sword fish, saw fish, dog fish, whales, and

sharks, are not therefore the only things to be dreaded; we have to

fear no less the spike of the stingray even after its death, and the seahare,

whose mortal blows are as rapid as they are inevitable. Thus

the Creator wishes that all may keep you awake, so that full of hope

in Him you may avoid the evils with which all these creatures

threaten you.

But let us come out of the depths of the sea and take refuge upon the

shore. For the marvels of creation, coming one after the other in

constant succession like the waves, have submerged my discourse.

However, I should not be surprised if, after finding greater wonders

upon the earth, my spirit seeks like Jonah's to flee to the sea. But it

seems to me, that meeting with these innumerable marvels has made

me forget all measure, and experience the fate of those who navigate

the high seas without a fixed point to mark their progress, anti are

often ignorant of the space which they have traversed. This is what

has happened to me; whilst my words glanced at creation, I have not

been sensible of the multitude of beings of which I spoke to you. But

although this honourable assembly is pleased by my speech, and

the recital of the marvels of the Master is grateful to the ears of His

servants, let me here bring the ship of my discourse to anchor, and

await the day to deliver you the rest. Let us, therefore, all arise, and,

giving thanks for what has been said, let us ask for strength to hear

the rest. Whilst taking your food may the conversation at your table

turn upon what has occupied us this morning and this evening.

Filled with these thoughts may you, even in sleep, enjoy the pleasure

of the day, so that you may be permitted to say, "I sleep but my heart

waketh," meditating day and night upon the law of the Lord, to

Whom be glory and power world without end. Amen.

HOMILY VIII.

THE CREATION OF FOWL AND WATER ANIMALS.

1. And God said "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his

kind, cattle and creeping things, and beast of the earth after his kind;

and it was so." The command of God advanced step by step and

earth thus received her adornment.

Yesterday it was said, "Let the waters produce moving things," and

to-day "let the earth bring forth the living creature." Is the earth then

alive? And are the mad-minded Manichaeans right in giving it a

soul? At these words "Let the earth bring forth," it did not produce a

germ contained in it, but He who gave the order at the same time

gifted it with the grace and power to bring forth. When the earth had

heard this command "Let the earth bring forth grass and the tree

yielding fruit," it was not grass that it had hidden in it that it caused

to spring forth, it did not bring to the surface a palm tree, an oak, a

cypress, hitherto kept back in its depths. It is the word of God which

forms the nature of things created. "Let the earth bring forth;" that is

to say not that she may bring forth that which she has but that she

may acquire that which she lacks, when God gives her the power.

Even so now, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature," not the

living creature that is contained in herself, but that which the

command of God gives her. Further, the Manichaeans contradict

themselves, because if the earth has brought forth the life, she has

left herself despoiled of life. Their execrable doctrine needs no

demonstration.

But why did the waters receive the command to bring forth the

moving creature that hath life and the earth to bring forth the living

creature? We conclude that, by their nature, swimming creatures

appear only to have an imperfect life, because they live in the thick

element of water. They are hard of hearing, and their sight is dull

because they see through the water; they have no memory, no

imagination, no idea of social intercourse. Thus divine language

appears to indicate that, in aquatic animals, the carnal life originates

their psychic movements, whilst in terrestrial animals, gifted with a

more perfect life, the soul enjoys supreme authority. In fact the

greater part of quadrupeds have more power of penetration in their

senses; their apprehension of present objects is keen, and they keep

all exact remembrance of the past. It seems therefore, that God, after

the command given to the waters to bring forth moving creatures

that have life, created simply living bodies for aquatic animals, whilst

for terrestrial animals He commanded the soul to exist and to direct

the body, showing thus that the inhabitants of the earth are gifted

with greater vital force. Without doubt terrestrial animals are devoid

of reason. At the same tithe how many affections of the soul each

one of them expresses by the voice of nature! They express by cries

their joy and sadness, recognition of what is familiar to them, the

need of food, regret at being separated from their companions, and

numberless emotions. Aquatic animals, on the contrary, are not only

dumb; it is impossible to tame them, to teach them, to train them for

man's society. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's

crib." But the fish does not know who feeds him. The ass knows a

familiar voice, he knows the road which he has often trodden, and

even, if man loses his way, he sometimes serves him as a guide. His

hearing is more acute than that of any other terrestrial animal. What

animal of the sea can show so much rancour and resentment as the

camel? The camel conceals its resentment for a long time after it has

been struck, until it finds an opportunity, and then repays the wrong.

Listen, you whose heart does not pardon, you who practise

vengeance as a virtue; see what you resemble when you keep your

anger for so long against your neighbour like a spark, hidden in the

ashes, and only waiting for fuel to set your heart ablaze!

2. "Let the earth bring forth a living soul." Why did the earth produce

a living soul? so that you may make a difference between the soul of

cattle and that of man. You will soon learn how the human soul was

formed; hear now about the soul of creatures devoid of reason.

