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

The creation of fowl and water animals.with oil, because it stops up their pores. Wash them with vinegar, the pores reopen and theanimal returns to life. Our God has created nothing unnecessarily and has omitted nothingthat is necessary. If now you cast your eyes upon aquatic creatures, you will find that theirorganization is quite different. Their feet are not split like those of the crow, nor hookedlike those of the carnivora, but large and membraneous; therefore they can easily swim,pushing the water with the membranes of their feet as with oars. Notice how the swanplunges his neck into the depths of the water to draw his food from it, and you will understandthe wisdom of the Creator in giving this creature a neck longer than his feet, so thathe may throw it like a line, and take the food hidden at the bottom of the water. 16818. If we simply read the words of Scripture we find only a few short syllables. “Let thewaters bring forth fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven,” butif we enquire into the meaning of these words, then the great wonder of the wisdom of theCreator appears. What a difference He has foreseen among winged creatures! How He hasdivided them by kinds! How He has characterized each one of them by distinct qualities!But the day will not suffice me to recount the wonders of the air. Earth is calling me to describewild beasts, reptiles and cattle, ready to show us in her turn sights rivalling those ofplants, fish, and birds. “Let the earth bring forth the living soul” of domestic animals, ofwild beasts, and of reptiles after their kind. What have you to say, you who do not believein the change that Paul promises you in the resurrection, when you see so many metamorphosesamong creatures of the air? What are we not told of the horned worm of India! Firstit changes into a caterpillar, 1682 then becomes a buzzing insect, and not content with thisform, it clothes itself, instead of wings, with loose, broad plates. Thus, O women, when youare seated busy with your weaving, I mean of the silk which is sent you by the Chinese tomake your delicate dresses, 1683 remember the metamorphoses of this creature, conceive aclear idea of the resurrection, and do not refuse to believe in the change that Paul announcesfor all men.But I am ashamed to see that my discourse oversteps the accustomed limits; if I considerthe abundance of matters on which I have just discoursed to you, I feel that I am being bornenec sanguinem iis esse qui sit nullis carentibus corde atque jecore. Sic nec spirare ea quibus pulmo desit unde numerosaseries quæstionum exoritur. Iidem enim et vocem esse his negant, in tanto murmure apium, cicadarumsono…nec video cur magis possint non trahere animam talia, et vivere, quam spirare sine visceribus.” Plin. xi. 2.1681 Arist., De Part. An. iv. 12.1682 This word is curiously rendered by Eustathius verucæ, and by Ambrose caulis. Garnier (Præf. in Bas.28) thinks that the latter perhaps found in some corrupt ms. κράμβην for κάμπην.1683 Arist., H.A. v. 19.342