THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT LEARNING 51 



mind, which was so well established during the early cen- 

 turies of the Medieval Period, has not become extinct even 

 in our own times. 13 



The work of Cosmas (c. 535 A. D.), entitled " Christian 

 Opinion Concerning the World/' well illustrates this medieval 

 attitude in the interpretation of nature and also the existing 

 state of geographical and astronomical knowledge. Cosmas 

 set out to refute, among other heresies, the existence of the 

 Antipodes. But his work was of a comprehensive nature and 

 proclaimed itself "a Christian topography of the universe, 

 established by demonstrations from Divine Scripture, con- 

 cerning which it is not lawful for a Christian to doubt." 

 His conclusions regarding the said topography are interest- 

 ing, as summarizing the ideas then current. 14 But his 



13 A nineteenth century example of this manner of reasoning, cited in Lecky's 

 "History of Rationalism," runs as follows: "a geologist deeply impressed with 

 the mystery of baptism that mystery by which a new creature is formed by 

 means of water and fire would never have fallen into the absurdities of ac- 

 counting for the formation of the globe solely by water or solely by fire. He 

 would have suspected that the truth lay in the union of both." Modern geol- 

 ogy, of course, acknowledges both fire and water and also other agencies as 

 causes in the evolution of the earth's surface, but not on grounds of allegorical 

 mysticism. 



14 "According to Cosmas, the world is a flat parallelogram. Its length, 

 which should be measured from west to east, is the double of its breadth, 

 which should be measured from north to south. In the centre is the earth we 

 inhabit, which is surrounded by the ocean, and this again is encircled by 

 another earth, in which men lived before the deluge, and from which Noah 

 was transported in the ark. To the north of the world is a high conical moun- 

 tain, around which the sun and moon continually revolve. When the sun is 

 hid behind the mountain, it is night; when it is on our side of the mountain, 

 it is day. To the edges of the outer earth the sky is glued. It consists of four 

 high walls rising to a great height and then meeting in a vast concave roof, 

 thus forming an immense edifice of which our world is the floor. This edifice 

 is divided into two stories by the firmament which is placed between the earth 

 and the roof of the sky. A great ocean is inserted in the side of the firma- 

 ment remote from the earth. This is what is signified by the waters that 

 are above the firmament. The space from these waters to the roof of the 

 sky is allotted to the blest; that from the firmament to our earth to the angels, 

 in their character of ministering spirits." Lecky, W. E. H., "History of Ra- 

 tionalism in Europe." The diagram of the universe as conceived by Hebrew 

 thought (Fig. 22, in the present volume) may be referred to in this connection. 



