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

The creation of luminous bodies.or a fly, or some insect equally feeble falls into it it is held entangled; if a stronger animalapproaches, it passes through without trouble, carrying the weak tissue away with it. 15857. 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 celestialbodies. It would be ridiculous seriously to refute such an error, but, as it holds a greatmany in its nets, perhaps it is better not to pass it over in silence. I would first ask them ifthe figures which the stars describe do not change a thousand times a day. In the perpetualmotion of planets, some meet in a more rapid course, others make slower revolutions, andoften in an hour we see them look at each other and then hide themselves. Now, at the hourof birth, it is very important whether one is looked upon by a beneficent star or by an evilone, to speak their language. Often then the astrologers do not seize the moment when agood star shows itself, and, on account of having let this fugitive moment escape, they enrolthe 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 theirwickedness upon Him Who made them. If evil is inherent in their nature, the Creator isthe author of evil. If they make it themselves, they are animals endowed with the power ofchoice, whose acts will be free and voluntary. Is it not the height of folly to tell these liesabout beings without souls? Again, what a want of sense does it show to distribute goodand evil without regard to personal merit; to say that a star is beneficent because it occupiesa certain place; that it becomes evil, because it is viewed by another star; and that if it movesever 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 inthese thousand changes, many times a day, there ought to be reproduced the configurationof royal births. Why then does not every day see the birth of a king? Why is there a successionon the throne from father to son? Without doubt there has never been a king who hastaken measures to have his son born under the star of royalty. For what man possesses sucha power? How then did Uzziah beget Jotham, Jotham Ahaz, Ahaz Hezekiah? And by whatchance did the birth of none of them happen in an hour of slavery? If the origin of our virtuesand of our vices is not in ourselves, but is the fatal consequence of our birth, it is useless forlegislators to prescribe for us what we ought to do, and what we ought to avoid; it is uselessfor judges to honour virtue and to punish vice. The guilt is not in the robber, not in theassassin: it was willed for him; it was impossible for him to hold back his hand, urged toevil by inevitable necessity. Those who laboriously cultivate the arts are the maddest ofmen. The labourer will make an abundant harvest without sowing seed and withoutsharpening his sickle. Whether he wishes it or not, the merchant will make his fortune, and861585 ῎Ελεγε δὲ…τοὺς νόμους τοῖς ἀραχνίοις ὁμοίους· και γὰρ ἐκεῖνα ἐ& 129·ν μὲν ἐμπέσῃ τι κοῦφον καὶἀσθενὲς στέγειν, ἐ& 129·ν δὲ μεῖζον, διακόψαν οἴχεσθαι. Solon, in Diog. Laert. ii. 1.315