DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE IN THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 395 



Basil's Homilies on the Hexaemeron also give evidence of 

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

 stantly clear nights of Asia Minor, where, according to his 

 expression, 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 

 shores in peaceful sport." We meet with the same senti- 

 mental and plaintive expressions regarding nature in the 

 writings of Gregory of Nyssa, the brother of Basil the Great. 

 " When," he exclaims, " I see every ledge of rock, every 

 valley and plain, covered with new-born verdure, the varied 

 beauty of the trees, and the lilies at my feet decked by nature 

 with the double charms of perfume and of colour, when in the 

 distance I see the ocean, towards which the clouds are onward 

 borne, my spirit is overpowered by a sadness not wholly devoid 

 of enjoyment. When in autumn the fruits have passed away, 

 the leaves have fallen, and the branches of the trees, dried and 

 shrivelled, are robbed of their leafy adornments, we are in- 

 stinctively led, amid the everlasting and regular change in 

 nature, to feel the harmony of the wondrous powers pervad- 

 ing all things. He who contemplates them with the eye of 

 the soul, feels the littleness of man amid the greatness of the 

 universe."! 



Whilst the Greek Christians were led by their adoration of 

 the Deity through the contemplation of his works to a poetic 

 delineation of nature, they were at the same time, during the 



* Basilii Homil. in Hexcem, vi. 1, and iy. 6, Bas. Op. Omnia, ed. 

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

 deep sadness in the beautiful poem of Gregorius of Nazianzum, bearing 

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

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



f The quotation given in the text from Gregory of Nyssa, is composed 

 of several fragments literally translated. They occur in jS. Gregorii 

 Nysseni, Op., ed. Par. 1615, t. i. p. 49 C, p. 589 D, p. 210 0, p. 780 C.; 

 t. ii. p. 860 B, p. 619 B, 619 D, p. 324 D. " Be gentle towards the emo- 

 tions of sadness," says Thalassius, in one of the aphorisms which were so 

 much admired by his contemporaries (BibliotU. Patrum., ed. Par. 1624, 

 t. ii. p. 1180 C.) 



