Scientific Lectures. 203 



This gives a kej to the whole construction. The universe is there- 

 fore made on the plan of the Jevpish tabernacle ; box-like and oblong. 

 Coming to details, he quotes those grand words of Isaiah : " It is he 

 that sitteth upon the circle of the earth ; * * * that stretcheth 

 out the heavens like a curtain, and spreadeth them out like a tent to 

 dwell in." And the passage in Job, which speaks of the spreading 

 out of the sky. He turns all that splendid and precious poetry into 

 a prosaic statement, and gathers therefrom, as he thinks, treasures 

 for science. To find the character of the surface of the earth, Cosmas 

 studies the table of shew bread in the tabernacle. The dimensions 

 of that table prove to him that the earth is flat, and twice as long as 

 broad. The four corners of the table symbolize the four seasons ; 

 the three loaves of shew bread at each corner symbolize the three 

 months in each season. This vast box is divided into two compart- 

 ments, one above the other. In the first of these men live, and stars 

 move, and it extends up to the first vault or firmament, where live 

 the angels ; a main part of whose business is to push and pull the sun 

 and planets to and fro. Next he takes the text, " Let there be a firma- 

 ment in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the 

 waters ; " and other texts from Genesis. To these he adds the text 

 from the Psalms: "Praise him ye heaven of heavens and ye waters 

 that be above the heavens ! " turns that glorious outburst of poetry 

 into his crucible with the other texts, and after subjecting them all 

 to sundry curious processes, brings out the theory that over this first 

 vault is a vast cistern containing the waters. He then takes the 

 expression in Genesis regarding the " windows of heaven," and estab- 

 lishes a doctrine regarding the regulation of the rain which is after- 

 ward supplemented by the doctrine, that the angels not only push 

 and pull the heavenly bodies to light the earth, but also open and 

 close the windows of heaven to water it. To account for the move- 

 ment of the sun, Cosmas asserts that to the north of the earth is a 

 great mountain, and that at night the sun is carried behind this. 

 Some of the commentators, however, venture to express a doubt here. 

 They thought that the sun was pushed into a great pit at night and. 

 pulled out in the morning." 



Such was the great fortress built against human science in the 

 sixth century by Cosmas, and it stood. The innovators attacked it 

 in vain. The greatest minds in the Church devoted themselves to 

 buttressing it with new texts, and throwing out new outworks of 

 theologic reasoning. 



