Page:Anglo-Saxon version of the Hexameron of St. Basil.djvu/34

Rh The light of day He created, and dispelled the darkness, in order that the things created might be made visible through the enlightening of the day in the vernal season, inasmuch aa He, in the time of spring, as the doctors tell us, created the first day of this world, that is, by computation, the fifteenth of the calends of April, and after that, the things created, as we here tell you. The heavens on high, wherein the angels have their habitations, these He also formed on the same day. Concerning them we sing in a certain psalm thus, Opera manuum tuarum sunt cœli, that is, "The heavens are the work of Thy bands, Lord;" again, in another psalm has the same prophet sang, Ipse dixit, et facta sunt, ipse mandavit et creata sunt, "He spake it Himself, and they were formed: He commanded it Himself, and they were created." The water and the earth were commingled until the third day, then God divided them, as is hereafter mentioned in this treatise. The atmosphere He created for the strengthening of our life; through it, we breathe, and also the inferior animals, and our breath faileth, if we cannot draw the atmosphere with our breathing into us, and again breathe it forth, as long as we are alive (quick). The atmosphere is as high aa are the clouds of heaven, and also all as broad as is the breadth of the earth ; in it do the birds fly, but their pinions could not carry them any where if the atmosphere did not bear them up.

V. Secunda die fecit Deus firmamentum, "on the second day our Lord formed the firmament, which men call Rodor;" it encloseth in its bosom all the breadth of the earth, and within it is placed all this earth, and it ever goeth about and a running wheel, and it never standeth still altogether, and with one turning; the while it is turning round once, there go forth, indeed, four and twenty hours, that is, therefore altogether, one day and one night. "The firmament God