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31 "Tamen omnia haec, pariterque eodem impellentia unus ac parnus admodum pisciulus, echeneis appellatus, in se tenet. Ruant venti licet, et saeviant procellae impreat furori, viresque tantas compescit, et cogit stare navigia: quod no vincula ulla, non anchorae pondere, irrevocabili jactae. . . Fertur Actiaco marte tenuisse navim Antonii properantis circumire et exhortare suos donec transiret in aliam. . . . Tennit et nostra memoria Caii principis ab Astura Antium renavigantes." Plin. xxxii. 1. The popular error was long lived.
"Life is a voyage, and. in our life's ways,
Countries, courts, towns, are rocks or remoras." Donne, To Sir Henry Wotton.
32 Pliny (ix. 72) says it is sometimes five inches long. Aelian (LHist. An. i. 56) calls the wound incurable.
33 Pliny (ix. 72) calls it tactu pestilens, and says (xxxii. 3) that no ohter fish eats it, except the mullet.
1 Codex Colb. I has the title "about creeping things and beasts."
9 It may be supposed "that the souls of brutes, being but so many eradiations or effuxes from that source of life above, are, as soon as ever those organized bodies of theirs, by reason of their indisposition, become uncapable of being further acted upon by them, then to be resumed again and retracted back to their original head and fountain. Since it cannot be doubted but what creates anything out of nothing, or sends it forth from itself, by free and vountary emanation, may be able either to retract the same back again to its original source, or else to annihilate it at pleasure. And I find that there have not wanted some among the Gentile philosophers themselves who have entertained this opinion, whereof Porphyry is one, lu/etai e 9ka/oth du/namij a!logoj eij th\n o$lhn zwhn zwnhn tou= pa/ntoj." Cudworth, i. 35.
10 Empedocles is named as author of the lines:
h#dh ga\r pot0 e'gw\ geno/mhn kou/rhte ko/roj te,
Qa/mnoj t0 oi'wno/j te kai\ ei'n a'li\ e!llopoj i'xqu/j.
cf. Diog. Laert. viii. 78 and Plutarch, D Solert. An. ii. 964. Whether the "faba Pythagorae cognata" of Hor., Sat. ii. 6, 63, implies the transmigration of the soul into it is doubtful. cf. Juv., Sat. xv. 153. Anaximander thought the human beings were originally generated from fish. Plut., Symp. viii. 8.
12 Fialon quotes Bosseut, 1st Elev. 5th week: "Qui a donné aux oiseaux et aux poissons ces rames naturelles, qui leur font fendre les eaux et les airs? Ce qui peut être a donné lieu à leur Créateur de les produire ensemble, comme animaux d'um dessin à peu près semblable: le vol des oiseaux semblant, etre une espèce de faculté de nager dans une liqueur plus subtile, comme la faculté de nager dans les poissons est une espèce de vol dans une liqueur plus épaisse ."
The theory of evolutionists is, as is well known, that birds developed out of reptiles and reptiles from fish. Vide E. Haeckel's monophyletic pedigree in his History of Creation.
13 doepani/j, i.e. sickle-bird.
14 These are the terms of Aristotle, Hist. An. i. 5.
15 cf. Arist., Hist. An. viii. 3.
16 Whence the proverb koloio\j poti\ koloio\n. Arist., Eth. Nic. I. viii. 6.
17 "Super omnia humanas voces reddunt, posittaci quidem sermocinantes." Plin. x. 53.
19 Arist., Hist. An. v. 21, and Plin. xi. 17. "Ecce in re parva, villisque nostra annexa, cujus assidua copia est, non constat inter auctores, rex nullumne solus habeat aculeum, majestate tantum armatus: an dederit eum quidem natura, sed usum ejus illitantum negaverit. Illud constat imperatorem aculeo non uti."
21 The ancient belief was that honey fell from heaven, in the shape of dew, and the bee only gathered it from leaves. So Verg., Ec. iv. 30, "roscida mella," and Georg. iv. 1, "aerii mellis coelestia dona." cf. Arist., H. A. v. 22 meli\ de\ to\ pi/pton e'k tou= a'e/roj, kai ma/lista tw=n a!strwn a'natolai=j, kai\ o!tan kataskh/fh h 9 irij, and Plin. xi. 12. Sive ille est coeli sudork sive quaedan siderum saliva, sine purgantis se aeris succus, . . . magnam tamen coelestis naturae voluptatem affert." So Coleridge (Kubla Khan):
"For he on honey dew hat fed
And drunk the milk of Paradise."
22 Prov. vi. 8, lxx. The reference to the bee is not in the Hebrew.
23 cf. Aelian. v. 13.gewmetri/an de\ kai\ ka/llh sxhma/twn kai\ w 9rai/aj pla/seij au'tw=n a!neu te/xnhj te kai\ kano/nwn kai\ tou= kaloume/nou n'po\ tw=n sofw=n diabh/tou, to\ ka/lliston sxhma/twn e'cagwno/n te kai\ e 9ca/pleuron kai\ i'sogw/nion a'podei/knuntai ai' me/littai.