Since, according to Scripture, "the life of every creature is in the

blood," as the blood when thickened changes into flesh, and flesh

when corrupted decomposes into earth, so the soul of beasts is

naturally an earthy substance. "Let the earth bring forth a living

soul." See the affinity of the soul with blood, of blood with flesh,of

flesh with earth; and remounting in an inverse sense from the earth

to the flesh, from the flesh to the blood, from the blood to the soul,

you will find that the soul of beasts is earth. Do not suppose that it is

older than the essence of their body, nor that it survives the

dissolution of the flesh; avoid the nonsense of those arrogant

philosophers who do not blush to liken their soul to that of a dog;

who say that they have been formerly themselves women, shrubs,

fish. Have they ever been fish? I do not know; but I do not fear to

affirm that in their writings they show less sense than fish. "Let the

earth bring forth the living creature." Perhaps many of you ask why

there is such a long silence in the middle of the rapid rush of my

discourse. The more studious among my auditors will not be

ignorant of the reason why words fail me. What! Have I not seen

them look at each other, and make signs to make me look at them,

and to remind me of what I have passed over? I have forgotten a part

of the creation, and that one of the most considerable, and my

discourse was almost finished without touching upon it. "Let the

waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and

fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament, of heaven." I

spoke of fish as long as eventide allowed: to-day we have passed to

the examination of terrestrial animals; between the two, birds have

escaped us. We are forgetful like travellers who unmindful of some

important object, are obliged, although they be far on their road, to

retrace their steps, punished for their negligence by the weariness of

the journey. So we have to turn back. That which we have omitted is

not to be despised. It is the third part of the animal creation, if indeed

there are three kinds of animals, land, winged and water.

"Let the waters" it is said "bring forth abundantly moving creature

that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open

firmament of heaven." Why do the waters give birth also to birds?

Because there is, so to say, a family link between the creatures that

fly and those that swim. In the same way that fish cut the waters,

using their fins to carry them forward and their tails to direct their

movements round and round and straightforward, so we see birds

float in the air by the help of their wings. Both endowed with the

property of swimming, their common derivation from the waters has

made them of one family. At the same time no bird is without feet,

because finding all its food upon the earth it cannot do without their

service. Rapacious birds have pointed claws to enable them to close

on their prey; to the rest has been given the indispensable ministry

of feet to seek their food and to provide for the other needs of life.

There are a few who walk badly, whose feet are neither suitable for

walking nor for preying. Among this number are swallows, incapable

of walking and seeking their prey, and the birds called swifts who

live on little insects carried about by the air. As to the swallow, its

flight, which grazes the earth, fulfils the function of feet.

3. There are also innumerable kinds of birds. If we review them all, as

we have partly done the fish, we shall find that under one name, the

creatures which fly differ infinitely in size, form and colour; that in

their life, their actions and their manners, they present a variety

equally beyond the power of description. Thus some have tried to

imagine names for them of which the singularity and the

strangeness might, like brands, mark the distinctive character of

each kind known. Some, as eagles, have been called Schizoptera,

others Dermoptera, as the bats, others Ptilota, as wasps, others

Coleoptera, as beetles and all those insects which brought forth in

cases and coverings, break their prison to fly away in liberty. But we

have enough words of common usage to characterise each species

and to mark the distinction which Scripture sets up between clean

and unclean birds. Thus the species of carnivora is of one sort and

of one constitution which suits their manner of living, sharp talons,

curved beak, swift wings, allowing them to swoop easily upon their

prey and to tear it up after having seized it. The constitution of those

who pick up seeds is different, and again that of those who live on all

they come across. What a variety in all these creatures! Some are

gregarious, except the birds of prey who know no other society than

conjugal union; but innumerable kinds, doves, cranes, starlings,

jackdaws, like a common life. Among them some live without a chief

and in a sort of independence; others, as cranes, do not refuse to

submit themselves to a leader. And a fresh difference between them

is that some are stationary and non-migratory; others undertake long

voyages and the greater part of them, migrate at the approach of

winter. Nearly all birds can be tamed and are capable of training,

except the weakest, who through fear and timidity cannot bear the

constant and annoying contact of the hand. Some like the society of

man and inhabit our dwellings; others delight in mountains and in

desert places. There is a great difference too in their peculiar notes.

Some twitter and chatter, others are silent, some have a melodious

and sonorous voice, some are wholly inharmonious and incapable of

song; some imitate the voice of many taught their mimicry either by

nature or training; others always give forth the same monotonous

cry. The cock is proud; the peacock is vain of his beauty; doves and

fowls are amorous, always seeking each other's society. The

partridge is deceitful and jealous, lending perfidious help to the

huntsmen to seize their prey.

4. What a variety, I have said, in the actions and lives of flying

creatures. Some of these unreasoning creatures even have a

government, if the feature of government is to make the activity of all

the individuals centre in one common end. This may be observed in

bees. They have a common dwelling place; they fly in the air

together, they work at the same work together; and what is still more

extraordinary is that they give themselves to these labours under the

guidance of a king and superintendent, and that they do not allow

themselves to fly to the meadows without seeing if the king is flying

at their head. As to this king, it is not election that gives him this

authority; ignorance on the part of the people often puts the worst

man in power; it is not fate; the blind decisions of fate often give

authority to the most unworthy. It is not heredity that places him on

the throne; it is only too common to see the children of kings,

corrupted by luxury and flattery, living in ignorance of all virtue. It is

nature which makes the king of the bees, for nature gives him

superior size, beauty, and sweetness of character. He has a sting like

the others, but he does not use it to revenge himself. It is a principle

of natural and unwritten law, that those who are raised to high office,

ought to be lenient in punishing. Even bees who do not follow the

example of their king, repent without delay of their imprudence,

since they lose their lives with their sting. Listen, Christians, you to

whom it is forbidden to "recompense evil for evil" and commanded

"to overcome evil with good." Take the bee for your model, which

constructs its cells without injuring any one and without interfering

with the goods of others. It gathers openly wax from the flowers with

its mouth, drawing in the honey scattered over them like dew, and

injects it into the hollow of its cells. Thus at first honey is liquid; time

thickens it and gives it its sweetness. The book of Proverbs has

given the bee the most honourable and the best praise by calling her

wise and industrious. How much activity she exerts in gathering this

precious nourishment, by which both kings and men of low degree

are brought to health! How great is the art and cunning she displays

in the construction of the store houses which are destined to receive

the honey! After having spread the wax like a thin membrane, she

distributes it in contiguous compartments which, weak though they

are, by their number and by their mass, sustain the whole edifice.

