K A il D W I C K E'S S C I E N C E-G O S S 1 r. 



because she is far from our sight. The sun is typi- 

 cal of our Saviour Christ, who is the Sun of Right- 

 eousness, as tl'.e propliet said, ' To the men who 

 fear God, the Suu of Righteousuess shall arise, aud 

 health is ou her pinions.' The stars also, which 

 seem to be very little, are very broad ; and, ou 

 account of the great moisture which is between us, 

 seem to our sight very small. Yet they could not 

 send any light to our earth from the high heaven, if 

 they were so small as they appear to our eyes. 



" Truly the moon aud all the stars receive light 

 from the great sun, aud none of them hath any rays 

 but of the sun's rays ; and though the sun shines 

 under the earth at night, yet her light ascends on a 

 part of the earth which lights up the stars above us, 

 and when she rises she overcomes the light of all 

 the stars and the moon also by lier immense light. 

 The moon, that waxes and wanes, is tj^ucal of the 

 present generation in which we are. He is waxing 

 by the children who are born, and waning by those 

 v/ho die. The bright stars are typical of the be- 

 lievers in God's congregation, M'ho shine in good 

 converse." 



The compiler enters rather minutely iuio the sub- 

 ject of the position of the sun at various periods of 

 the year. He then goes on to say that the night is 

 divided into seven parts, from tlie sun's setting. 

 " One of these parts is crepusculum ; that is, evening's 

 gloaming. The second is vesperum ; that is, evening. 

 The third is conticmmm, M^heu all things are silent 

 in their rest. The fourth is intempesticm ; that is, 

 midnight. The fifth is gallicinium ; that is, cock- 

 crowing. The sixth is raatuiiiuim, or Aurora ; thai is, 

 dawning. The seventh is dillcidum ; that is, early 

 morning, between dawn and sunrise. Weeks and 

 months are known to men according to their under- 

 standing of them ; and though we should describe 

 them according to bookish meaning, it will seem to 

 unlearned men too deep aud uncommon." 



Several pages are devoted to the various divisions 

 of the calendar, and he also devotes soiue time in 

 endeavouring to convince his readers that, although 

 the moon is spoken of as new and old, and waxing 

 and waning, still she really does not change, but that 

 the different appearances are produced by theposition 

 of the sun. " No Christian shall divine anything by 

 the moon ; if he doth, his belief is nought. If the 

 sun lights him from above, then h.e will stoop ; if she 

 lights him right athwart, then he is equally horned ; 

 if the sun lights him from below, then he inclines 

 up. Because he always turns his back to the sun, 

 he is so turned as the suu lights him. 



"Now, say some men, who do not know this 

 reason, that the moon turns him according as the 

 weather shall be in the )nonth ; but neither weather 

 nor unweather (A.-S. un-wcder) turns him from 

 that which is his nature." 



Our friend now proceeds to describe divers 

 stars. 



*' Some men say that stars fall from heaven ; but it 

 is not stars that fall, but fire from the sky, which 

 flies from the heavenly bodies as sparks do from fire. 

 [^Qiiei-i', has the present President of the British 

 Association cribbed this idea from this manual r] 

 Certainly there are as many stars in the heavens as 

 there were when God made them. They are also 

 fixed in the firmament, and M'ill not fall from hence 

 while the world endures." 



The atmosphere is described as one of the four 

 elements in v.4iieh we live, and in which every cor- 

 poreal body dwells. "There are four elements in 

 which all earthly bodies dwell, which are — aer, 

 ignis, terra, aqua. Aer is atmosphere ; ignis, fire ; 

 ierra, earth; aqua, water. Air is a very thin cor- 

 poreal element. It goes over the whole world, and 

 extends up nearly to the moon. No man or auy 

 cattle has any breathing except by means of air. 

 The breath that we blow out is not the soul, but is 

 the air in which we live in thi« mortal life." 



The treatise concludes wath a short description 

 of rain, hail, snow, and thunder, which he thus ex- 

 plains : — 



" Thunder comes of heat and moisture. The atmo- 

 sphere draws the moisture to it from below and the 

 heat from above, and when they are gathered to- 

 gether, the heat and moisture within the atmosphere 

 strive with each other with fearful noise, and tl;e 

 fire bursts out and injures the produce of the earth, 

 if it be greater than the moisture. If the moisture 

 be greater than the fire, then it does good. It is 

 loud on account of the extent of the air, and dan- 

 gerous on account of the shooting of the fire. Be 

 this treatise here ended, God help my hands." 



These brief extracts will suiiice to show the state 

 of physical science in the tenth century. Almost all 

 his facts arc, as we now know, mere assertions, aud 

 in many cases wholly devoid of truth ; but from an 

 observation made by our author, he appears to have 

 had no mean opinion of his scientific knowledge. He 

 very modestly remarks, that " he knows that it will 

 seem incredible to unlearned men if we speak 

 scientifically concerning the stars and concerning 

 their courses." 



The next treatise to which I will call your atten- 

 tion is written in Anglo-Norman by Philip de Tliaun, 

 The earliest existing MS. dates about the twelfth 

 century. It is devoted almost entirely to an ex- 

 planation of the calendar. He commences by 

 stating his reasons for writing the book ; among 

 others, in order to enable priests to maintain the 

 law (that is, the time when festivals and fasts 

 ought to be observed) ; and lie thus disposes of 

 tliose critics who may happen to find fault with the 

 work, or venture to doubt its usefulness : — " But 

 whatever some may say who have got no sense, 

 that I have laboured in vain when I made this 

 book, they will swear, it may be by the virtues of 

 heaven, that I never knew how to rhyme or set out 