24 The mathematical exactness of the bee is described by Darwin in terms which make it even more marvellous than it appeared to Basil. "The most wonderful of all known instincts, that of the hive bee, may be explained by natural selection having taken advantage of numerous slight modifications of simpler instincts; natural selection having by slow degrees more and more perfectly led the bees to sweep equal spheres at a given distance from each other in a double layer, and to build up and excavate the wax along the planes of intersection." Origin of Species, ii. 255, ed. 1861 According to this view the beings from whom hive bees, as we know them, are descended were gifted with certain simple instincts capable of a kind of hereditary unconscious education, resulting in a complex instinct which constructs with exact precision the hexagonal chamber best fitted for the purpose it is designed to fulfil, and then packs it. And it is interesting to note how the great apostle of abstract selection personifies it as a "taker" of "advantage," and a "leader."
26 From pelargo/j. On the pious affection of the stork, cf. Plato, Alc. i. 135 (§ 61), Arist., H.A. ix. 13, 20, Aelian, H.A. iii. 23 and x. 16, and Plin. x. 32. From pelargo\j was supposed to be derived the Pythagorean word pelarga=n Diog. Laert. viii. 20), but this is now regarded as a corruption of pedarta=n.
27 "Hirundines luto construunt, stramine roborant: si quando inopia est luti, madefactae multa auqa pennis pulverem spargunt.: Plin. x. 49. cf. Arist., Hist. An. ix. 10.
28 "Chelidoniam visui saluberriman hirundines monstravere, vexatis pullorum oculis illa medentes." Plin. viii. 41. cf. Aelian, H.A. iii. 25. Chelidonia is swallowwort or celandine.
29 "Foetificant bruma, qui dies halcyonides vocantur, placido mari per eos et navigabii, Siculo maxime. Plin. x. 47. cf. Arist., H.A. v. 8, 9, and Aelian, H. N.. i. 36. So Theoc. vii. 57:
0C a'lkuo/nej storeseu=nti ta\ ku/mata, ta/n te qa/lassan
To/n te no/ton to/nt0 eu\ron o$j e!sxata fuki/a kinei$.
Sir Thomas Brown (Vulgar Erros) denies the use of a kingfisher as a weather-guage, but says nothing as to the "halcyon days." Kingfishers are rarely seen in the open sea, but haunt estuaries which are calm without any special miracle. Possibly the halcyon was a tern or sea-swallow, which resembles a kingfisher, but they brood on land.
31 Ar. vi. 6 and ix. 34. "Melanaetos. . . sola aquilarum foetus suos alit; ceterae. . . fugant." Plin. x. 3. "Pariunt ova terna: excludunt pullos binos: visi sunt et tres aliquando." id. 4, following Musaeus (apud Plutarch, In Mario, p. 426). w 9j tri/a me\n ti/ktei, du/o d0 eÖ\n d0 a'legizei. On the osprey, see Arist., H.A. ix. 44 and Pliny loc. "Nidos nemo attigit: ideo etiam fuere qui putarent illos ex adverso orbe advolare, nidificant enim in excelsissimis rupibus." cf. also Aelian, ii. 46: gu=pa de\ a!rrena ou! fasi gi/gnesqai/ pote a 9lla/ qhlei/aj a 9pa/soj.
32 Arist., Hist. An. vi. 6 and ix. 15. So Pliny x. vii. "Nidos nemo attigit: ideo etiam fuere qui putarent illos ex adverso orbe advolare, nidificant enim ix excelsissimis rupibus." cf. also Aelian, ii. 46: gu>\\pa de\ a!rrena ou! fasi gi/gnesqai/ pote a'lla\ qhlei/aj a9pa/saj.
33 This analogy is repeated almost in identical words in Basil's Hom. xxii. De Providentia. cf. also his Com. on Isaiah. St. Ambrose repeats the illustration (Hex. 20). The analogy, even if the facts were true, would be false and misleading. But it is curious to note that were any modern divine desirous of here following in Basil's track, he might find the alleged facts in the latest modern science, - e.g. in the so-called Parthenogenesis, or virginal reproduction, among insects, as said to be demonstrated by Siebold. Haeckel (Hist. of Creation, Lankester's ed. ii. p. 198) represents sexual reproduction as quite a recent development of non-sexual reproduction.
35 The Greek word stere/wma, from stereo/j, strong, is traceable to the root star, to spread out, and so indirectly associated with the connotation of the Hebrew rakia.
36 Arist., H.A. viii. 75. Pliny x. 43. "Lusciniis diebus ac noctibus continuis quindecim garrulus sine intermissu cantus, desante se frondium germine, non in novissimum digna miratu ave."
