SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 115 



pation, the lodestone which Harrison, 1 in 1577, speaks of 

 as ''oftentimes taken up out of our mines of iron/' was 

 present in abundance in the country. The first Anglo- 

 Latin epigrammist, St. Aldhelm, 2 writing in the latter half 

 of the seventh century, devotes a stanza to it, mainly with 

 relation to the supposed power of the diamond to cut off its 

 attraction; and the Venerable Bede indirectly alludes to it 

 in his mention of Bellerophon's horse suspended in the 

 air at Rhodes. 



The writings of St. Isidore and Bede were the chief 

 text-books of science of the Anglo-Saxons up to the 

 twelfth century. Their dicta were accepted as articles of 

 faith to be learned, and not questioned. Compilations and 

 re-compilations were made from them, often intermingled 

 with spurious treatises, and the whole buried under great 

 masses of commentaries, so that, to determine therefrom 

 the state of knowledge existing at any particular period is 

 at best a doubtful undertaking. The Anglo-Saxon work 

 in which we might expect to find the compass described, 

 if it were known, is the Manual of Astronomy abridged by 

 Alfric from Bede's De Natura Rerum, in the loth century; 

 but it contains no reference to the instrument, and, on the 

 contrary, alludes to the northern or "ship star," and its 

 fixedness in the heavens. 3 



With the monastic reforms of Dunstan and Athelwold 

 some slight revival of scientific investigation becomes 

 apparent. But it was of weakling growth, and when it 

 was found linked with like progress in Saracen Spain, the 

 great body of the monks looked upon it with suspicion as 

 savoring of witchcraft and heresy. Despite the fame 

 which Dunstan gained by his supposed victory in a per- 



1 Harrison, W. : A Description of England. Lond., 1577. Book in., 

 c. 12. 



2 Aldhelm: Lib de Septenario et de Metris. Ep. viii. De Magnete 

 Ferrifero. 



3 Wright, T.: Popular Treatises on Science during the Middle Ages. 

 London, 1841. 



