106 RICHARD MCKEON 



The early chapters take up the zones of the air and the effect 

 of the heat of the sun raising water to form clouds, and the 

 transition from air to water is made in Chapter 14 on the 

 tides of the Ocean. The book presents information concerning 

 meteorological phenomena, snow, thunder, lightning, tides, 

 fountains, and wells. Book IV is devoted to the remaining 

 element, and begins with a chapter on earth and the world. 

 After sketching some geogi-aphical questions — the qualities of 

 earth, its inhabitants, the continents Asia, Africa, and Europe, 

 a translation is made to man in Chapter 7. Since the creation 

 of the first man, male and female, from dust was treated in 

 Book I, William undertakes now to treat " of the everyday 

 creation, formation, birth, ages, members of man, and of the 

 functions and uses of his members." He begins with the sperm, 

 traces man from the womb through infancy, examines his 

 organs, digestion, sleep, senses, soul, virtues, and youth and 

 old age largely in terms of the fundamental contraries. The 

 book ends with five chapters on teaching and the order of 

 learning. 



William argues that man is by nature hot and cold and is 

 tempered by the interplay of the four qualities, so that dif- 

 ferences of virtue and temperament result from the intensifica- 

 tion and remission of the contrary qualities. ^^ He follows 

 Constantine's localization of the functions of the mind in the 

 three cells of the brain. The anterior cell is called fantastic, 

 that is, visual or imaginative, because it is the seat of the 

 power of seeing and understanding; it is hot and dry to attract 

 the forms of things and colors. The middle cell is called 

 logistic, that is rational, because it is the seat of the power of 

 distinguishing; it is hot and moist that it may conform to the 

 properties of things and distinguish better. The posterior cell 

 is called memorial, because it is the seat of the power of 

 retaining; it is cold and dry in order to retain better. This 

 localization was determined, according to William, by observa- 

 tion of wounds of the head in which it was noted that injuries 



" De PhUosophia Mundi, IV, 20; PL 172, 93B-C. 



