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

The creation of fowl and water animals.avoid the nonsense of those arrogant philosophers who do not blush to liken their soul tothat of a dog; who say that they have been formerly themselves women, shrubs, fish. 1648Have they ever been fish? I do not know; but I do not fear to affirm that in their writingsthey show less sense than fish. “Let the earth bring forth the living creature.” Perhaps manyof you ask why there is such a long silence in the middle of the rapid rush of my discourse.The more studious among my auditors will not be ignorant of the reason why words failme. What! Have I not seen them look at each other, and make signs to make me look atthem, and to remind me of what I have passed over? I have forgotten a part of the creation,and that one of the most considerable, and my discourse was almost finished withouttouching upon it. “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath lifeand fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament, of heaven.” 1649 I spoke offish as long as eventide allowed: to-day we have passed to the examination of terrestrialanimals; between the two, birds have escaped us. We are forgetful like travellers who unmindfulof some important object, are obliged, although they be far on their road, to retracetheir steps, punished for their negligence by the weariness of the journey. So we have toturn back. That which we have omitted is not to be despised. It is the third part of the animalcreation, if indeed there are three kinds of animals, land, winged and water.“Let the waters” it is said “bring forth abundantly moving creature that hath life and fowlthat may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” Why do the waters give birthalso to birds? Because there is, so to say, a family link between the creatures that fly andthose that swim. In the same way that fish cut the waters, using their fins to carry themforward and their tails to direct their movements round and round and straightforward, sowe see birds float in the air by the help of their wings. Both endowed with the property ofswimming, their common derivation from the waters has made them of one family. 1650 Atthe same time no bird is without feet, because finding all its food upon the earth it cannot961648 Empedocles is named as author of the lines: ἤδη γὰρ ποτ᾽ ἐγὼ γενόμην κούρητε κόρος τε, Θάμνος τ᾽οἰωνός τε καὶ εἰν ἁλὶ ἔλλοπος ἰχθύς cf. Diog. Laert. viii. 78, and Plutarch, D Solert. An. ii. 964. Whether the“faba Pythagoræ cognata” of Hor., Sat. ii. 6, 63, implies the transmigration of the soul into it is doubtful. cf.Juv., Sat. xv. 153. Anaximander thought that human beings were originally generated from fish. Plut., Symp.viii. 8.1649 Gen. i. 20.1650 Fialon quotes Bossuet, 1st Elev. 5th week: “Qui a donné aux oiseaux et aux poissons ces rames naturelles,qui leur font fendre les eaux et les airs? Ce qui peut être a donné lieu à leur Créateur de les produire ensemble,comme animaux d’un dessin à peu près semblable: le vol des oiseaux semblant, etre une espèce de faculté de nagerdans une liqueur plus subtile, comme la faculté de nager dans les poissons est une espèce de vol dans une liqueurplus épaisse.” The theory of evolutionists is, as is well known, that birds developed out of reptiles and reptilesfrom fish. Vide E. Haeckel’s monophyletic pedigree in his History of Creation.334