THE KING'S MIRROR 95 



rate in all parts of the earth. I can, of course, answer 

 according to what I have found in the writings of men 

 who have treated the subject thoroughly, and it is 

 generally believed that their words come very near the 

 truth. I have already told you how many hours there 

 are in a night and day and gave the number as twenty- 

 four. * I have indicated the length of each hour in stat- 

 ing that three hours pass while the sun moves across 

 one division of the sky. Now there are some other little 

 hours called ostensa^ sixty of which make one of those 

 that I mentioned earlier. It seems to me quite likely 

 that, as far north as we are, the sun's path waxes five 

 of these little hours in a day and as much less than six 

 as a twelfth part of a little hour. And as to the growth 

 of the sun's path it seems most reasonable to me that 

 it waxes three-fourths of these hours toward the east 

 and the west and the remaining fourth in height toward 

 the zenith. South of us, however, this reckoning will 

 fail; for north of us the increase is greater and to the 

 south less than we have just stated; and the farther 

 south, the greater is the difference, and the sun more 

 nearly overhead. 



VII 



THE SUBJECT OF THE SUN's COURSE CONTINUED 



Son. With your permission I wish to inquire some- 

 what more fully into this subject, for I do not quite un- 

 derstand it. You have said that the sun's ascent is more 

 rapid to the north of us, where summer is almost want- 



* See Brenner's edition, 20. 



t Error for oslenta; the ostenium, computed at one-sixtieth of an hour, seems 



to appear first in the writings of Rabanus Maurus (ninth century). 



