DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE IN THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 41 



I describe to thee the fructifying vapors that rise from the 

 moist earth, or the cool breezes wafted over the rippled face 

 of the waters ? Shall I speak of the sweet song of the birds, 

 or of the rich luxuriance of the flowering plants ? What 

 charms me beyond all else is the calm repose of this spot. It 

 is oBily visited occasionally by huntsmen ; for my wilderness 

 nourishes herds of deer and wild goats, but not bears and 

 wolves. What other spot could I exchange for this ? Alc- 

 maeon, when he had found the Echinades, would not wander 

 further."* In this simple description of scenery and of forest 

 life, feelings are expressed which are more intimately in uni- 

 son with those of modern times than any thing that has been 

 transmitted to us from Greek or Roman antiquity. From 

 the lonely Alpine hut to which Basil withdrew, the eye wan- 

 ders over the humid and leafy roof of the forest below. The 

 place of rest which he and his friend Gregory of Nazianzura 

 had long desired, is at length found.f The poetic and myth- 

 ical allusion at the close of the letter falls on the Christian 

 ear like an echo from another and earlier world. 



Basil's Homilies on the Hexsemeron also give evidence of 

 his love of nature. He describes the mildness of the con- 

 stantly clear nights of Asia Mmor, where, according to his ex- 

 pression, the stars, " those everlasting blossoms of heaven," 

 elevate the soul from the visible to the invisible.! When, in 

 the myth of the creation, he would praise the beauty of the 

 sea, he describes the aspect of the boundless ocean plain, in 

 all its varied and ever-changing conditions, " gently moved by 

 the breath of heaven', altering its hue as it reflects the beams 

 of light in their white, blue, or roseate hues, and caressing the 



* Basilii M. Epist., xiv., p. 93 ; Ep. ccxxiii., p. 339. On the beau- 

 tiful letter to Gregory of Nazianzura, and on the poetic frame of mind 

 of St. Basil, see Villemain, De V Eloquence Chritienne dans le Quatneme 

 Steele, in his Melanges Historiques et LitUraires, t. iii., p. 320-325. 

 The Iris, on whose shores the family of the great Basil had formerly 

 possessed an estate, rises in Armenia, and, after flowing through the 

 plains of Pontus, and mingling with the waters of the Lycus, empties 

 itself into the Black Sea. 



t Gregory of Nazianzura did not, how^ever, suffer himself to be en- 

 ticed by the description of Basil's hermitage, preferring Arianzus in the 

 Tiberina Regio, although his friend had complainingly designated it as 

 an impure j3dpadpov. See Basilii Epist., ii., p. 70, and Vita Sancti Bas., 

 p. xlvi. and lix. of the edition of 1730. 



t Basilii Homil. in Hexcsm., vi., 1, and iv., 6 ; Bas., Op. Omnia, ed. 

 Jul. Garnier, 1839, t. i., p. 54-70. Compare with this the expression 

 of deep sadness in the beautiful poem of Gregonus of Nazianzura, bear- 

 ing the title On the Nature of Man (Gregor. Naz., Op. omnia, ed. Par., 

 1611, t. ii., Carm. xiii., p. 85). 