Each cell in fact holds to the one next to it, and is separated by a thin

partition; we thus see two or three galleries of cells built one upon

the other. The bee takes care not to make one vast cavity, for fear it

might break trader the weight of the liquid, and allow it to escape.

See how the discoveries of geometry are mere by-works to the wise

bee!

The rows of honey-comb are all hexagonal with equal sides. They do

not bear on each other in straight lines, lest the supports should

press on empty spaces between and give way; but the angles of the

lower hexagons serve as foundations and bases to those which rise

above, so as to furnish a sure support to the lower mass, and so that

each cell may securely keep the liquid honey.

5. How shall we make an exact review of all the peculiarities of the

life of birds? During the night cranes keep watch in turn; some sleep,

others make the rounds and procure a quiet slumber for their

companions. After having finished his duty, the sentry utters a cry,

and goes to sleep, and the one who awakes, in his turn, repays the

security which he has enjoyed. You will see the same order reign in

their flight. One leads the way, and when it has guided the flight of

the flock for a certain time, it passes to the rear, leaving to the one

who comes after the care of directing the march.

The conduct of storks comes very near intelligent reason. In these

regions the same season sees them all migrate. They all start at one

given signal. And it seems to me that our crows, serving them as

escort. go to bring them back, and to help them against the attacks

of hostile birds. The proof is that in this season not a single crow

appears, and that they return with wounds, evident marks of the help

and of the assistance that they have lent. Who has explained to them

the laws of hospitality? Who has threatened them with the penalties

of desertion? For not one is missing from the company. Listen, all

inhospitable hearts, ye who shut your doors, whose house is never

open either in the winter or in the night to travellers. The solicitude

of storks for their old would be sufficient, if our children would

reflect upon it, to make them love their parents; because there is no

one so failing in good sense, as not to deem it a shame to be

surpassed in virtue by birds devoid of reason. The storks surround

their father, when old age makes his feathers drop off, warm him

with their wings, and provide abundantly for his support, and even in

their flight they help him as much as they are able, raising him gently

on each side upon their wings, a conduct so notorious that it has

given to gratitude the name of "antipelargosis." Let no one lament

poverty; let not the man whose house is bare despair of his life,

when he considers the industry of the swallow. To build her nest,

she brings bits of straw in her beak; and, as she cannot raise the

mud in her claws, she moistens the end of her wings in water and

then rolls in very fine dust and thus procures mud. After having

united, little by little, the bits of straw with this mud, as with glue, she

feeds her young; and if any one of them has its eyes injured, she has

a natural remedy to heal the sight of her little ones.

This sight ought to warn you not to take to evil ways on account of

poverty; and, even if you are reduced to the last extremity, not to

lose all hope; not to abandon yourself to inaction and idleness, but

to have recourse to God. If He is so bountiful to the swallow, what

will He not do for those who call upon Him with all their heart?

The halcyon is a sea bird, which lays its eggs along the shore, or

deposits them in the sand. And it lays in the middle of winter, when

the violence of the winds dashes the sea against the land. Yet all

winds are hushed, and the wave of the sea grows calm, during the

seven days that the halcyon sits.

For it only takes seven days to hatch the young. Then, as they are in

need of food so that they may grow, God, in His munificence, grants

another seven days to this tiny animal. All sailors know this, and call

these days halcyon days. If divine Providence has established these

marvellous laws in favour of creatures devoid of reason, it is to

induce you to ask for your salvation from God. Is there a wonder

which He will not perform for you--you have been made in His image,

when for so little a bird, the great, the fearful sea is held in check and

is commanded in the midst of winter to be calm.

6. It is said that the turtle-dove, once separated from her mate, does

not contract a new union, but remains in widowhood, in

remembrance of her first alliance. Listen, O women! What veneration

for widowhood, even in these creatures devoid of reason, how they

prefer it to an unbecoming multiplicity of marriages. The eagle

shows the greatest injustice in the education which she gives to her

young. When she has hatched two little ones, she throws one on the

ground, thrusting it out with blows from her wings, and only

acknowledges the remaining one. It is the difficulty of finding food

which has made her repulse the offspring she has brought forth. But

the osprey, it is said, will not allow it to perish, she carries it away

and brings it up with her young ones. Such are parents who, finder

the plea of poverty, expose their children such are again those who,

in the distribution of their inheritance, make unequal divisions. Since

they have given existence equally to each of their children, it is just

that they should equally and without preference furnish them with

the means of livelihood. Beware of imitating the cruelty of birds with

hooked talons. When they see their young are from henceforth

capable of encountering the air in their flight, they throw them out of

the nest, striking them and pushing them with their wings, and do

not take the least care of them. The love of the crow for its young is

laudable! When they begin to fly, she follows them, gives them food,

and for a very long time provides for their nourishment. Many birds

have no need of union with males to conceive. But their eggs are

unfruitful, except those of vultures, who more often, it is said, bring

forth without coupling: and this although they have a very long life,

which often reaches its hundredth year. Note and retain, I pray you,

this point in the history of birds; and if ever you see any one laugh at

our mystery, as if it were impossible and contrary to nature that a

virgin should become a mother without losing the purity of her

virginity, bethink you that He who would save the faithful by the

foolishness of preaching, has given us beforehand in nature a

thousand reasons for believing in the marvellous.

