See also F. W. K. Müller, Uigurica, I, i, Die Anbetung der Magier, ein Christliches Bruchstück, Berlin, 1908.
[2060] Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, I, 274, says, “Augustine and Chrysostom felt and spoke in the same way, though in more measured language, and nearly all early Christian writers who touched upon the matter did so to echo the voice of authorities so unquestioned.” But I cannot agree with this statement. He goes on to imply that a majority of the fathers, like Cosmas Indicopleustes, attacked the belief in the sphericity of the earth; but here, too, I wonder if he is not following Letronne, Des Opinions Cosmographiques des Pères, without having examined the citations. Certainly no such attitude is found in Basil’s Hexaemeron, Hom. 3 and 9 as the citation implies. I have not seen Marinelli, La geographia e i Padri della Chiesa, estratto dal Bollettino della Società geografica italiana, anno 1882, pp. 11-15.
[2061] Divin. Instit., III, 24.
[2062] Migne, PG, vol. 29; PN, vol. 8.
[2063] Duhem (1914) II, 394, however, prefers Gregory of Nyssa’s work as “à la fois plus sobre, plus concis, et plus philosophique....”
[2064] Homily I was delivered in the morning, II in the evening; III was in the morning and speaks of a coming evening address. At the close of Homily VII Basil urges his hearers to talk over at their evening meal what they have heard this morning and this evening. If we regard Homily VI as the morning address referred to, we shall have Homily V left to cover an entire day. Homily VI, however, is the longest of the nine. In any case Homily VIII is clearly preached in the morning, and IX at evening.
[2065] Bk. II, caps. 10-17.
[2066] Epistola 65, ad Pammachium. Augustine’s De Genesi ad litteram, which Cassiodorus (Institutes, I, 1) esteemed above the commentaries of Basil and Ambrose upon Genesis, is a somewhat similar work, but, after a briefer treatment of the work of creation, continues to comment on the text up to Adam’s expulsion from Paradise.
[2067] Migne, PL, 14, 131-2. The most recent edition of the Hexaemeron of Ambrose is by C. Schenkl. Vienna, 1896.
[2068] Fialon, Étude sur St. Basile, 1869, p. 296.