9 fau=sij, the act of giving light, LXX.
10 fwtismo/j. the condition produced by fau=sij.
15 pa/nth ga\r kaqarh= ke ma/l0 eu!dia tekmh/raio, pa/nta d0 e'reuqome/nh doke/ein a'ne/moio keleu/qouj, a!lloqi d0 a$llo melainome/nh doke/ein u\etoi=o. Aratus 70.
Si vero solem ad rapidum lunasque sequentes
Ordine respicies, nunquam te crastina fallet
Hora, nequ insidiis noctis capiere serenae.
17 Basil seems to be confusing Joel ii. 31 and Matt. xxiv. 29.
18 U'pe/r ta\ e'skamme/na ppda=n is a proverbial phrase for going beyond bounds. cf. Lucian., Gall. vi. and Plat., Crat. 413, a.
19 "On doit d'autant plus louer le grand sens de Saint Basilequi s'inspire presqu' entièrement d'Origène et de Plotiu, sans tomber dans leur erreur. En riant toute espèce de relation entre les astres et les actes de l'homme, il conserve intacte notre liberté." Fialon, p. 425. "Quale deinde judicium de hominum factis Deo relinquitur, quibus coelestis necessitas adhibetur cum Dominus ille sit et siderum et hominum. Aut si non dicunt stellas accepta quidam potestate a summo Deo, arbitrio suo ista decernere, sed in talibus necessitatibus ingereudis illius omnino jussa complere, ita ne de ipso Deo sentiendum est, quod indignissimum visum est de stellarum voluntate sentire. Quod si dicuntur stellae significare potius ista quam facere, ut quasi locutio sit quaedam illa positio praedicens futura, non agens (non enim mediocriter doctorum hominum fuit ista sententia) non quidem ita solent loqui mathematici, ut verbi gratia disunt, Mars ita positus homicidam significat, sed homicidam non facit." August., De C. Dei. n. 1.
21 "@Elege de\. . . tou\j no/mouj toi=j a'raxni/oij o 9moi/ouj : kai ga\o e'kei=na e'a\n me\n e'mpe/sh ti kou=fon kai\ a'sqene\j ste/gein, e'a\n de\ mei!zon, diako/yan oi!xesqai. Solon, in Diog. Laert. ii. 1.
23 i.e. throwing a shadow only one way at noon, - said of those who live north and south of the tropics, while those who live in the tropics cast a shadow sometimes north, sometimes south, vide Strabo ii. 5. § 43. It was "incredible" to Herodotus that Necho's Phoenician mariners, in their circumnavigation of Africa, had "the sun on their right hand." Her. iv. 42
24 i.e. Arabia. cf. Lucan., Phars. iii. 247:
Ignotum vobis Arabes venistis in orbem,
Umbras mirati nemorum non ire sinistras.
25 "Simili modo tradunt in Syene oppido, quod est super Alexandriam quinque millibus stadiorum, solstitii die medro nullam umbram faci; puteumque ejus experimenti gratia factum, totum illuminari." Pliny ii. 75. cf. Lucan., Phars. 507, "atque umbras nunquam flectente Syene."
28 The Syrians and Macedonians had also an intercalary thirteenth month to accommodate the lunar to the solar cycle. Solon is credited with the introduction of the system into Greece about 594 b.c. But the Julian calendar improved upon this mode of adjustment.
30 "Tertia ex utroque vastitas solis aperitur, ut non sit necesse amplitudinem ejus oculorum argumentis, atque conjectura aniuri scrutari: immensum esse quia arborum in limitibus porrectarum in quotlibet passuum millia umbras paribus jaciat intervallis, tanquam toto spatio medius: et quia per aequinoctium omnibus in meridiana plaga habitantibus, simul fiat a vertice: ita quia circa solstitialem circulum habitantium meridie ad Septemtroinem umbrae cadant, ortu vero ad occasum. Quae firi nullo modo possent nisi multo quam terra major esset ." Plin. ii. 8.
31 Pla/twn kata\ sunau/geian, tou= me\n e'k tw=n o'fqalmw=n fwto\j e'pi\ poso\n a'por'r 9e/ontoj ei'j to\n o 9mogenh= a'e/ra, tou= de\ a'po\ tou= sw/matoj feromi/nou a'por'r 9ei=n : to\n de/ metacu\ a'e\ra eu/dia/xutou o!nta kai\eu!trepton, sunektei/nontoj tw purw/dei th=j o!yewj, au!th, le/getai platwuikh\ suuau/geia. Plut. peri\ tw=n a'resk. iv. 13. The Platonic theory of night is explained in the Timaeus, Chap. xix.
32 Plato (Phaed. § 133) makes the same comparision. [Eti toi/non, e!fh, pa/mmega/ te ei\nai au'to/ kai\ h 9ma=j oi/kei!n tou\j me/xri 9hraklei/wn sthlw=n a'po\ Fa/sidoj e 9n smikrw tini\ mopi/w w!sper pepi te/lma mu/rmhkaj h$ batra/xouj peri\ th\ n qa/lattan o'ikou=ntaj. Fialon names Seneca (Quaest. Nat. i. praef. 505) and Lucian (Hermotimus v. and Icaromenippus xix.) as following him. To these may be added Celsus "katagelw=n to\ 0Ioudaiwn kai\ Xristianw=n genoj" in Origen, C. Cels iv. 517, B.