7. "Let the waters bring forth the moving creatures that have life, and

fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of

heaven." They received the command to fly above the earth because

earth provides them with nourishment. "In the firmament of heaven,"

that is to say, as we have said before, in that part of the air called

ouranos, heaven, from the word oran</

greek>, which means to see; called firmament, because the air which

extends over our heads, compared to the aether, has greater density,

and is thickened by the vapours which exhale from the earth. You

have then heaven adorned, earth beautified, the sea peopled with its

own creatures, the air filled with birds which scour it in every

direction. Studious listener, think of all these creations which God

has drawn out of nothing, think of all those which my speech has left

out, to avoid tediousness, and not to exceed my limits; recognise

everywhere the wisdom of God; never cease to wonder, and,

through, every creature, to glorify the Creator.

There are some kinds of birds which live by night in the midst of

darkness; others which fly by day in fall light. Bats, owls, nightravens

are birds of night: if by chance you cannot sleep, reflect on

these nocturnal birds and their peculiarities and glorify their Maker.

How is it that the nightingale is always awake when sitting on her

eggs, passing the night in a continual melody? How is it that one

animal, the bat, is at the same time quadruped and fowl? That it is

the only one of the birds to have teeth? That it is viviparous like

quadrupeds, and traverses the air, raising itself not upon wings, but

upon a kind of membrane? What natural love bats have for each

other! How they interlace like a chain and hang the one upon the

other! A very rare spectacle among men, who flit the greater part

prefer individual and private life to the union of common life. Have

not those who give themselves up to vain science the eyes of owls?

The sight of the owl, piercing during the night time, is dazzled by the

splendour of the sun; thus the intelligence of these men, so keen to

contemplate vanities, is blind in presence of the true light.

During the day, also, how easy it is for you to admire the Creator

everywhere! See how the domestic cock calls you to work with his

shrill cry, and how, forerunner of the sun, and early as the traveller,

he sends forth labourers to the harvest! What vigilance in geese!

With what sagacity they divine secret dangers! Did they not once

upon a time save the imperial city? When enemies were advancing

by subterranean passages to possess themselves of the capitol of

Rome, did not geese announce the danger? Is there any kind of bird

whose nature offers nothing for our admiration? Who announces to

the vultures that there will be carnage when men march in battle

array against one another? You may see flocks of vultures following

armies and calculating the result of warlike preparations; a

calculation very nearly approaching to human reasoning. How can I

describe to you the fearful invasions of locusts, which rise

everywhere at a given signal, and pitch their camps all over a

country? They do not attack crops until they have received the

divine command. Or shall I describe how the remedy for this curse,

the thrush, follows them with its insatiable appetite, and the

devouring nature that the loving God has given it in His kindness for

men? How does the grasshopper modulate its song? Why is it more

melodious at midday owing to the air that it breathes in dilating its

chest?

But it appears to me that in wishing to describe the marvels of

winged creatures, I remain further behind than I should if my feet had

tried to match the rapidity of their flight. When you see bees, wasps,

in short all those flying creatures called insects, because they have

an incision all around reflect that they have neither respiration nor

lungs, and that they are supported by air through all parts of their

bodies. Thus they perish. if they are covered with oil, because it

stops up their pores. Wash them with vinegar, the pores reopen and

the animal returns to life. Our God has created nothing

unnecessarily and has omitted nothing that is necessary. If now you

cast your eyes upon aquatic creatures, you will find that their

organization is quite different. Their feet are not split like those of the

crow, nor hooked like those of the carnivora, but large and

membraneous; therefore they can easily swim, pushing the water

with the membranes of their feet as with oars. Notice how the swan

plunges his neck into the depths of the water to draw his food from

it, and you will understand the wisdom of the Creator in giving this

creature a neck longer than his feet, so that he may throw it like a

line, and take the food hidden at the bottom of the water.

8. If we simply read the words of Scripture we find only a few short

syllables. "Let the waters bring forth fowl that may fly above the

earth in the open firmament of heaven," but if we enquire into the

meaning of these words, then the great wonder of the wisdom of the

Creator appears. What a difference He has foreseen among winged

creatures! How He has divided them by kinds! How He has

characterized each one of them by distinct qualities! But the day will

not suffice me to recount the wonders of the air. Earth is calling me

to describe wild beasts, reptiles and cattle, ready to show us in her

turn sights rivalling those of plants, fish, and birds. "Let the earth

bring forth the living soul" of domestic animals, of wild beasts, and

of reptiles after their kind. What have you to say, you who do not

believe in the change that Paul promises you in the resurrection,

when you see so many metamorphoses among creatures of the air?

What are we not told of the horned worm of India! First it changes

into a caterpillar, then becomes a buzzing insect, and not content

with this form, it clothes itself, instead of wings, with loose, broad

plates. Thus, O women, when you are seated busy with your

weaving, I mean of the silk which is sent you by the Chinese to make

your delicate dresses, remember the metamorphoses of this

creature, conceive a clear idea of the resurrection, and do not refuse

to believe in the change that Paul announces for all men.

