40 COSMOS 



probably less well known to my readers than the evidencci 

 afforded by Roman authors, of the love of nature entertained 

 by the ancient Italians. I will begin with a letter of Basil 

 the Great, for which I have long cherished a special predilec- 

 tion. Basil, who was born at Cesarea in Cappadocia, re- 

 nounced the pleasures of Athens when not more than thirty 

 years old, and, after visitmg the Christian hermitages in Ccelo- 

 Syria and Upper Egypt, retired, like the Essenes and Thera- 

 peuti before the Christian era, to a desert on the shores of the 

 Armenian river Iris. There his second brother* Naucratius 

 was drowned while fishing, after having led for five years the 

 rigid life of an anchorite. He thus writes to Gregory of Na- 

 zianzum, " I believe I may at last flatter myself with having 

 found the end of my wanderings. The hopes of being united 

 with thee — or I should rather say my pleasant dreams, for 

 hopes have been justly termed the waking dreams of men — 

 have remained unfulfilled. God has sufiered me to find a 

 place, such as has often flitted before our imaginations ; for 

 that which fancy has shown us from afar is now made mani- 

 fest to me. A high mountain, clothed with thick woods, is 

 watered to the north by fresh and ever-flowing streams. At 

 its foot lies an extended plain, rendered fruitful by the vapors 

 with which it is moistened. The surrounding forest, crowded 

 with trees of difierent kinds, incloses me as in a strong for 

 tress. This wilderness is bounded by two deep ravines ; on 

 the one side, the river, rushing in foam down the mountain, 

 forms an almost impassable barrier, while on the other all ac- 

 cess is impeded by a broad mountain ridge. My hut is so 

 situated on the summit of the mountain that I can overlook 

 the whole plain, and follow throughout its course the Iris, 

 which is more beautiful, and has a more abundant body of 

 water, than the Strymon near Amphipolis. The river of 

 my wilderness, which is more impetuous than any other that 

 I know of, breaks against the jutting rock, and throws itself 

 foaming into the abyss below : an object of admiration to the 

 mountain wanderer, and a source of profit to the natives, 

 from the numerous fishes that are found in its waters. Shall 



* On the death of Naucratius, about the year 357, see Basilii Magni, 

 Op. omnia ed. Tar., 1730, t. iii., p. xlv. Thi? Jewish Esseues, two 

 centuries before our era, led an anchorite life on the western shores of 

 the Dead Sea, in communion with nature. Fliuy, in speaking of them, 

 uses the graceful expression (v. 15), " mira gens, socia p^'viantni.*^ 

 The Therapeuti lived originally in monastic communities, in a rharm 

 ing district near Lake Moeris (Neander, Allg. Geschichte d/^r c hristl 

 Uelision und Ki^'che, bd. i., abth. i., 18-12, s. 73, 103). 



