Science in Early England. 19 



" she is ever running about the earth, and so light shines 

 under the earth by night as it does above our heads by 

 day. On the side where she shines there is day, and on 

 the side where she does not shine there is night." Further 

 on we read, " Every day the moon's light is waning or 

 waxing 4 points through the sun's light, and he goes either 

 to the sun or from the sun so many points. Not that he 

 arrives at the sun, for the sun is much more elevated than 

 the moon. It happens sometimes when the moon runs 

 on the same track that the sun runs, that his orb intercepts 

 the sun so much that she is all darkened, and the stars 

 appear as if by night. This happens seldom, and never 

 but at new moon." This partition of genders, still 

 retained in modern German, is also found in old Norse, 

 Arabic, Sanskrit, Hebrew, &c, but not in the Latin or 

 Neo-Latin tongues. It is quite indefensible on optical 

 grounds, as the feminine quality, that of giving back after 

 it has received, is nowhere more clearly indicated than in 

 the case of our lesser light. But to proceed. " The sea 

 and the moon agree between them ; ever they are com- 

 panions in increase and in waning, and as the moon daily 

 rises 4 points later than he did the day before, so also the 

 sea flows always 4 points later." The origin of rain, hail, 

 and snow is given sensibly enough, but on thunder the 

 writer is rather vague. " It comes of heat and moisture ; 

 they strive with each other with a fearful noise, and the 

 fire bursts out through lightning and injures the produce of 

 the earth if it be greater than the moisture. If the moisture 

 be greater than the fire, then it does good." 



The second treatise, the Livre des Creatures, or book 

 of created things, is in verse, and comprises 1,588 lines. 

 It deals with the signs of the zodiac, the days of the week, 

 lunations, epacts, the finding of Easter, and so on. It 

 appears to have no great value beyond its historic interest, 

 as many of the derivations are fantastic and misleading. 