But I am ashamed to see that my discourse oversteps the

accustomed limits; if I consider the abundance of matters on which I

have just discoursed to you, I feel that I am being borne beyond

bounds; but when I reflect upon the inexhaustible wisdom which is

displayed in the works of creation, I seem to be but at the beginning

of my story. Nevertheless, I have not detained you so long without

profit. For what would you have done until the evening? You are not

pressed by guests, nor expected at banquets. Let me then employ

this bodily fast to rejoice your souls. You have often served the flesh

for pleasure, to-day persevere in the ministry of the soul. "Delight

thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desire of thine

heart." Do you love riches? Here are spiritual riches. "The judgments

of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are

they than gold and precious stones." Do you love enjoyment and

pleasures? Behold the oracles of the Lord, which, for a healthy soul,

are "sweeter than honey and the honey-comb." If I let you go, and if I

dismiss this assembly, some will run to the dice, where they will find

bad language, sad quarrels and the pangs of avarice. There stands

the devil, inflaming the fury of the players with the dotted bones,

transporting the same sums of money from one side of the table to

the other, now exalting one with victory and throwing the other into

despair, now swelling the first with boasting and covering his rival

with confusion. Of what use is bodily fasting and filling the soul with

innumerable evils? He who does not play spends his leisure

elsewhere. What frivolities come from his mouth! What follies strike

his ears Leisure without the fear of the Lord is, for those who do not

know the value of time a school of vice. I hope that my words will be

profitable; at least by occupying you here they have prevented you

from sinning. Thus the longer I keep you, the longer you are out of

the way of evil.

An equitable judge will deem that I have said enough, not if he

considers the riches of creation, but if he thinks of our weakness

and of the measure one ought to keep in that which tends to

pleasure. Earth has welcomed you with its own plants, water with its

fish, air with its birds; the continent in its turn is ready to offer you

as rich treasures. But let us put an end to this morning banquet, for

fear satiety may blunt your taste for the evening one. May He who

has filled all with the works of His creation and has left everywhere

visible memorials of His wonders, fill your hearts with all spiritual

joys in Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom belong glory and power,

world without end. Amen.

HOMILY IX. THE CREATION OF TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS.

1. How did you like the fare of my morning's discourse? It seemed to

me that I had the good intentions of a poor giver of a feast, who,

ambitious of having the credit of keeping a good table saddens his

guests by the poor supply of the more expensive dishes. In vain he

lavishly covers his table with his mean fare; his ambition only shows

his folly. It is for you to judge if I have shared the same fate. Yet,

whatever my discourse may have been, take care lest you disregard

it. No one refused to sit at the table of Elisha; and yet he only gave

his friends wild vegetables. I know the laws of allegory, though less

by myself than from the works of others. There are those truly, who

do not admit the common sense of the Scriptures, for whom water is

not water, but some other nature, who see in a plant, in a fish, what

their fancy wishes, who change the nature of reptiles and of wild

beasts to suit their allegories, like the interpreters of dreams who

explain visions in sleep to snake them serve their own ends. For me

grass is grass; plant, fish, wild beast, domestic animal, I take all in

the literal sense. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel." Those who

have written about the nature of the universe have discussed at

length the shape of the earth. If it be spherical or cylindrical, if it

resemble a disc and is equally rounded in all parts, or if it has the

forth of a winnowing basket and is hollow in the middle; all these

conjectures have been suggested by cosmographers, each one

upsetting that of his predecessor. It will not lead me to give less

importance to the creation of the universe, that the servant of God,

Moses, is silent as to shapes; he has not said that the earth is a

hundred and eighty thousand furlongs in circumference; he has not

measured into what extent of air its shadow projects itself whilst the

sun revolves around it, nor stated how this shadow, casting itself

upon the moon, produces eclipses. He has passed over in silence,

as useless, all that is unimportant for us. Shall I then prefer foolish

wisdom to the oracles of the Holy Spirit? Shall I not rather exalt Him

who, not wishing to fill our minds with these vanities, has regulated

all the economy of Scripture in view of the edification and the

making perfect of our souls? It is this which those seem to me not to

have understood, who, giving themselves up to the distorted

meaning of allegory, have undertaken to give a majesty of their own

invention to Scripture. It is to believe themselves wiser than the Holy

Spirit, and to bring forth their own ideas under a pretext of exegesis.

Let us hear Scripture as it has been written.

2. "Let the earth bring forth thee living creature." Behold the word of

God pervading creation, beginning even then the efficacy which is

seen displayed to-day, and will be displayed to the end of the world!

As a ball, which one pushes, if it meet a declivity, descends, carried

by its form and the nature of the ground and does not stop until it

has reached a level surface; so nature, once put in motion by the

Divine command, traverses creation with an equal step, through

birth and death, and keeps up the succession of kinds through

resemblance, to the last. Nature always makes a horse succeed to a

horse, a lion to a lion, an eagle to an eagle, and preserving each

animal by these uninterrupted successions she transmits it to the

end of all things. Animals do not see their peculiarities destroyed or

effaced by any length of time; their nature, as though it had been just

constituted, follows the course of ages, for ever young. "Let the

earth bring forth the living creature." This command has continued

and earth does not cease to obey the Creator. For, if there are

creatures which are successively produced by their predecessors,

there are others that even to-day we see born from the earth itself. In

wet weather she brings forth grasshoppers and an immense number

of insects which fly in the air and have no names because they are

so small; she also produces mice and frogs. In the environs of

Thebes in Egypt, after abundant rain in hot weather, the country is

covered with field mice. We see mud alone produce eels; they do not

proceed from an egg, nor in any other manner; it is the earth alone

which gives them birth. Let the earth produce a living creature."

