§ 164. BASIL THE GKEAT. 895
Athens, partly through its ancient renown and its hibtoricBk traditions, partly by excellent teachers of philosophy and eloquence, Sophists, as they were called in an honorable sense. among whom Himerins and Proseresius were at that time specially conspicuous, was still drawing a multitude of students from all quarters of Greece, and even from the remote provinces of Asia. Every Sophist had his own school and party, which was attached to him with incredible zeal, and endeavored to gain every newly arriving student to its master. In these efibrts, as well as in the frequent literary contests and debates of the various schools among themselves, there was not seldom much rude and wild behavior. To youth who were not yet firmly grounded in Christianity, residence in Athens, and occupation with the ancient classics, were full of temptation, and might easily kindle an enthusiasm for heathenism, which, however, had already lost its vitality, and was upheld solely by the artificial means of magic, '■heurgy, and an obscure mysticism.'
Basil and Gregoiy remained steadfast, and no poetical or rhetorical glitter could fade the impressions of a pious training. Gregoiy says of their studies in Athens, in his forty-third Oration : " '" We knew only two streets of the city, the first and the more excellent one to the churches, and to the ministers of the altar ; the other, which, however, we did not so highly esteem, to the public schools and to the teachers of the sciences. The streets to the theatres, games, and places of unholy amusements, we left to others. Our holiness was our great concern ; our sole aim was to be called and to be Christians. In this we placed our whole glory." ' In a later ora tion on classic studies Basil encourages them, but admonishes that they should be pursued with caution, and with constant regard to the great Christian purpose of eternal life, to which all earthly objects and attainments are as shadows and dreams
' On this Athenian student-life of that day see especially the 43d, ch. 14 sqq. (in older editions the 20th) Oration of Gregory Nazianzen, and Libanius, De vita sua, p. 13, ed. Reiske.
• The Oratio funebris in laudem Basilii M. c. 21 (Opera, ed. Migne, ii. p. 523).
* 'H^iiv 5f rh /xfja irpu-yp.a koL ovofMu, Xpiartafovs koI dvai kuI ofond^tadai.
896 THIKD PERIOD. A.D, 311-590
to reality. In plucking the rose one should beware of the thorns, and, like the Ix-e, should not only delight himself with the color and the fragrance, but also gain useful honey from the flower.'
The intimate friendship of Basil and Gregory, lasting from fresh, enthusiastic youth till death, resting on an identity of Bpiritual and moral aims, and sanctified by Christian piety, is a lovely and engaging chapter in tlie history of the fathers, and justifies a brief episode in a field nut yet entered by any church historian.
With all the ascetic narrowness of the time, which fettered even these enlightened fathers, they still had minds susceptible to science and art and the heauties of nature. In the works of Basil and of the two Gregories occur pictures of nature such as we seek in vain in the heathen classics. The descriptions of natural scenery among the poets and philosophers of ancient Greece and Home can be easily compressed within a few pages. Socrates, as we learn from Plato, was of the opinion that we can learn nothing from trees and fields, and hence he never took a walk ; he was so bent upon selfdcnowledge, as the true aim of all learning, that he regarded the whole study of nature as useless, because it did not tend to make man either more intelligent or more virtuous. The deeper sense of the beauty of nature is awakened by the religion of revelation alone, which teaches us to see everywhere in creation the traces of the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God. The book of llutli, the book of Job, many Psalms, particularly the 104th, and the parables, are without parallel in Grecian or Roman literature. The renowned naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt, collected some of the most beautiful descriptions of nature from the fathers for his purposes." They are an inter-
' Oratio ad adolescentes, quomodo possint ex gentilium libris fructum capere • or more simply, De Icgendis libris gentilium (in fTaniiei's ed. torn. ii. P. i. pp. 243- 259). This famous oration, which helped to preserve at least some regard for chia- Bical studies in the middle age, has been several times edited separately ; as by Hugo Grotius (with a new Latin translation and Prolegomena), 1623 ; Joh. Potter, 1694; J. H. Majus, 1714; &c.
' In the second volume of his Kosmos, Stuttgart and Tiibingen, 1847, p. 27 fL Humboldt justly observes, p. 26 : " The tendency of Christian sentiment was. tc