150 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



After he had become a monk he made atonement by in- 

 forming mankind that 



"William, a Norman clerk who verses strung 

 In flowing numbers of the Romance tongue, 

 Too oft, alas, indulgent his refrain 

 In fable foolish and in legend vain 

 Too oft he sinned and him may God forgive 

 Who loved the world, and in it loved to live." 1 



Among the poetic effusions which their author thus 

 lamented is one discovered by M. Paul in Paris, a distin- 

 guished French antiquarian, in a MS. of 1329, which he 

 attributes unquestionably to William the Clerk. It is en- 

 titled lyove's Complaint (Complainte d'Amour), and in it 

 the poet, after comparing his inamorata to the Pole star or 

 Tramontane, gives the following description of the com- 

 pass. 2 



"Such of Tramontane the guise 

 Shining blazing in the skies. 

 Who, to far Venetia's strand 

 Greece or Acre, Frisian land, 

 Wandering sees its friendly ray 

 Pointing out the hidden way. 

 Knows it faithful guide to be 

 O'er the bosom of the sea. 

 Whether storm vext or at rest, 

 Blow the north wind or the west. 



"When before the northern gale 

 Flies through raging waves, the sail, 

 That pure beam serene and clear, 

 Saves the bark from danger near. 

 When the blackness of the night 

 Cloud-enshrouded veils its light, 

 Still it doth a virtue own 

 Drawing iron to the stone. 

 Guiding safely those who roam, 

 To the sweet delights of home. 



1 The free translation is the author's. Wright, T.: Biog. Brit, cit. sup. 



2 Author's translation. Bulletin du Bibliophile, cit. sup. 