Cattle are terrestrial and bent towards the earth. Man, a celestial

growth, rises superior to them as much by the mould of his bodily

conformation as by the dignity of his soul. What is the form of

quadrupeds? Their head is bent towards the earth and looks towards

their belly, and only pursues their belly's good. Thy head, O man! is

turned towards heaven; thy eyes look up. When therefore thou

degradest thyself by the passions of the flesh, slave of thy belly, and

thy lowest parts, thou approachest animals without reason and

becomest like one of them. Thou art called' to more noble cares;

"seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth." Raise thy

soul above the earth; draw from its natural conformation the rule of

thy conduct; fix thy conversation in heaven. Thy true country is the

heavenly Jerusalem; thy fellow-citizens and thy compatriots are "the

first-born which are written in heaven."

3. "Let the earth bring forth the living creature. Thus when the soul of

brutes appeared it was not concealed in the earth, but it was born by

the command of God. Brutes have one and the same soul of which

the common characteristic is absence of reason. But each animal is

distinguished by peculiar qualities. The ox is steady, the ass is lazy,

the horse has strong passions, the wolf cannot be tamed, the fox is

deceitful, the stag timid, the ant industrious, the dog grateful and

faithful in his friendships. As each animal was created the distinctive

character of his nature appeared in him in due measure; in the lion

spirit, taste for solitary life, an unsociable character. True tyrant of

animals, he, in his natural arrogance, admits but few to share his

honours. He disdains his yesterday's food and never returns to the

remains of the prey. Nature has provided his organs of voice with

such great force that often much swifter animals are caught by his

roaring alone. The panther, violent and impetuous in his leaps, has a

body fitted for his activity and lightness, in accord with the

movements of his soul. The bear has a sluggish nature, ways of its

own, a sly character, and is very secret; therefore it has an

analogous body, heavy, thick, without articulations such as are

necessary for a cold dweller in dens.

When we consider the natural and innate care that these creatures

without reason take of their lives we shall be induced to watch over

ourselves and to think of the salvation of our souls; or rather we

shall be the more condemned when we are found falling short even

of the imitation of brutes. The bear, which often gets severely

wounded, cares for himself and cleverly fills the wounds with

mullein, a plant whose nature is very astringent. You will also see the

fox heal his wounds with droppings from the pine tree; the tortoise,

gorged with the flesh of the viper, finds in the virtue of marjoram a

specific against this venomous animal and the serpent heals sore

eyes by eating fennel.

And is not reasoning intelligence eclipsed by animals in their

provision for atmospheric changes? Do we not see sheep, when

winter is approaching, devouring grass with avidity as if to make

provision for future scarcity? Do we not also see oxen, long confined

in the winter season, recognise the return of spring by a natural

sensation, and look to the end of their stables towards the doors, all

turning their heads there by common consent? Studious observers

have remarked that the hedgehog makes an opening at the two

extremities of his hole. If the wind from the north is going to blow he

shuts up the aperture which looks towards the north; if the south

wind succeeds it the animal passes to the northern door. What

lesson do these animals teach man? They not only show us in our

Creator a care which extends to all beings, but a certain

presentiment of future even in brutes. Then we ought not to attach

ourselves to this present life and ought to give all heed to that which

is to come. Will you not be industrious for yourself, O man? And will

you not lay up in the present age rest in that which is to come, after

having seen the example of the ant? The ant during summer collects

treasures for winter. Far from giving itself up to idleness, before this

season has made it feel its severity, it hastens to work with an

invincible zeal until it has abundantly filled its storehouses. Here

again, how far it is from being negligent! With what wise foresight it

manages so as to keep its provisions as long as possible! With its

pincers it cuts the grains in half, for fear lest they should germinate

and not serve for its food. If they are damp it dries them; and it does

not spread them out in all weathers, but when it feels that the air will

keep of a mild temperature. Be sure that you will never see rain fall

from the clouds so long as the ant has left the grain out.

What language can attain to the marvels of the Creator? What ear

could understand them? And what time would be sufficient to relate

them? Let us say, then, with the prophet, "O Lord, how manifold are

thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all." We shall not be able

to say in self-justification, that we have learnt useful knowledge in

books, since the untaught law of nature makes us choose that which

is advantageous to us. Do you know what good you ought to do your

neighbour? The good that you expect from him yourself. Do you

know what is evil? That which you would not wish another to do to

you. Neither botanical researches nor the experience of simples

have made animals discover those which are useful to them; but

each knows naturally what is salutary and marvellously appropriates

what suits its nature.

4. Virtues exist in us also by nature, and the soul has affinity with

them not by education, but by nature herself. We do not need

lessons to hate illness, but by ourselves we repel what afflicts us,

the soul has no need of a master to teach us to avoid vice. Now all

vice is a sickness of the sold as virtue is its health. Thus those have

defined health well who have called it a regularity in the discharge of

natural functions; a definition that can be applied without fear to the

good condition of the soul. Thus, without having need of lessons,

the soul can attain by herself to what is fit and conformable to

nature. Hence it comes that temperance everywhere is praised,

justice is in honour, courage admired, and prudence the object of all

aims; virtues which concern the soul more than health concerns the

body. Children love your parents, and you, "parents provoke not

your children to wrath." Does not nature say the same? Paul teaches

us nothing new; he only tightens the links of nature. If the lioness

loves her cubs, if the she wolf fights to defend her little ones, what

shall man say who is unfaithful to the precept and violates nature

herself; or the son who insults the old age of his father; or the father

whose second marriage has made him forget his first children?

