NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

In the Beginning God made the Heaven and the Earth.Do not let us undertake to follow them for fear of falling into like frivolities; let themrefute 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 thatwas wisely and skillfully made; by the beauty of visible things let us raise ourselves to Himwho is above all beauty; by the grandeur of bodies, sensible and limited in their nature, letus conceive of the infinite Being whose immensity and omnipotence surpass all the effortsof the imagination. Because, although we ignore the nature of created things, the objectswhich on all sides attract our notice are so marvellous, that the most penetrating mindcannot attain to the knowledge of the least of the phenomena of the world, either to give asuitable 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.sit mens. Aug., De Civ. Dei xxii. 11. 2, and Cudworth’s Int. Syst. (Harrison’s Ed. 1845) iii. p. 465. Hence theword “quintessence,” for which the Dictionaries quote Howard’s Translation of Plutarch, “Aristoteles hathput…for elements foure; and for a fifth quintessence, the heavenly body which is immutable.” Skeat s. v. pointsout that “the idea is older than Aristotle: cf. the five Skt. bhútas, or elements, which were earth, air, fire, andwater, and æther. Thus the fifth essence is æther, the subtlest and highest.” It is evident that Milton had thesetheories in mind when he wrote (Par. Lost, iii. 716): “Swift to their several quarters hasted then The cumbrouselements, earth, flood, air, fire; And this ethereal quintessence of heaven Flew upward, spirited with variousforms, That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars Numberless.”264