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

The creation of fowl and water animals.one upon the other! A very rare spectacle among men, who for the greater part prefer individualand private life to the union of common life. Have not those who give themselvesup to vain science the eyes of owls? The sight of the owl, piercing during the night time, isdazzled by the splendour of the sun; thus the intelligence of these men, so keen to contemplatevanities, is blind in presence of the true light.During the day, also, how easy it is for you to admire the Creator everywhere! See howthe domestic cock calls you to work with his shrill cry, and how, forerunner of the sun, andearly as the traveller, he sends forth labourers to the harvest! What vigilance in geese! Withwhat sagacity they divine secret dangers! Did they not once upon a time save the imperialcity? When enemies were advancing by subterranean passages to possess themselves of thecapitol of Rome, did not geese announce the danger? 1676 Is there any kind of bird whosenature offers nothing for our admiration? Who announces to the vultures that there willbe carnage when men march in battle array against one another? You may see flocks ofvultures following armies and calculating the result of warlike preparations; 1677 a calculationvery nearly approaching to human reasoning. How can I describe to you the fearful invasionsof locusts, which rise everywhere at a given signal, and pitch their camps all over a country?They do not attack crops until they have received the divine command. Or shall I describehow the remedy for this curse, the thrush, follows them with its insatiable appetite, and thedevouring nature that the loving God has given it in His kindness for men? 1678 How doesthe grasshopper modulate its song? 1679 Why is it more melodious at midday owing to theair that it breathes in dilating its chest?But it appears to me that in wishing to describe the marvels of winged creatures, I remainfurther behind than I should if my feet had tried to match the rapidity of their flight. Whenyou see bees, wasps, in short all those flying creatures called insects, because they have anincision all around, reflect that they have neither respiration nor lungs, and that they aresupported by air through all parts of their bodies. 1680 Thus they perish, if they are covered1001676 cf. Livy v. 47 and Plutarch, Camillus, or Verg. viii. 655. The alternative tradition of the mine is preservedby Servius.1677 cf. Ælian, H.A. ii. 46. καὶ μέντοι καὶ ταῖς ἐκδήμοις στρατιαῖς ἕπονται γῦπες καὶ μάλα γε μαντικῶς ὅτιεἰς πόλεμον χωροῦσιν εἰδότες καὶ ὅτι μάχη πᾶσα ἐργάζεται νεκροὺς καὶ τοῦτο ἐγνωκότες. cf. Pliny x. 88:“vultures sagacius odorantur.”1678 cf. Galen. vi. 3.1679 Fialon, quoting the well known ode of Anakreon, “μακαρίζομέν σε τέττιξ,” and Plato’s theory of theaffection of grasshoppers and the muses in the Phædrus, contrasts the “cantu querulæ rumpent arbusta cicadæ”of Vergil (George. iii. 328) and points out that the Romans did not share the Greek admiration for thegrasshopper’s song.1680 “Insecta multi negarunt spirare, idque ratione persuadentes, quoniam in viscera interiora nexus spirabilisnon inesset. Itaque vivere ut fruges, arboresque: sed plurimum interesse spiret aliquid an vivat. Eadem de causa341