734 SCIENCE IN EARLY ENGLAND. 



same author, in Anglo-Norman, about 1120. (4) A fragment on sci- 

 ence from the Metrical Lives of the Saints, about 1250, in English. 



In the astronomical treatise we find, of the sun, that "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 other 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 

 four 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 remaining in modern German, is 

 also found in old Norse, Arabic, Sanskrit, Hebrew, etc., 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 companions in increase and in waning, and as the 

 moon daily rises four points later than he did before, so also the sea 

 flows always four 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 prod- 

 uce 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 his- 

 toric interest, as many of the derivations are fantastic and misleading. 

 For example, the writer says that " September, October, November, and 

 December were called rains, for then there are tempests, that is in Latin 

 imber, from which is derived September, and the three others are derived 

 thus." Modern philologists are content to derive these names from the 

 Latin numerals, septem, octo, etc., and Chambers adds that the final 

 syllable comes from the Persian word bar, meaning a period of time. 

 The book goes on to say that February was the month which Pluto had, 

 because he caused no incumbrance to the soul when he went to hell. 

 One does not see the connection here; in any case, the matter is more 

 clearly expressed in our dictionaries, according to which February is the 

 month of expiation, after a Eoman custom. With May and June he is 

 again not easily reconcilable with the moderns, as he derives one from 

 the elders or majores, the other from the juniors. We connect them 

 both with words which signify growth. 



In the signs of the zodiac he sometimes touches on delicate ground. 



