298 



NATURE 



[January 26, 1893 



the magnet draws the iron, or by way of impulsion, 

 generating impelling vapours, as in certain mountains." 

 A truly scientific and most suggestive remark ! 



We may compare the last clause with those well-known 

 lines of the " Inferno," in which is described how the 

 earth, and likewise the mountain of Purgatoiy were formed 

 when Lucifer fell from Heaven :— 



" Da questa parte cadde giu dal cielo ', 

 E la terra, che pria di qua si sporse, 

 Per paura di lui fe del mar velo, 

 E venne all'emisperio nostro : e forse 

 Per fuggir lui, lascio qui il luogo voto 

 (^uella ch'appar di qua, e su ricorse." 



— " Inferno," xxxiv. 1 21- 126.' 



But now it may be asked, Since that region of the 

 heaven moveth circlewise, why did not this elevation 

 happen circlewise ? Because, Dante answers, the matter 

 was not sufficient for so great an elevation. Then why 

 was the elevation of the earth produced in our hemisphere 

 rather than in the other 1 To this, says Dante, we must 

 answer as Aristotle does (in " De Coelo," book ii:) in 

 answer to the question why the heavens move from east 

 to west and not contrariwise, that such questions proceed 

 either from much folly or from much presumption, be- 

 cause they are above our intellect. God made all things 

 for the best, and when He said, " Congregentur aquae in 

 locum unum et appareat arida," then were the heavens 

 virtuated to act and the earth potentiated to be passive. 



" Let therefore men cease," cries Dante, " yea, cease 

 from inquiring into those things which are above their 

 intellect, and let them strive to the utmost of their power 

 to raise themselves to things immortal and divine, and so 

 leave those things which exceed their understanding. 

 Let them listen to Job : — ' Numquid vestigia Dei 

 comprehendes, et omnipotentem usque ad per- 

 fectionem reperies.' — (Job xi. 7.) Let them hearken 

 to the words of the Psalmist : * Mirabilis facta 

 est scientia tua ; et me confortatus est, et non 

 potero ad eam.' — (Ps. cxxxviii.) Let them hear Isaiah 

 speaking in the person of God to man : ' Quam distant 

 coeli a terra, tantum distant vias meas a viis vestris.' — 

 {Is. Iv. 9.) Let them hear the voice of the Apostle to the 

 Romans : ' O altitudo divitiarum scientise et sapientias 

 Dei ! quam incomprehensibilia judicia ejus, et investi- 

 gabiles viae ejus!' — (Rom. xi. 33.) Lastly, let them 

 hearken to the very voice of the Creator, saying : ' Quo 

 Ego vado, vos non potestis venire.' — (S. John vii. 34). 

 And let these things suffice for the inquiry of the truth 

 before us." 



We may most fittingly compare this Dantesque passage 

 with the close of Galileo Galilei's famous " Dialogo 

 intorno ai due massimi sistemi del mondo, tolemaico 

 e copernicano," which I here venture to translate : — 



" Simplicio. If either of you were asked, If God in 

 His infinite power and wisdom could confer upon the 

 element of water the reciprocal movement which we per- 

 ceive in it, in another way than by the moving of the 

 vessel containing it, I know that you would answer, that 

 He could have done so in many ways, even unimaginable 

 by our intellect ; whence I immediately conclude that, 

 this being so, it would be excessive daring for any one to 

 wish to limit and restrict the Divine power and wisdom 

 to a particular phantasy of his own. 



" Salviati. An admirable and truly angelical doctrine, 

 to which very conformably answers that other divine 

 doctrine, which, whilst it allows us to dispute about the 

 constitution of the world, adds (perhaps in order that the 



* " Upon this side he fell down out of heaven ; 



And all the land, that whilom here emerged, 

 For fear of him made of the sea a veil, 

 And came to our hemisphere ; and peradventure 

 To flee from him, what on this side appears 

 Left the place vacant here, and back recoiled." 



— " Inferno," xxxiv. 121-126, Longfellow's trans. 



exercise of human minds be not suppressed nor grow 

 lazy) that we are not to find out the work of His hands. 

 Let therefore the exercise permitted and ordained to us 

 by God make us recognize and so much the more wonder 

 at His greatness, as we find ourselves the less competent 

 to penetrate into the profound abysses of His infinite 

 wisdom. 



" Sagredo. And this will serve for the last conclusion 

 of our four days' argument."— Galileo Galilei, " Dialogo 

 dei Massimi Sistemi, Giornata quarta." 



Dante now briefly deals with the five arguments which 

 he mentioned at the beginning of his treatise as the most 

 important against his theory. These being made short 

 work of, he concludes : — 



" This philosophical question was determined by me, 

 Dante Alighieri, the least of philosophers, beneath the 

 sway of that invincible lord, Messer Cane Grande della 

 Scala, for the holy Roman empire, in the illustrious city 

 of Verona, in the church of S. Helena, and in the presence 

 of all the Veronese clergy, save some few who, aflame 

 with too much charity, do not admit the postulates of 

 others, and through virtue of humility poor of the Holy 

 Spirit, shun being present at their discourses, lest they 

 may seem to approve their excellence. 



" Now this was done in the year from the Nativity of 

 our Lord Jesus Christ, 1320, on Sunday, which the Saviour 

 injoined on us to venerate for His glorious Nativity and 

 His wondrous Resurrection. The which day was the 7th 

 from the ides of January and the 13th before the calends 

 of February " {i.e. January 20). 



I have dealt merely with the chief parts of this 

 Dantesque dissertation. According to Signor A. Stop- 

 pani (" La questione dell' Acqua e della Terra di Dante 

 Alighieri," in " opp. Lat. di Dante," ed. Giuliani, vol. ii.) 

 there are nine truths relating to cosmology, presaged, 

 affirmed, and in part demonstrated. These nine he 

 makes out thus : — 



(i) The moon the principal cause of tides. 



(2) Equality of the sea's level. 



(3) Centripetal force. 



(4) Sphericity of the earth. 



(5) Dry land simply protuberance of the earth's 

 surface. 



(6) Northern grouping together of the continents. 



(7) Universal attraction. 



(8) Elasticity of vapours a motive power. 



(9) Heaving up of the continents. 



Let me now add a tenth : A vague foreshadowing of 

 our modern idea of chemical elements as distinct from 

 those of Aristotle, or at least of homogeneous chemical 

 bodies ; " Corpora enim homogenea et simplicia sunt ; 

 homogenea, ut aurum depuratum ; et corpora simplicia, 

 ut ignis et terra." Edmund G. Gardner. 



Caius College, Cambridge. 



NO. I 2 13, VOL. 47] 



MOROCCO} 



MOROCCO has a paradoxical place in the history of 

 exploration ; although the only part of Africa fully 

 in sight from the shores of Europe, and dotted with one 

 or two half European coast towns, its interior is more 

 firmly closed to the traveller, sportsman, and missionary 

 than the dense forests of the Congo, or even the shores 

 of Lake Chad. The difficulties in the way are not 

 physical, nor are they wholly political. They arise mainly 

 from the deeply-rooted antagonism in race and creed 

 between the inhabitants of Morocco and all Christendom 

 — this quaint and semi-fossil phrase is still here a neces- 

 sary and sufficient term. At this moment public atten- 



1 " Bibliography of the Barbary States." Part IV. A Bibliography of 

 Morocco from the earliest times to the end of 1891. By Lietrt.-Col. bir R. 

 Lambert Playfair and Dr. Robert Brown. 