34 cf. Alcman (ap. Plut., Sympos. iii. 10) who calls the dew Dio\j quga/thr kai\ Sela/naj; and Plutarch himself in loc. Virg., Georg. iii. 337, ""Roscida Luna", and Statius, Theb. I. 336:
"Iamque per emeriti surgens confinia Phaebi
Titanis, late mundo subvecta silenti
Rorifera gelidum tenuaverat aera biga."
35 The baleful influence of "iracunda Dianna" (Hor., De Art. Poet. 454) is an early belief, not yet extinct. cf. the term selh/niasmo/j for epilepsy, and "lunaticus" for the "moonstruck" madman. Vide Cass., Quaest. Med. xxv. 1. Perowne on Ps. cxxi. 6 notes, "De Wette refers to Andersen's Eastern Travels in proof that this opinion is commonly entertained. Delitzsch mentions having heard from Texas that the consequence of sleeping in the open air, when the moon was shining, was mental aberration, dizziness, and even death."
"Dass auch der Mond in heller Nacht dem ohue gehörigen Schutz Schlafenden schaden köhlen Nächte wegen leicht möglich. Vgl. Carne 'Leben und Sitten im Morgenl.'" Ewald, Dichter des A.B. ii. 266.
36 A fact, however explained. Plutarch (Sympos. Prob. iii. 10) discusses the question Dia\ ti/ ta\ kre/a sh/petai ma=llon u 9po\ th\n selh/nhn h$ to\n h!lion, and refers the decomposition to the moistening influence of the moon. "Air, moisture, and a certain degree of warmth, are necessary to the decay of animal bodies. . . where moisture continues present - even though warmth and air be in a great measure excluded - decay still slowly takes place." J. F. W. Johnston, Chemistry of Common Life, ii. 273.
37 i.e. the Atlantic. cf. Ovid., Met. xi. 258, "Hesperium fretum."
38 Pytheas, of Marseilles, is first named as attributing the tides to the moon. Plut. peri\ a'resk. k.t.l. iii. 17 On the ancient belief generally vide Plin. ii. 99.
39 "Invent jam pridem ration est praenuntians horas, non modo dies ac noctes, Solis Lunaeque defectuum. Durat tamen tradita persuasio in magna parte vulgi, veneficiis et herbis id cogi, emaque num faeminarum scientiam praevalere." Plin. xxv. v. So it was a custom to avert the spells of sorceresses, which might bring the eclipsed moon to the ground, by beating brass and shouting. cf. Juv., Sat. vi. 443,
Tam nemo tubas, nemo oera fatigat,
Una laboranti poterit succurrere lunae,"
and the "aera auxiliaria lunae" of Ov., Met. iv. 333.
3 Plants are neither zw=a nor e!myuxa.
5 Basil uses the classical greek form oi 9 pata/mioi i!ppoi, as in Herod. and Arist. The dog-Greek hippopotamus, properly a horse-river, is first found in Galen.
6 cf. Arist., De Part. Anim.. iii. 6. dio/per tw=n me\n i'xqu/wn ou'dei\j e!xei pneu/mona a'll0 a'nti\ tou/tou bra/gxia kaqa/per ei!rhtai e'n toi=speri a'napnoh=j : u!dati ga=r poiei=tai th\m kata/yucin, ta\ d0 a'napne/onta e!xei pneu/mona a'napnei! de\ tu\ pezu\ pa/nta.
7 Here Basil is curiously in contradiction to ancient as well as modern experience. Martial's epigram on Domitian's tame fish, "qui norunt dominum, manumque lambunt illam qua nihil est in orbe majus" (iv. 30) is illustrated by the same author's "natat ad magistrum delicata muraena" (x. 30), as well as by Aelian (De animal. viii. 4). "Apud Baulos in parte Baiana piscinam habuit Hortensius orator, in qua muraeuam adeo dilexit ut exanimatam flesse credatur: in eadem villa Antonia Drusi muraenae quam diligebat inaures addidit." Plin. ix. 71. So Lucian ou[toi de (ixqnej kai\ o'no/mata e!xouai kai\ e!rxontai kalou/menoi. (De Syr. Dea. 45.) John Evelyn (Dairy 1644) writes of Fontainebleau: "The carps come familiarly to hand. There was recently a tame carp at Azay le Rideau.
8 Narrated by Aelian (Anim i. 16) of the "glaucus," a fish apparently unknown.
9 Mauron/sioi. cf. Strabo. ii. 33.
10 e.g. Arist., De Anim. viii. 2 and Aelian, ii. 54.
3 Fish. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.
I Fish. Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.
13 Fialon quotes Le Fontaine Le Rat et l'Huitre:
Parmi tant d'huitres toutes closes,
Une s'ééouverte, et baillant au soleil,
Par un doux Zéphyr réjouie,
Humait l'air, respirait était épanouie,
Blanche, grasse, et d'un goût, à la voir, sans pareil.
