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| Basil to Gregory.
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Letter II.1743
| 1743 Placed
circa 358, on Basil’s retiring to Pontus. Translated in
part by Newman, The Church of the Fathers, p. 131, ed.
1840. With the exception of the passages in brackets [], the
version in the text is that of Newman. |
Basil to Gregory.
1. [I recognised
your letter, as one recognises one’s friends’ children from
their obvious likeness to their parents. Your saying that to
describe the kind of place I live in, before letting you hear anything
about how I live, would not go far towards persuading you to share my
life, was just like you; it was worthy of a soul like yours, which
makes nothing of all that concerns this life here, in comparison with
the blessedness which is promised us hereafter. What I do myself,
day and night, in this remote spot, I am ashamed to write. I have
abandoned my life in town, as one sure to lead to countless ills; but I
have not yet been able to get quit of myself. I am like
travellers at sea, who have never gone a voyage before, and are
distressed and seasick, who quarrel with the ship because it is so big
and makes such a tossing, and, when they get out of it into the pinnace
or dingey, are everywhere and always seasick and distressed.
Wherever they go their nausea and misery go with them. My state
is something like this. I carry my own troubles with me, and so
everywhere I am in the midst of similar discomforts. So in the
end I have not got much good out of my solitude. What I ought to
have done; what would have enabled me to keep close to the footprints
of Him who has led the way to salvation—for He says, “If
any one will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross,
and follow me”1744
—is
this.]
2. We must strive after a quiet mind.
As well might the eye ascertain an object put before it while it is
wandering restless up and down and sideways, without fixing a steady
gaze upon it, as a mind, distracted by a thousand worldly cares, be
able clearly to apprehend the truth. He who is not yet yoked in
the bonds of matrimony is harassed by frenzied cravings, and rebellious
impulses, and hopeless attachments; he who has found his mate is
encompassed with his own tumult of cares; if he is childless, there is
desire for children; has he children? anxiety about their education,
attention to his wife,1745
| 1745 γυναικὸς
φυλακή, rather
“guardianship of his wife.” | care of his house,
oversight of his servants,1746
| 1746 οἰκετῶν
προστασιαι,
rather “protection of his servants.” | misfortunes in
trade, quarrels with his neighbours, lawsuits, the risks of the
merchant, the toil of the farmer. Each day, as it comes, darkens
the soul in its own way; and night after night takes up the day’s
anxieties, and cheats the mind with illusions in accordance. Now
one way of escaping all this is separation from the whole world; that
is, not bodily separation, but the severance of the soul’s
sympathy with the body, and to live so without city, home, goods,
society, possessions, means of life, business, engagements, human
learning, that the heart may readily receive every impress of divine
doctrine. Preparation of heart is the unlearning the prejudices
of evil converse. It is the smoothing the waxen tablet before
attempting to write on it.1747
Now solitude is of the greatest use for this
purpose, inasmuch as it stills our passions, and gives room for
principle to cut them out of the soul.1748
| 1748 The following
paragraph is altogether omitted by Newman. | [For just as animals are more easily
controlled when they are stroked, lust and anger, fear and sorrow, the
soul’s deadly foes, are better brought under the control of
reason, after being calmed by inaction, and where there is no
continuous stimulation.] Let there then be such a place as ours,
separate from intercourse with men, that the tenour of our exercises be
not interrupted from without. Pious exercises nourish the soul
with divine thoughts. What state can be more blessed than to
imitate on earth the choruses of angels? to begin the day with
prayer, and honour our Maker
with hymns and songs? As the day brightens, to betake ourselves,
with prayer attending on it throughout, to our labours, and to
sweeten1749
our work with
hymns, as if with salt? Soothing hymns compose the mind to a
cheerful and calm state. Quiet, then, as I have said, is the
first step in our sanctification; the tongue purified from the gossip
of the world; the eyes unexcited by fair colour or comely shape; the
ear not relaxing the tone or mind by voluptuous songs, nor by that
especial mischief, the talk of light men and jesters. Thus the
mind, saved from dissipation from without, and not through the senses
thrown upon the world, falls back upon itself, and thereby ascends to
the contemplation of God. [When1750
that beauty shines about it, it even forgets its very nature; it is
dragged down no more by thought of food nor anxiety concerning dress;
it keeps holiday from earthly cares, and devotes all its energies to
the acquisition of the good things which are eternal, and asks only how
may be made to flourish in it self-control and manly courage,
righteousness and wisdom, and all the other virtues, which, distributed
under these heads, properly enable the good man to discharge all the
duties of life.]
3. The study of inspired Scripture is the
chief way of finding our duty, for in it we find both instruction about
conduct and the lives of blessed men, delivered in writing, as some
breathing images of godly living, for the imitation of their good
works. Hence, in whatever respect each one feels himself
deficient, devoting himself to this imitation, he finds, as from some
dispensary, the due medicine for his ailment. He who is enamoured
of chastity dwells upon the history of Joseph, and from him learns
chaste actions, finding him not only possessed of self-command over
pleasure, but virtuously-minded in habit. He is taught endurance
by Job [who,1751
| 1751 Clause omitted
by Newman. | not only when the
circumstances of life began to turn against him, and in one moment he
was plunged from wealth into penury, and from being the father of fair
children into childlessness, remained the same, keeping the disposition
of his soul all through uncrushed, but was not even stirred to anger
against the friends who came to comfort him, and trampled on him, and
aggravated his troubles.] Or should he be enquiring how to be at
once meek and great-hearted, hearty against sin, meek towards men, he
will find David noble in warlike exploits, meek and unruffled as
regards revenge on enemies. Such, too, was Moses rising up with
great heart upon sinners against God, but with meek soul bearing their
evil-speaking against himself. [Thus,1752
generally, as painters, when they are painting from other pictures,
constantly look at the model, and do their best to transfer its
lineaments to their own work, so too must he who is desirous of
rendering himself perfect in all branches of excellency, keep his eyes
turned to the lives of the saints as though to living and moving
statues, and make their virtue his own by imitation.