With animals invincible affection unites parents with children. It is

the Creator, God Himself, who substitutes the strength of feeling for

reason in them. From whence it comes that a lamb as it bounds from

the fold, in the midst of a thousand sheep recognises the colour and

the voice of its mother, runs to her, and seeks its own sources of

milk. If its mother's udders are dry, it is content, and, without

stopping, passes by more abundant ones. And how does the mother

recognise it among the many lambs? All have the same voice, the

same colour, the same smell, as far at least as regards our sense of

smell. Yet there is in these animals a more subtle sense than our

perception which makes them recognise their own. The little dog has

as yet no teeth, nevertheless he defends himself with his mouth

against any one who teases him. The calf has as yet no horns,

nevertheless he already knows where his weapons will grow. Here

we have evident proof that the instinct of animals is innate, and that

in all beings there is nothing disorderly, nothing unforeseen. All bear

the marks of the wisdom of the Creator, and show that they have

come to life with the means of assuring their preservation.

The dog is not gifted with a share of reason; but with him instinct

has the power of reason. The dog has learnt by nature the secret of

elaborate inferences, which sages of the world, after long years of

study, have hardly been able to disentangle. When the dog is on the

track of game, if he sees it divide in different directions, he examines

these different paths, and speech alone fails him to announce his

reasoning. The creature, he says, is gone here or there or in another

direction. It is neither here nor there; it is therefore in the third

direction. And thus, neglecting the false tracks, he discovers the true

one. What more is done by those who, gravely occupied in

demonstrating theories, trace lines upon the dust and reject two

propositions to show that the third is the true one?

Does not the gratitude of the dog shame all who are ungrateful to

their benefactors? Many are said to have fallen dead by their

murdered masters in lonely places. Others, when a crime has just

been committed, have led those who were searching for the

murderers, and have caused the criminals to be brought to justice.

What will those say who, not content with not loving the Master who

has created them and nourished them, have for their friends men

whose mouth attacks the Lord, sitting at the same table with them,

and, whilst partaking of their food, blaspheme Him who has given it

to them?

5. But let us return to the spectacle of creation. The easiest animals

to catch are the most productive. It is on account of this that hares

and wild goats produce many little ones, and that wild sheep have

twins, for fear lest these species should disappear, consumed by

carnivorous animals. Beasts of prey, on the contrary, produce only a

few and a lioness with difficulty gives birth to one lion; because, if

they say truly, the cub issues from its mother by tearing her with its

claws; and vipers are only born by gnawing through the womb,

inflicting a proper punishment on their mother. Thus in nature all has

been foreseen, all is the object of continual care. If you examine the

members even of animals, you will find that the Creator has given

them nothing superfluous, that He has omitted nothing that is

necessary. To carnivorous animals He has given pointed teeth which

their nature requires for their support. Those that are only half

furnished with teeth have received several distinct receptacles for

their food. As it is not broken up enough in the first, they are gifted

with the power of returning it after it has been swallowed, and it does

not assimilate until it has been crushed by rumination. The first,

second, third, and fourth stomachs of ruminating animals do not

remain idle; each one of them fulfils a necessary function. The neck

of the camel is long so that it may lower it to its feet and reach the

grass on which it feeds. Bears, lions, tigers, all animals of this sort,

have short necks buried in their shoulders; it is because they do not

live upon grass and have no need to bend down to the earth; they

are carnivorous and eat the animals upon whom they prey.

Why has the elephant a trunk? This enormous creature, the greatest

of terrestrial animals, created for the terror of those who meet it, is

naturally huge and fleshy. If its neck was large and in proportion to

its feet it would be difficult to direct, and would be of such an

excessive weight that it would make it lean towards the earth. As it

is, its head is attached to the spine of the back by short vertebrae

and it has its trunk to take the place of a neck, and with it it picks up

its food and draws up its drink. Its feet, without joints, like united

columns, support the weight of its body. If it were supported on lax

and flexible legs, its joints would constantly give way, equally

incapable of supporting its weight, should it wish either to kneel or

rise. But it has under the foot a little ankle joint which takes the place

of the leg and knee joints whose mobility would never have resisted

this enormous and swaying mass. Thus it had need of this nose

which nearly touches its feet. Have you seen them in war marching

at the head of the phalanx, like living towers, or breaking the

enemies' battalions like mountains of flesh with their irresistible

charge? If their lower parts were not in accordance with their size

they would never have been able to hold their own. Now we are told

that the elephant lives three hundred years and more, another

reason for him to have solid and unjointed feet. But, as we have said,

his trunk, which has the form and the flexibility of a serpent, takes its

food from the earth and raises it up. Thus we are right in saying that

it is impossible to find anything superfluous or wanting in creation.

Well! God has subdued this monstrous animal to us to such a point

that he understands the lessons and endures the blows we give him;

a manifest proof that the Creator has submitted all to our rule,

because we have been made in His image. It is not in great animals

only that we see unapproachable wisdom; no less wonders are seen

in the smallest. The high tops of the mountains which, near to the

clouds and continually beaten by the winds, keep up a perpetual

winter, do not arouse more admiration in me than the hollow valleys,

which escape the storms of lofty peaks and preserve a constant mild

temperature. In the same way in the constitution of animals I am not

more astonished at the size of the elephant, than at the mouse, who

is feared by the elephant, or at the scorpion's delicate sting, which

has been hollowed like a pipe by the supreme artificer to throw

venom into the wounds it makes. And let nobody accuse the Creator

of having produced venomous animals, destroyers and enemies of

our life. Else let them consider it a crime in the schoolmaster when

he disciplines the restlessness of youth by the use of the rod and

whip to maintain order.

