INDISTINCTNESS OF IDEAS. 277 



the common class of mankind. They actually 

 adopted the belief, however crude and inconsistent, 

 that the form of the earth and heavens really is 

 what at any place it appears to be ; that the earth 

 is flat, and the waters of the sky sustained above 

 a material floor, through which in showers they 

 descend. Yet the true doctrines of astronomy ap- 

 pear to have had some popular circulation. For 

 instance, a French poem of the time of Edward 

 the Second, called Ymage du Monde, contains 

 a metrical account of the earth and heavens, ac- 

 cording to the Ptolemaic views; and in a manu- 

 script of this poem, preserved in the library of 

 the University of Cambridge, there are represen- 

 tations, in accordance with the text, of a spherical 

 earth, with men standing upright upon it on every 

 side : and by way of illustrating the tendency of 

 all things to the center, perforations of the earth, 

 entirely through its mass, are described and de- 

 picted; and figures are exhibited dropping balls 

 down each of these holes, so as to meet in the 

 interior. And, as bearing upon the perplexity 

 which attends the motions of up and down, when 

 applied to the globular earth, and the change of 

 the direction of gravity which would occur in pass- 

 ing the center, the readers of Dante will recollect 

 the extraordinary manner in which the poet and 

 his guide emerge from the bottom of the abyss; 

 and the explanation which Virgil imparts to him of 

 what he there sees. After they have crept through* 



