INDISTINCTNESS OF IDEAS. L>71 



matter, in a way very illustrative of that impatience 

 of such speculations, and consequent confusion of 

 thought which we have mentioned. " Is it possible," 

 he says, " that men can be so absurd as to believe 

 that the crops and trees on the other side of the 

 earth hang downwards, and that men there have 

 their feet higher than their heads? If you ask 

 of them how they defend these monstrosities ? how 

 things do not fall away from the earth on that side? 

 they reply, that the nature of things is such that 

 heavy bodies tend towards the center, like the 

 spokes of a wheel, while light bodies, as clouds, 

 smoke, fire, tend from the center towards the hea- 

 vens on all sides. Now I am really at a loss what 

 to say of those who, when they have once gone 

 wrong, steadily persevere in their folly, and defend 

 one absurd opinion by another." It is obvious that 

 so long as the writer refused to admit into his 

 thoughts the fundamental conception of their theory, 

 he must needs be at a loss what to say to their 

 arguments, without being on that account in any 

 degree convinced of their doctrines. 



In the sixth century, indeed, in the reign of 

 Justinian, we find a writer (Cosmas Indicopleustes 9 ) 

 who does not rest in this obscurity of representa- 

 tion ; but in this case, the distinctness of his pictures 

 only serves to show his want of 'any clear conception 



9 Montfaucon, Collectio Nova Pat rum, t. ii. p. 113. Cosmas 

 Indicopleustes. Christianorum Opiniones de Mundo, sive Tb- 

 pographia Christiana. 



