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

“The Earth was Invisible and Unfinished.”place about them clear. So, with a single word and in one instant, the Creator of all thingsgave the boon of light to the world. 1440Let there be light. The order was itself an operation, and a state of things was broughtinto 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 commandof God, this divine language does not mean to us a sound which escapes from the organsof speech, a collision of air 1441 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 weinstruct. 1442And God saw the light, that it was good. 1443 How can we worthily praise light after thetestimony given by the Creator to its goodness? The word, even among us, refers the judgmentto the eyes, incapable of raising itself to the idea that the senses have already received.1444 But, if beauty in bodies results from symmetry of parts, and the harmoniousappearance of colours, how in a simple and homogeneous essence like light, can this ideaof beauty be preserved? Would not the symmetry in light be less shown in its parts than inthe pleasure and delight at the sight of it? Such is also the beauty of gold, which it owes notto the happy mingling of its parts, but only to its beautiful colour which has a charm attractiveto the eyes.641440 The simile seems hardly worthy of the topic. The practice is referred to by Plutarch, Symp. Quæst. i. 9,and by Pliny, Hist. Nat. ii. 106. “Omne oleo tranquillari; et ob id urinantes ore spargere, quoniam mitiget naturamasperam lucemque deportet.” “gerere” says the Delph. note, “tum credas oleum vicem conspiciliorum.1441 A statement not unlike the “Vibrations of the elastic medium,” to which sound might now be referred.“Sed vocem Stoici corpus esse contendunt: eamque esse dicunt ictum aera: Plato autem non esse vocem corpusesse putat. Non enim percussus, inquit, aer, sed plaga ipsa atque percussio, vox est: οὐκ ἁπλως πληγὴ αέροςἐστὶν ἡ φωνή· πλήττει γὰρ τὸν ἀερα καὶ δάκτυλος παραγόμενος, καὶ οὐδέπω ποιεῖ φωνήν· ἀλλ᾽ ἡ πόση πληγὴ,καὶ σφοδρὰ, καὶ τόση δὲ ὥστε ἀκουστὴν γενέσθαι.” Aul. Gell., N.A. v. 15. So Diog. Laert. in Vita Zenonis; ἔστιφωνὴ αὴρ πεπληγμένος.1442 Fialon quotes Bossuet 4me élév. 3me sem.: “Le roi dit Qu’on marche; et l’armée marche; qu’on fasse telleévolution, et elle se fait; toute une armée se remue au seul commandement d’un prince, c’est à dire, à un seul petitmouvment de ces livres, c’est, parmi les choses humaines, l’image la plus excellente de la puissance de Dieu; maisau fond que c’est image est dèfectueuse! Dieu n’a point de lèvres à remuer; Dieu ne frappe point l’air pour en tirerquelque son; Dieu n’a qu’à vouloir en lui même; et tout ce qu’il veut éternellement s’accomplit comme il l’a voulu,et au temps qu’il a marqué.1443 Gen. i. 4.1444 St. Basil dwells rather on the sense of “beautiful” in the lxx. καλόν. The Vulgate has pulchra.274