728 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



divine purpose in Nature, whicli went on developing from the 

 fourth century to the nineteenth from St. Basil to St. Isidore of 

 Seville, from Isidore to Vincent de Beauvais, and from Vincent 

 to Archdeacon Paley and the Bridgewater Treatises. 



Like all else in the middle ages this sacred science was devel- 

 oped purely by theological methods. Neglecting the wonders 

 which the dissection of the commonest animals would have af- 

 forded them, these naturalists attempted to throw light into Na- 

 ture by ingenious use of scriptural texts, by research among the 

 lives of the saints, and by the plentiful application of metaphysics. 

 Hence even such strong men as St. Isidore of Seville treasured 

 up accounts of the unicorn and dragons mentioned in the Scrip- 

 tures and of the phoenix and basilisk in profane writings. Hence 

 such contributions to knowledge as that the basilisk kills ser- 

 pents by his breath and men by his glance, that the lion when 

 pursued effaces his tracks with the end of his tail, that the peli- 

 can nourishes her young with her own blood, that serpents lay 

 aside their venom before drinking, that the salamander quenches 

 fire, that the hyena can talk with shepherds, that certain birds 

 are born of the fruit of a certain tree when it happens to fall into 

 the water, with other masses of science equally valuable. 



As to the method of bringing science to bear on Scripture, the 

 Physiologus gives an example in illustrating the passage in the 

 book of Job which speaks of the old lion perishing for lack of 

 prey. Out of the attempt to explain an unusual Hebrew word in 

 the text there came a curious development of error, until we find 

 fully evolved an account of the ant-lion, which, it gives us to un- 

 derstand, was the lion mentioned by Job, and it says : " As to the 

 ant-lion, his father hath the shape of a lion, his mother that of an 

 ant ; the father liveth upon flesh and the mother upon herbs ; 

 these bring forth the ant-lion, a compound of both and in part 

 like to either ; for his fore part is like that of a lion and his hind 

 part like that of an ant. Being thus composed, he is neither able 

 to eat flesh like his father nor herbs like his mother, and so he 

 perisheth." 



The same sort of science flourished in the Bestiaries, which 

 were used everywhere and especially in the pulpits for the edifi- 

 cation of the faithful. In all of these, as in that compiled early 

 in the thirteenth century by an ecclesiastic, William of Nor- 

 mandy, we have this lesson, borrowed from the Physiologus : 

 " The lioness giveth birth to cubs which remain three days with- 

 out life. Then cometh the lion, breatheth upon them, and bring- 

 eth them to life. . . . Thus it is that Jesus Christ during three 

 days was deprived of life, but God the Father raised him glo- 

 riously." 



Pious use was constantly made of this science, especially by 



