Mat 1, 1899.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



107 



Old Testament Scriptures, and, indeed, its style is not 

 nnlike in its clearness and simplicity the " Homilies " for 

 which he is famous. 



As was necessarily the case in a book intended for wide 

 circulation before the invention of printing, the treatment 

 is exceedingly concise, and the whole book does not exceed 

 in amount five pages of Knowledge. In this short space 

 we have the creation of the world treated of, the nature 

 and typical significance of sun. moon, and stars, of the 

 first day of the world and of the vernal equinox, of night 

 and its divisions, of the year and the zodiac, of the relations 

 of the sun and moon, and of their movements, of the time 

 of the equinoxes and the solstices, of leap year, of meteors 

 and comets, of wind, rain, hail, snow, and thunder. 



The book bears the name, when complete, of " De 

 Compoto," but occasionally it is found without its first 

 chapter. The second chapter is entitled " De prime Die 

 Sasouli." 



The first point which would, I think, strike most modem 

 readers is the clearness with which the writer has grasped 

 the fact of the rotundity of the earth. It is clear to him 

 that the earth stands in empty space, having the heavens 

 as far below it as they are high above it. This, he 

 teaches again and again, sometimes directly, sometimes 

 incidentally. 



" Seo heofon belrcth on hyre bosme ealne middan-oard, and 

 heo (efre tyrnth on butan us, swiftre thonne aenig mTlnn-hweol, 

 call sTca deop under thvssre eor'dau swa heo is bufan.'" 



" The heaven envelopes in its bosom all the middle- 

 world, and it always tumeth about us, swifter than any mill- 

 wheel, all as deep under this earth as it is above.' Similarly, 

 he describes how our " earthly night soothly comes through 

 the earth's shadow, when the sun goeth in the evening 

 under this earth, then is the earth's broadness betwixt us 

 and the sun so that we have nothing of her lightiog tUl 

 she is at the other side uprisen." " Assuredly it is a wonder- 

 ful thing that this worldly night is nothing but the earth's 

 shadow betwixt the stm and mankind.'' Again, " the earth 

 stands in the very middle through God's might, so fastened 

 that it never moves higher or lower than the Almighty 

 Shaper, who holds aU things without effort, has estab- 

 lished it." 



He gives a proof of the form of the earth incidentally by 

 remarking " truly the day of equinox is one for all the 

 world, and equally long, and all other days in the twelve- 

 month have different lengths. In some lands they are 

 longer, in some shorter, through the earth's shadowing 

 and the sun's going about. The earth stands in the like- 

 ness of a pine-nut, and the sun glides about it by God's 

 Betting, and on the end where she shines it is day through 

 her hghting, and the end that she leaves is overcast with 

 darkness till she is thither returned again. Now, it is the 

 earth's roundness and the sun's going about that prevents 

 the day from being in each land equally long." 



I think we may pause here to note how greatly in 

 advance our author was of those who in recent times have 

 been bitten by the stupid 'fiat-earth" opinion. He 

 clearly had a snflicient grasp of spherical geometry to see 

 that the variation in the length of the longest day in 

 different latitudes was exphcable only on the theory of 

 the rotundity of the earth. 



It may be pointed out, on the other hand, that he places 

 the earth in the centre of the solar system, and makes the 

 sun and the stars revolve round it. This and another 

 error to which we shall allude presently are the only two 

 of any consequence in the entire manual, which on the 

 whole is written in a strictly scientific spirit, that is to say, 

 it is based upon actual observation and on strict and 

 careful reasoning therefrom. Nor is hia following of the 



Ptolemaic theory a departure from thia. For it is clear 

 that he had no sufficient means of disproving it, and it 

 amply sufficed to explain such observations as he could 

 make. 



The geographical information which had reached him 

 varies in accuracy. He correctly speaks of India as lying 

 partly within the tropics. " In the land of India turn their 

 shadows in summer southward and in winter northward." 

 But he ia mistaken when he places Alexandria actually on 

 the Tropic of Cancer. '• la Alexandria goeth the sun right 

 up on the summer solstice at midday, aud there is no 

 shadow on any side." But a line or two further he states 

 quite correctly, " In the land that is called Alexandria the 

 longest day has fourteen hours," which is exactly correct. 

 For Italy he gives the longest day fifteen hours — correct 

 for Campania ; and for England seventeen, which is its 

 duration in Northumbria, the land of Bede, the author of 

 the work he is popularizing. 



He is quite clear as to the division of the earth into the 

 five zones ; although of course no report had reached him 

 of any hardy voyager who had penetrated south of the 

 equator. " Then there are,' he writes, " on two sides of 

 the torrid zone, two parts that are well mated, neither too 

 hot nor too cold. In the northern part dwell all mankind." 

 Nor does he seem to have known of any exploration within 

 the Arctic circle, for his description of " 'Thile " is that it 

 is an island where there is no night for sis days at the 

 summer solstice, as the sun then sets aud immediately 

 rises again. 



As this little manual was clearly intended not for the 

 learned— that is to say not for the monks and clergy — 

 but simply for the common people who could speak and 

 read no language but their own, and to whom Latin, then 

 the universal language of the cultured, was a sealed book, 

 its author has thought it well to add a little caution here 

 and there where he thought there was a danger of his 

 descriptions being misunderstood. He therefore supple- 

 ments his description of the long summer days of Thile by 

 the emphatic caution that " there is always m a day and 

 night, four-and-twenty hours," neither more nor less. 



His description of the stars though very brief might, we 

 have much reason to fear, put to shame the ignorance of 

 many thousands of dwellers in English towns and cities of 

 to-day. He describes clearly how certain constellations, as, 

 for example, the Great Bear, never set in England, whilst 

 other constellations round the South Pole never rise here, 

 and we, consequently, know nothing of them. He points 

 out, too, that there is not only a North Pole star, round 

 which the whole heavens appear to revolve but which 

 itself moves not, but there is also a southern one, " for on 

 these two stars the firmament turns as a wheel turns on 

 the axle." Other stars, again, both rise and set, going 

 from east to west, and are visible at different times in the 

 year. Thus, the Pleiades " through all the summer go at 

 night time under this earth and m the day above ; in the 

 winter time they are up at night and down by day." 



With regard to meteors, our writer cautions his readers 

 that they must not suppose that they are real stars falling 

 from their places. " 'Truly there are yet as many stars in 

 heaven as there were at the first when God shaped them." 

 He then mentions the seven planets " which are not fast 

 in the firmament, but have their own going severally," but 

 he considers this too deep a matter to enlarge upon for 

 " unlearned men." Of comets he simply says that they 

 appear suddenly and unaccountably, " and have long rays 

 Uke a sunbeam. As oft as they appear they betoTsen 

 something new towards the people that they overshine." 

 This seems the only indication in the little treatise of 

 any leiuing towards astrology. Indeed, the writer says 



