HOW THE EARTH WAS REGARDED. 



55 1 



a laro-e conical mountain ; and accordingly as the sun disappears and 

 emerges at points higher or lower is the varying length of day and 

 night. On his view the stars were impelled by angels, who either 

 carried them on their shoulders, rolled them in front of them, or drew 

 them behind, it being remarked that "each angel that pushes a star 

 takes great care to observe what the others are doing, so that the 

 relative distances between the stars may always remain what they 

 ought to be." 



The learned Bede, known as the Venerable, who lived in the eighth 

 century, regarded the earth as formed upon the model of an egg. 

 He says: 



Fig. 12. The Eabth as a Floating Egg. 



"The earth is an element placed in the middle of the world, as the yolk is in 

 the middle of an egg; around it is the water, like the white surrounding the 

 yolk ; outside that is the air, like the membrane of the egg ; and round all is the 

 fire, which closes it in as the shell does. The earth, being thus in the centre, 

 receives every weight upon itself ; and, though by its nature it is cold and dry in 

 its different parts, it acquires, accidentally, different qualities; for the portion 

 which is exposed to the torrid action of the air is burned by the sun, and is un- 

 inhabitable ; its two extremities are too cold to be inhabited ; but the portion 

 that lies in the temperate region of the atmosphere is habitable. The ocean, 

 which surrounds it by its waves as far as the horizon, divides it into two parts, 

 the upper of which is inhabited by us, while the lower is inhabited by our an- 

 tipodes ; although not one of them can come to us, nor one of us to them." 



It is said that a great number of the maps of the world, at the 

 period of Bede, followed this idea, although the necessity was per- 



