374 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



character from Saint Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians and from the one 

 hundred and forty-eighth Psalm. As to " the waters which are above 

 the firmament," he takes up the objection of those who hold that, this 

 outside of the universe being spherical, the waters must slide off it, 

 especially if the firmament revolves ; and he points out that it is by 

 no means certain that the outside of the firmament is spherical, and 

 insists that, if it does revolve, the water is just what is needed to lubri- 

 cate and cool its axis.* 



Saint Jerome held that God at the creation spread out the firma- 

 ment between heaven and earth, separating the upper waters from the 

 lower, and that, in order to keep all in place, He caused the upper waters 

 to be frozen into ice. A proof of this view Jerome found in the w r ords 

 of Ezekiel regarding " the crystal stretched above the cherubim." f 



The germinal principle in accordance with which all these theories 

 were evolved, was most clearly proclaimed to the world by Saint Au- 

 gustine in his famous utterance, " Nothing is to be accepted save on 

 the authority of Scripture, since greater is that authority than all the 

 powers of the human mind." \ No treatise was safe thereafter which 

 did not breathe the spirit and conform to the letter of this maxim. 

 Unfortunately, what was generally meant by the " authority of Script- 

 ure," was the tyranny of a literature imperfectly transcribed, viewed 

 through distorting superstitions, and frequently interpreted by party 

 spirit. 



Following this precept, Saint Augustine developed, in every field, 

 theological views of science which have never led to a single truth 

 which, without exception, have forced mankind away from the truth, 

 and have caused Christendom to stumble for centuries into abysses of 

 error and sorrow. In meteorology, as in every other science with 

 which he dealt, he based everything upon the letter of the sacred text ; 

 and it is characteristic of the result that this man, so great when un- 

 trammeled, thought it his duty to guard especially the whole theory 

 of the " waters above the heavens." 



In the sixth century this theological reasoning was still further 

 developed by Cosmas Indicopleustes. Basing his theory of the uni- 

 verse upon the ninth chapter of Hebrews, he insisted that the earth is 

 flat, a parallelogram, and that from its outer edges rise immense walls 



* See Ambrose, " Ilexfcmcron," ii, 3, 4 ; ill, 5 (Migne, "Patr. Lat.," xiv, 148-150, 153, 

 165). The passage as to lubrication of the heavenly axis is as follows: " Deinde cum 

 ipsi dicant volvi orbem cceli stellis ardentibus rcfulgentem, nonne divina providentia 

 necessario prospexit, ut intra orbcm cceli, et supra orbem rcdundarct aqua, qute ilia fcr- 

 ventis axis incendia temperaret ? " 



f See Jerome, "Epistola," lxix, 6 (Migne, "Patr. Lat.," xxii, 669). 



\ " Major est quippe Scriptura: hujus auctoritas, quam omnis humani ingenii capa. 

 citas." Augustine, " De Genesi ad Lit.," ii, 5 (Migne, "Patr. Lat.," xxxiv, 266, 267). 

 Or, as he is cited by Vincent of Beauvais (" Spec. Nat.," iv, 98) : " Xon est aliquid temere 

 diffiniendum, sed quantum Scriptura dicit accipiendum, cujus major est auctoritas quam 

 omnis humani ingenii capacitas." 



