(Vol. vii. _passim._)
I sent a Note to "N. & Q" some time ago, expressing my conviction that the
original _locale_ of this beautiful idea was in St. Chrysostom. but, as I
could not then give a reference to the passage which contained it, my
suggestion was of course not definite enough to call for attention. I am
now able to vindicate to the "golden-mouthed" preacher of Antioch this
expression of poetic fancy, the origination of which has excited, and
deservedly, so much inquiry among the readers of "N. & Q." It occurs in
Homily X., "On the Statues," delivered at Antioch. I transcribe the passage
from the translation in _The Library of the Fathers_:
"Follow me whilst I enumerate the meadows, the gardens, the flowering
tribes; all sorts of herbs and their uses, their odours, forms,
disposition; yea, but their very names; the trees which are fruitful
and the barren; the nature of metals; that of animals, in the sea or on
the land; of those that swim and those that traverse the air; the
mountains, the forests, the groves; _the meadow below and the meadow
above_; _for there is a meadow on the earth_, _and a meadow too in the
sky_, THE VARIOUS FLOWERS OF THE STARS; the rose below, and the rainbow
above!... Contemplate with me the beauty of the sky; how it has been
preserved so long without being dimmed, and remains as bright and clear
as if it had been only fabricated to-day; moreover the power of the
earth, how its womb has not become effete by bringing forth during so
long a time!" &c. Homily X., "On the Statues," pp. 178-9.