ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL CONCEPTIONS 15 



geography of Ptolemy was forgotten. But the popular 

 geography of Pliny, the stories of the marvels of natural 

 history in distant lands, still had their charm, and theo- 

 logical hatred could find no reason to disbelieve them. 

 They were collected, and they were improved. South 

 Africa became interesting as the home of people who 

 live on the milk of dog-headed apes ; of others who have 

 a dog for King ; of others who have four heads apiece ; 

 of others who have one eye only, in the middle of the 

 forehead. India, again, which in this description is placed 

 to the East of China, became noteworthy because there 

 dwelt " tribes who had their feet turned backwards, with 

 eight toes on each ; others who had dogs' heads and 

 talons for fingers, and ' barked for speech ' ; others again 

 with feet so huge that they could use them for shade 

 against the sun." 1 Maps were made which were, in effect, 

 picture books to illustrate the tales of marvels. The 

 world went back to childhood ; but at all events the stories 

 it listened to, and the pictures it gazed upon, were stories 

 and pictures which expressed, in blurred and distorted 

 form, the real knowledge of the ancients. The time would 

 come when the taste for marvels would grow into the 

 taste for knowledge. 



And, in truth, the taste for knowledge was never wholly 

 lost. Human nature remained deep rooted even in Chris- 

 tian Fathers. Intellectual curiosity found pleasure in And 

 the thoughts of ancient times. The sense of beauty 

 took delight in classic literature. Some sought to argue that the 

 that Holy Scripture, if interpreted by the Allegoric 

 method, was not irreconcilable with pagan science. Some 

 urged that Christians might make use of pagan know- 

 ledge, as the Hebrews " borrowed " from the Egyptians, 2 

 or as Solomon employed foreign workmen in the building 

 of the Temple. 3 Some showed an uneasy feeling that 

 pagan science was in the right by contending that the 

 shape of the earth, and such-like things, are of no 



1 Beazley's Dawn of Modern Geography, vol. i. ch. vi. 



2 Augustine's view. 3 Bede's view. 



