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

The Germination of the Earth.some to nourish animals with their fruits and their leaves; some to provide medicinal helpby giving us their sap, their juice, their chips, their bark or their fruit. In a word, the experienceof 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 lovethe water or the land, those which bear flowers, or those which do not flower, I should liketo see you recognising grandeur even in small objects, adding incessantly to your admirationof, and redoubling your love for the Creator. Ask yourself why He has made some treesevergreen and others deciduous; why, among the first, some lose their leaves, and othersalways keep them. Thus the olive and the pine shed their leaves, although they renew theminsensibly 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 doublelife of the tamarisk; it is an aquatic plant, and yet it covers the desert. Thus, Jeremiah comparesit to the worst of characters—the double character. 156210. “Let the earth bring forth.” This short command was in a moment a vast nature, anelaborate system. Swifter than thought it produced the countless qualities of plants. It isthis command which, still at this day, is imposed on the earth, and in the course of eachyear displays all the strength of its power to produce herbs, seeds and trees. Like tops, whichafter the first impulse, continue their evolutions, turning upon themselves when once fixedin their centre; thus nature, receiving the impulse of this first command, follows withoutinterruption the course of ages, until the consummation of all things. 1563 Let us all hastento attain to it, full of fruit and of good works; and thus, planted in the house of the Lord weshall flourish in the court of our God, 1564 in our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory andpower for ever and ever. Amen.1562 cf. Jer. xvii. 6, LXX.1563 “Ac mihi quidem videtur, cum duæ sententiæ fuissent veterum philosophorum, una eorum qui censerentomnia ita fato fieri, ut id fatum vim necessitatis afferret, in qua sententia Democritus, Heraclitus, Empedocles,Aristoteles fuit; altera eorum, quibus viderentur sine ullo fato esse animorum motus voluntarii: Chrysippus tanquamarbiter honorarius, medium ferire voluisse…quanquam assensio non possit fieri nisi commota visa, tamen cumid visum proximam causam habeat, non principalem hanc habet rationem, ut Chrysippus vult, quam dudumdiximus, non, ut illa quidem fieri possit, nulla vi extrinsecus excitata, necesse est enim assensionem viso commoveri,sed revertitur ad cylindrum, et ad turbinem suum, quæ moveri incipere, nisi pulsa non possunt: id autem cumaccidit suapte natura, quod superest et cylindrum volvi, et versari turbinem putat.” (Cic., De fato. xviii.)1564 cf. Ps. xcii. 13.307