37 So also Basil in Hom. on Isaiah iii. 447. cf. Pliny x. 81, "cui et membranaceae pinnae uni."
38 cf. Livy v. 42 and Plutarch, Camillus, or Verg. viii. 655. The alternative tradition of the mine is preserved by Servius.
39 cf. Aelian, H.A. ii. 46. kai\ me/ntoi kai\ tai=j e 9kdh/moij stratiai=j e/pontai lu=pej kai\ ma/la ge mantikw=j o#ti ei'j po/lemon xwru=sin ei'do/tej kai\ o#ti ma/xh pa=soe e'rga/zetai nekrou\: kai\ tou=to e'gnwko/tej.
cf. Pliny x. 88: "vultures sagacius odorantur."
41 Fialon, quoting the well known ode of Anakreon, "makapi/zome/n oe te/ttic," and Plato's theory of the affection of grasshoppers and the muses in the Phaedrus, contrasts the "cantu querulae rumpent arbusta ciacadae" of Vergil (George. lii. 328) and points out that the Romans did not share the Greed admiration for the grasshopper's song.
42 "Insecta multi negarunt spirare, idque ratione persuadentes, quoniam in viscera interiora nexus spirabilis non inesset. Itaque vivere ut fruges, arboresque: sed plurimum interesse spiret aliquid an vivat. Eadem de causa nec sanguinem iis esse qui sit nullis carentibus corde atque jecore. Sic nec spirare ea quibus pulmo deist unde numerosa series quaestionum exoritur. Iidem enim et ovcem esse his negant, in tanto murmure apium, cicadarum sono . . . nec video cur magis possint non trahere animam talia, et vivere, quam spirare sine visceribus." Plin. xi. 2.
43 Arist., De Part. An. iv. 12.
44 This word is curiously rendered by Eustathius verucae and by Ambrose caulis. Garnier (Praef. in Bas. 28) thinks that the latter perhaps found in some corrupt ms. kra/mbn=hn for ka/mphn.
49 The ku/boi were marked on all six sides, the a'stra/galoi on only four, the ends being rounded.
50 With Basil's description of the gaming tables, presumably of Caesarea, cf. Ovid's of those of Rome:
"LIra subit, deforme malum, lucrique cupido;
Furgiaque et rixae, sollicitusque dolor.
Crimina dicuntur, resonat clamoribus aether,
Invocat iratos et sibi quisque deos,
Et lacrymis vidi saepe madere genis.
De A.A. iii. 373 seqq
51 "Cernis ut ignavnum corrumpant otia corpus." Ovid, I. Pont. 6. "Facito aliquid operis ut semper Diablous inveniat ie occupatum. Jerome, In R. Monach.
2 Fialon thinks that this plain reference to Origen may have been evoked by some criticisms on the IIIrd Homily. (cf. p. 71) St. Basil's literalism and bold departure from the allegorizing of Origen and from the milder mysticism of Eusebius are remarked on in the Prolegomena.
4 qalh=j kai\ oi Stwi!koi\ kai\ oi 9 a'p0 au'tw=n sfairoeidh= th\n gh=n. 0Anaci/mandroj li/qw ki/oni th\n gh=n prosferh= tw=n epipe/dwn. !Aacime/nhj, trapezoeidh=. Aeu/kippoj, tumpanoeidhj. Dhmo/kritoj, diskoeidh= me\n tw= pla/tei, koi/lhn de\ to\ me/son. Plut. peri\ tw=n a'resk. iii. 10. Arist. (De. Coelo ii. 14) follows Thales. So Manilus I. 235:
"Ex quo colligitur terrarum forma rotunda."
7 "Sed, si quaeque suo ritu procedit, et omnes
Faedere naturae certo discrimina servant." Luc. v. 921
8 cf. Plin. ix. 84: Verum omnibus his fidem Nili Inundatio affert omnia exedente miraculo: quippe detegente eo musculi reperiuntur inchoato opere genitalis aquae terroeque, jam parte corporis viventes, novissima effigie etiamnum terrena ." So Mela De Nilo i. 9. "Glebis etiam infundit animas, ex ipsoque humo vitalia effing it ," and Ovid, Met. i. 42:
"Sic ubi deseruit madidos septemfluus agros
Nilus, et antiquo sua flumina reddidit alveo,
Aethereoque recens exarsit sidere limus,
Plurima cultores versis animalia glebis Inveniunt."
9 Arist. H.A. vi. 16. Ai 9 e'gxe/luj gi/gnontai ek tw=n kaloume/nwn gh=j e'/te/rwn a$ au'to/mata suni/statai en tw=phlw= kai\ e'n th= gh= e'ni/kmy. Kai\ n$dh ei'sin w'mme/nai ai' me\n e'kdu\nousai e'k tou/twn, ai de\ e'n diak/izome/noij kai\ diairoume/noij gi/gnontai fanepai/.
10 Arist., Part. An. iv. 10, 18. mo/non o'rqo/n e'sti tw=n zy/wn o 9 a!nqowpoj.