6. Beasts bear witness to the faith. Hast thou confidence in the Lord?

"Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk and thou shalt

trample under feet the lion and the dragon." With faith thou hast the

power to walk upon serpents and scorpions. Do you not see that the

viper which attached itself to the hand of Paul, whilst he gathered

sticks, did not injure him, because it found the saint full of faith? If

you have not faith, do not fear beasts so much as your faithlessness,

which renders you susceptible of all corruption. But I see that for a

long time you have been asking me for an account of the creation of

man, and I think I can hear you all cry in your hearts, We are being

taught the nature of our belongings, but we are ignorant of

ourselves. Let me then speak of it, since it is necessary, and let me

put an end to my hesitation. In truth the most difficult of sciences is

to know one's self. Not only our eye, from which nothing outside us

escapes, cannot see itself; but our mind, so piercing to discover the

sins of others, is slow to recognise its own faults. Thus my speech,

after eagerly investigating what is external to myself, is slow and

hesitating in exploring my own nature. Yet the beholding of heaven

and earth does not make us know God better than the attentive study

of our being does; I am, says the Prophet, fearfully and wonderfully

made; that is to say, in observing myself I have known Thy infinite

wisdom. And God said "Let us make man." Does not the light of

theology shine, in these words, as through windows; and does not

the second Person show Himself in a mystical way, without yet

manifesting Himself until the great day? Where is the Jew who

resisted the truth and pretended that God was speaking to Himself?

It is He who spoke, it is said, and it is He who made. "Let there be

light and there was light." But then their words contain a manifest

absurdity. Where is the smith, the carpenter, the shoemaker, who,

without help and alone before the instruments of his trade, would

say to himself; let us make the sword, let us put together the plough,

let us make the boot? Does he not perform the work of his craft in

silence? Strange folly, to say that any one has seated himself to

command himself, to watch over himself, to constrain himself, to

hurry himself, with the tones of a master! But the unhappy creatures

are not afraid to calumniate the Lord Himself. What will they not say

with a tongue so well practised in lying? Here, however, words stop

their mouth; "And God said let us make man." Tell me; is there then

only one Person? It is not written "Let man be made," but, "Let us

make man." The preaching of theology remains enveloped in shadow

before the appearance of him who was to be instructed, but, now, the

creation of man is expected, that faith unveils herself and the dogma

of truth appears in all its light. "Let us make "O enemy of Christ, man.

O y of hear God speaking to His Co-operator, to Him by Whom also

He made the worlds, Who upholds all things by the word of His

power. But He does not leave the voice of true religion without

answer. Thus the Jews, race hostile to truth, when they find

themselves pressed, act like beasts enraged against man, who roar

at the bars of their cage and show the cruelty and the ferocity of their

nature, without being able to assuage their fury. God, they say,

addresses Himself to several persons; it is to the angels before Him

that He says, "Let us make man." Jewish fiction! a fable whose

frivolity shows whence it has come. To reject one person, they admit

many. To reject the Son, they raise servants to the dignity of

counsellors; they make of our fellow slaves the agents in our

creation. The perfect man attains the dignity of an angel; but what

creature can be like the Creator? Listen to the continuation. "In our

image." What have you to reply? Is there one image of God and the

angels? Father and Son have by absolute necessity the same form,

but the form is here understood as becomes the divine, not in bodily

shape, but in the proper qualities of Godhead. Hear also, you who

belong to the new concision and who, under the appearance of

Christianity, strengthen the error of the Jews. To Whom does He say,

"in our image," to whom if it is not to Him who is "the brightness of

His glory and the express image of His person," "the image of the

invisible God"? It is then to His living image, to Him Who has said "I

and my Father are one," "He that hath seen me hath seen the

Father," that God says "Let us make man in our image." Where is the

unlikeness in these Beings who have only one image? "So God

created man," It is not "They made." Here Scripture avoids the

plurality of the Persons. After having enlightened the Jew, it

dissipates the error of the Gentiles in putting itself under the shelter

of unity, to make you understand that the Son is with the Father, and

guarding you from the danger of polytheism. He created him in the

image of God. God still shows us His co-operator, because He does

not say, in His image, but in the image of God.

If God permits, we will say later in what way man was created in the

image of God, and how he shares this resemblance. Today we say

but only one word. If there is one image, from whence comes the

intolerable blasphemy of pretending that the Son is unlike the

Father? What ingratitude! You have yourself received this likeness

and you refuse it to your Benefactor! You pretend to keep personally

that which is in you a gift of grace, and you do not wish that the Son

should keep His natural likeness to Him who begat Him.

But evening, which long ago sent the sun to the west, imposes

silence upon me. Here, then, let me be content with what I have said,

and put my discourse to bed. I have told you enough up to this point

to excite your zeal; with the help of the Holy Spirit I will make for you

a deeper investigation into the truths which follow. Retire, then, I beg

you, with joy, O Christ-loving congregation, and, instead of

sumptuous dishes of various delicacies, adorn and sanctify your

tables with the remembrance of my words. May the Anomoean be

confounded, the Jew covered with shame, the faithful exultant in the

dogmas of truth, and the Lord glorified, the Lord to Whom be glory

and power, world without end. Amen.