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

The creation of moving creatures.the miser. Look to it lest you end like the fish, by hook, by weel, or by net. Surely we too,when we have done the deeds of the wicked, shall not escape punishment at the last.Now see what tricks, what cunning, are to be found in a weak animal, and learn not toimitate wicked doers. The crab loves the flesh of the oyster; but, sheltered by its shell, asolid rampart with which nature has furnished its soft and delicate flesh, it is a difficult preyto seize. Thus they call the oyster “sherd-hide.” 1616 Thanks to the two shells with which itis enveloped, and which adapt themselves perfectly the one to the other, the claws of thecrab are quite powerless. What does he do? When he sees it, sheltered from the wind,warming itself with pleasure, and half opening its shells to the sun, 1617 he secretly throwsin a pebble, prevents them from closing, and takes by cunning what force had lost. 1618 Suchis the malice of these animals, deprived as they are of reason and of speech. But I wouldthat you should at once rival the crab in cunning and industry, and abstain from harmingyour neighbour; this animal is the image of him who craftily approaches his brother, takesadvantage of his neighbour’s misfortunes, and finds his delight in other men’s troubles. Ocopy not the damned! Content yourself with your own lot. Poverty, with what is necessary,is of more value in the eyes of the wise than all pleasures.I will not pass in silence the cunning and trickery of the squid, which takes the colourof the rock to which it attaches itself. Most fish swim idly up to the squid as they might toa rock, and become themselves the prey of the crafty creature. 1619 Such are men who courtruling powers, bending themselves to all circumstances and not remaining for a momentin the same purpose; who praise self-restraint in the company of the self-restrained, and licensein that of the licentious, accommodating their feelings to the pleasure of each. It isdifficult to escape them and to put ourselves on guard against their mischief; because it isunder the mask of friendship that they hide their clever wickedness. Men like this areravening wolves covered with sheep’s clothing, as the Lord calls them. 1620 Flee thenfickleness and pliability; seek truth, sincerity, simplicity. The serpent is shifty; so he has921616 ὀστρακόδερμος.1617 Fialon quotes Le Fontaine Le Rat et l’Huitre: Parmi tant d’huitres toutes closes, Une s’était ouverte, etbaillant au soleil, Par un doux Zéphyr réjouie, Humait l’air, respirait était épanouie, Blanche, grasse, et d’ungoût, à la voir, sans pareil.1618 Pliny ix. 48, says of the octopus: “imposito lapillo extra corpus ne palpitatu ejiciatur: ita securi grassantur,extrahuntque carnes.”1619 cf. Theog. 215: πούλυπου ὀργὴν ἴσχε πολυπλόκου, ὃς ποτὶ πέτρῃ τῇ προσομιλήσει τοῖος ἰδεῖν ἐφάνηΝῦν μὲν τῇς ἐφέπου, ποτὲ δ᾽ἀλλοῖος χρόα γίγνου, κραιπνόν τοι σοφίη γίγνεται εὐτροπίης . Greg. Naz., Or.xxxvi.: πολλὰς μεταλαμβάνων χρόας ὥσπερ τὰ τῶν πετρῶν εἱ πολύποδες αἷς ἃν ὁμιλήσωσι, and Arist., Hist.An. ix. 37: καὶ θηρεύει τοὺς ἰχθῦς τὸ χρῶμα μεταβάλλων καὶ ποιῶν ὅμοιον οἷς δη πλησιάζῃ λίθοις.1620 cf. Matt. vii. 15.326