14 Pliny ix. 48, says of the octopus: "imposito lapillo extra corpus ne palpitatu ejiciatur: ita securigrassantur, extrahuntque carnes."
pou/lupou o'rgh\n i!sxe poluplo/kou o$j poti= pe/trh
th= prosomilh/sei toioj i'dei=n e'fa/nh.
Nu=n me\n th=j e'fe/pou, pote\ d0a'lloi=oj xpo/a gi/gnou,
kraipno/n toi sofi/h gignetai eu'tropi/hj.
Greg. Naz., Or. xxxvi.: polla\j metalam ba/nwn xro/aj w$sper tu\ tw=n petrw=n ei/ polu/podej ai\j a\n o'milh/swsi, and Arist., Hist. An. ix. 37: kai\ qhreu/ei tou/j ixqu=j to\ xrw=ma metaba/llwn kai\ poiw=n o!moion oi\j dh plhsia/zh li/qoij.
17 So the Cod. Colb. and Eustathius, who renders Justus hihil habet fictum sicut Job. The Ben. Ed. suspect that Bail wrote Jacob and Job. Four mss. support Jacob alone, who, whatever may be the meaning of the Hebrew in Gen. xxv. 27, is certainly a$plastoj only in the LXX., and a bad instance of guilelessness.
20 cf. Cudworth, Int Syst. iii. 37,23: "Besides this plastick Nature which is in animals, forming their several bodies artificially, as so many microcosms or little worlds, there must also be a general plastick Nature in the macrocosm, the whole corporeal universe, that which makes all things thus to conspire everywhere, and agree together into one harmony. Concerning which plastick nature of the universe, the Author De Mundo writes after this manner, kai\ to\/ o$lon ko/smon, dieko/smhse mi/a h' dia\ pa/ntwn dih/kousa du/namij, one power, passing through all things, ordered and formed the whole world. Again he calls the same pneu=ma kai\ e$myuxon kai\ go/nimon ou'si/an, a spirit, and a living and Generative Nature, and plainly declares it to be a thing distinct from the Deity, but subordinate to it and dependent on it. But Aristotle himself, in that genuine work of his before mentioned, speaks clearly and positively concerning the Plastick Nature of the Universe, as well as that of animals, in these words: 'It seemeth that as there is Art in Artificial things, so in the things of Nature, there is another such like Principle or Cause, which we aourselves partake of: in the same manner as we do of Heat and Cold, from the Universe. Wherefore it is more probable that the whole world was at first made by such a cause as this (if at least it were made) and that it is still conserved by the same, than mortal animals should be so: for there is much more of order and determinate Regularity in the Heavenly Bodies that in ourselves; but more of Fortuitousness and inconstant Regularity among these mortal things. Notwithstanding whihc, some there are, who though they cannot but acknowledge tat the Bodies of Animals were all framed by an Artificial Nature, yet they will need contend that the System of the Heavens sprung merely from Fortune and Chance; although there be not the least appearance of Fortuitousness or Temerity in it.' And then he sums up all into this conclusion: w$ste ei\nai fanero\n o$ti e$sti ti toiou=ton o$ dh\ kai\ kalou=men fu/sin. 'Artificial,' "Methodical,' and Plastick Nature in Animals, by which their respective Bodies are Framed and Conserved, but also that there is such a General Plastick Nature likewise in the Universe, by which the Heavens and whole World are thus Artificially Ordered and Disposed."
22 cf. Arist., Hist. Animal. vii. 12 and 13, and note on p. 70.
23 cf. Arist. and Theophrastus.
24 Otiosa mater est nugarum noverca omnium virtutum. St. Bernard.
25 "Tradunt saevitiam maris praesagire eos, correptisque opperiri lapillis, mobilitatem pondere stabilientes: nolunt volutatione spinas atterere, quod ubi videre nautici, statim pluribus ancoris navigia infraenant." Phin. ix. 5. cf. Plut., De Solert. an. 979, Oppian, Halieut. ii. 224, and Aelian, Hist. An. vii. 33.
26 cf. Prov. xv. 3: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place," and Ps. cxxi. 3. So Hesiod, pa/nta idw/n Dio\j o'fqalmo\j kai\ pa/nta noh/saj. Hes. Works and Days, 265
28 The fable is in Aelian, Hist. An. ix. 66, and is contradicted by Athenaeus, who says (vii. p. 312): 00Andre/aj de\ e'n tw= peri\ twn yeudw=j pepistenmenwn yeudo/j fhsin ei\nai to\ Mu/rainan e$xii$ mi/gnusqai proserxome/nhn e'pi\ to\ tenagw=dej, ou'de= gar e'pi\ tena/gouj e!xeij ne/mesqai, filhdou=ntaj limw/desin e'phmi/aij. Sw/stratoj de\ e'n toi=j peri\ Zw/wn sugkatati/qetai th= mi/cei.
29 The Pinna is a bivalve with a silky beard, of which several species are found n the Mediterranean. The beard is called by modern naturalists byssus. The shell of the giant pinna is sometimes two feet long.