A. D. 730. 



245 



London after the abdication of Britain by the Romans, flourifhed at 

 this time. He is allowed, by the impartial voice of all fucceeding ages 

 and of every nation, to have been the greateft ornament, not only of 

 Northumberland and of England, but of all the weftern world, and 

 the moft illuftrious mathematician and aftronomer, as well as the great- 

 efl fcholar, of the middle ages. Almoft the whole circle of the fciences 

 of antient Greece and Rome was known to him ; and it particularly 

 deferves our notice, that he aflerted the rotundity of the earth, [Beda 

 Opera, V. i, p. 376; V. ii, p. 125, ed. Colon. 161 2] and that he was not 

 condemned as a heretic for his knowlege *. 



732 — The Saracens from Spain had now penetrated into the center 

 of France. It was but another flep to Britain. But the valour of 

 Charles Martel, the founder of a dynafty of kings of France, repelled 

 the torrent. The Saracen army was defeated with prodigious llaughter 

 in a battle, which lafled a whole week ; and France and the countries 

 beyond it were for ever preferved from Arabian conqueft. 



Notwithftanding this check, the Saracens continued the moft power- 

 ful people in the world. They were the undoubted, and the unrivaled, 

 fovereigns of the fea, and almoft the only traders, upon the Mediter- 

 ranean, and on the Indian ocean. But the Chriftians of Europe were 

 excluded from almoft every channel, by which the pretious goods of 

 the Eaft had formerly been conveyed to them f . An inveterate anti- 

 pathy, excited by mutual flaughters, and inflamed by religious bigotry, 

 which made the Chriftians conlider the Mohamedans as difciples of an 



* The wonderful pi-oficicncy of Bede in ftudy 

 could only be equaled by his induftry in corriniu- 

 nicating to others the treafures of his knowlege, 

 which he did in a prodigious number of compoli- 

 tions, one hundred and thirty-nine of which, ilill ex- 

 tant, and collefted in eight folio volumes, may be 

 confidered as a complete body of the learning and 

 fcience, as well as the theology, of the middle ages. 

 Befides his knowlege of the rotundity of the earth, 

 the following may be noted as fpecimens of his in- 

 ftruflions in the fciences connected with commerce. 



V- i, />. 103 Multiplication tables, which he 

 calls Pythagoric tables. (They are in figures, but 

 that is a liberty, and a very improper one, taken 

 by the editor.) 



p. 135 Arithmetical cafes for the exercife of 

 learners, many of which are ftill retained in our 

 modern books of arithmetic. One of them (hows 

 that 20 (hillings made a pound, at lead in weight, 

 in the Northumbrian kingdom ; ' Eil difcus qui 

 *- penfat libras 30 five folidos 6co ;' and the folu- 

 tion of this queftion proves that the pound confill- 

 ed of i2 otuices. Another fuppofes a man leaving 

 30 glafs bottles (' ampullas vitreas') to his fons : 

 this, unlefs it was copied from a work compofed 

 in a more civilized country, may feem to infer that 

 glafs bottles were common in Northumbcrlaud.. 



p. 163 The circumference of the earth 252,000 

 ftadia ; copied from Eratofthenes. See above, p. 

 94. 



p. 387 The revolution of Saturn in 30 years, 

 Jupiter in 12, Mars in 2, the fun in 365I days ; 

 wherein he follows the antients. 



p. 463 Rules for conilrufting dials, and aftro- 

 labes. 



f It has been fuppofed, that, after the Saracens 

 got poffefllon of Egypt, the communication be- 

 tween India and Euiope through Alexandria ftill 

 continued as before ; and I thought fo myfelf, till 

 upon examination I found no authority whatever 

 for any intercourfe of the Chriilians with Alexan- 

 dria before the beginning of the ninth century. In 

 the almoft-total darknefs of hiilory in thefe be- 

 nighted ages probable prcfumptions muft be re- 

 ceived for want of better evidence : and we find,., 

 that before Egypt fell into the hands of the Sara- 

 cens, writings of importance in Europe were exe- 

 cuted upon the Egyptian papyrus ; but after that 

 period they ate upon parchment. This amountt 

 almoft to a proof, that the trade with Egypt, the 

 only country producing the papyrus, was interrupt- 

 ed. [See Muratori Antiq. ltd. V. iii, col. %iz et 

 pajim.'} 