4. Prayers, too, after reading, find the soul
fresher, and more vigorously stirred by love towards God. And
that prayer is good which imprints a clear idea of God in the soul; and
the having God established in self by means of memory is God’s
indwelling. Thus we become God’s temple, when the
continuity of our recollection is not severed by earthly cares; when
the mind is harassed by no sudden sensations; when the worshipper flees
from all things and retreats to God, drawing away all the feelings that
invite him to self-indulgence, and passes his time in the pursuits that
lead to virtue.]
5. This, too, is a very important point to
attend to,—knowledge how to converse; to interrogate without
over-earnestness; to answer without desire of display; not to interrupt
a profitable speaker, or to desire ambitiously to put in a word of
one’s own; to be measured in speaking and hearing; not to be
ashamed of receiving, or to be grudging in giving information, nor to
pass another’s knowledge for one’s own, as depraved women
their supposititious children, but to refer it candidly to the true
parent. The middle tone of voice is best, neither so low as to be
inaudible, nor to be ill-bred from its high pitch. One should
reflect first what one is going to say, and then give it
utterance: be courteous when addressed; amiable in social
intercourse; not aiming to be pleasant by facetiousness, but
cultivating gentleness in kind admonitions. Harshness is ever to
be put aside, even in censuring.1753
| 1753 Here Newman
notes that Basil seems sometimes to have fallen short of his own
ideal. His translation ends at this point. | [The
more you shew modesty and humility yourself, the more likely are you to
be acceptable to the patient who needs your treatment. There are
however many occasions when we shall do well to employ the kind of
rebuke used by the prophet who did not in his own person utter the
sentence of condemnation on David after his sin, but by suggesting an
imaginary character made the sinner judge of his own sin, so that,
after passing his own sentence, he could not find fault with the seer
who had convicted him.1754
6. From the humble and submissive spirit
comes an eye sorrowful and downcast, appearance neglected, hair rough,
dress dirty;1755
so that the
appearance which mourners take pains to present may appear our natural
condition. The tunic should be fastened to the body by a girdle,
the belt not going above the flank, like a woman’s, nor left
slack, so that the tunic flows loose, like an idler’s. The
gait ought not to be sluggish, which shews a character without energy,
nor on the other hand pushing and pompous, as though our impulses were
rash and wild. The one end of dress is that it should be a
sufficient covering alike in winter and summer. As to colour,
avoid brightness; in material, the soft and delicate. To aim at
bright colours in dress is like women’s beautifying when they
colour cheeks and hair with hues other than their own. The tunic
ought to be thick enough not to want other help to keep the wearer
warm. The shoes should be cheap but serviceable. In a word,
what one has to regard in dress is the necessary. So too as to
food; for a man in good health bread will suffice, and water will
quench thirst; such dishes of vegetables may be added as conduce to
strengthening the body for the discharge of its functions. One
ought not to eat with any exhibition of savage gluttony, but in
everything that concerns our pleasures to maintain moderation, quiet,
and self-control; and, all through, not to let the mind forget to think
of God, but to make even the nature of our food, and the constitution
of the body that takes it, a ground and means for offering Him the
glory, bethinking us how the various kinds of food, suitable to the
needs of our bodies, are due to the provision of the great Steward of
the Universe. Before meat let grace be said, in recognition alike
of the gifts which God gives now, and which He keeps in store for time
to come. Say grace after meat in gratitude for gifts given and
petition for gifts promised. Let there be one fixed hour for
taking food, always the same in regular course, that of all the four
and twenty of the day and night barely this one may be spent upon the
body. The rest the ascetic1756
| 1756 ἀσκητὴς, firstly an
artisan, came to=ἀθλητὴς, and by
ecclesiastical writers is used for hermit or monk. The
ἐρημιτης, or desert
dweller, lives either in retreat as an anchoret, or solitary,
μοναχός, whence
“monk;” or in common with others, in a κοινόβιον,
as a “cœnobite.” All would be ἀσκηταί. | ought to spend
in mental exercise. Let sleep be light and easily interrupted, as
naturally happens after a light diet; it should be purposely broken by
thoughts about great themes. To be overcome by heavy torpor, with
limbs unstrung, so that a way is readily opened to wild fancies, is to
be plunged in daily death. What dawn is to some this midnight is
to athletes of piety; then the silence of night gives leisure to their
soul; no noxious sounds or sights obtrude upon their hearts; the mind
is alone with itself and God, correcting itself by the recollection of
its sins, giving itself precepts to help it to shun evil, and imploring
aid from God for the perfecting of what it longs
for.]E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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