thirty-six kinds of fish, and fifty-two kinds of flying fowls. The CHAP. . name of the city to which the sun goes up is called Jaiaca; the VII. city where it sets is Jainta. Asguges, the magician, said that the sun was of burning stone. The sun is red in the first part of the morning, because he comes out of the sea; he is red in the evening, because he looks over hell. The sun is bigger than the earth, and hence he is hot in every country. The sun shines at night in three places; first in Leviathan the whale's inside. He shines next in hell, and afterwards on the islands named Glith, and there the souls of holy men remain till doomsday. Neither the sun nor the moon shines on the Red Sea, nor does the wind blow upon it.” Some excellent moral and prudential maxims follow in the MS. 18 The Anglo-Saxon scholars, though defective in Their views on philo. actual knowlege, bad just conceptions of the sophy. objects of philosophy. Thus Alcuin defines it to be the research into natural things, and the knowlege of divine and human affairs. He distinguishes it into knowlege and opinion. He describes it to be knowlege, when a thing is perceived with certainty, as that an eclipse of the sun is caused by the intervention of the moon; but that it is only opinion when it is uncertain, as the magnitude of heaven or the depth of the earth. 19 He divides philosophy into three branches ; physics, ethics, and logic. But in his further considerations he exhibits not so much the deficiencies of the Anglo-Saxon mind, as the imperfect state of the knowlege which former times had handed down to it; for all the subjects which he comprises in physics are, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. That extensive field of science to which we now almost exclusively apply the name of physics, natural philosophy, had not been dis. 18 MS. Cott. Lib. Julius, A. 2. BOOK IX. covered or attended to by the Greeks and Romans; and still less chemistry, mineralogy, and the analogous sciences. The Anglo-Saxon scholars formed themselves chiefly on the Roman writers, and in general did not go beyond them. Alcuin gives us another train of definitions in physics : Physic is nature ; physica is natural : it discusses the nature and contemplation of all things. From physica proceed arithmetic, astronomy, astrology, mechanics, medicine, geometry, and music. Arithmetic is the science of numbers. Astronomy is the law of the stars, by which they rise and set. Astrology is the reason, and nature, and power of the stars, and the conversion of the heavens. Mechanics is the first skilfulness of the art of working in metals, wood, and stones. Medicine is the knowlege of remedies discovered for the temperament and health of the body. Geometry is the science of measuring spaces, and the magnitudes of bodies. Music is the division of sounds, the varieties of the voice, and the modulation of singing."20 It is amusing to observe, in the absence of solid knowlege, on what elaborate trifling the AngloSaxons sometimes employed themselves. The following is a dialogue of Alcuin, with prince Pepin, the son of Charlemagne :-- it is the scholar who questions : “ What is a letter ? The keeper of history. What is life? - The gladness of the blessed; the sorrow of the wretched; the expectation of death. What is death? — The inevitable event; the uncertain pil 20 Alb. Op. p. 1353. CHAP. grimage ; the tears of the living; the confirmation of our testament; the thief of man. What is man? The slave of death; a transient traveller ; a local guest. What is man like ? An apple. As a lamp in the wind. What ? — Above, below, before, behind, on the right, and on the left. How many companions has he ? - Four. . Which are they ? — Hunger, fulness ; rest, labour; watch- of age. What is the brain ? The preserver of the memory. What are the eyes ? — The leaders of the body; vessels of light; the index of the mind. What are the ears ? - The collators of sounds. What is blood ? — The moisture of the veins; the aliment of life. What are the veins ? . The fountains of flesh. BOOK What is day ? — The incitement of labour. What is the sun ? — The splendour of the world; the beauty of heaven; the grace of nature; the honour of day; the dis. tributor of the hours. What is the moon ? — The eye of night; the giver of dew; the prophetess of the weather. What are the stars ? — The paintings of the summits of nature; the seaman's pilots; the ornaments of night. What is rain ? — The earth's conception ; the mother of corn. What is a cloud? — The night of day; the labour of the ? What is the earth ? — The mother of the growing; the nurse of the living; the storehouse of life; the devourer of all things. What is the sea ? - The path of audacity; the boundary of the earth; the divider of regions; the receptacle of the rivers ; the fountain of showers; the refuge in danger; the favourer of pleasures. What are rivers? — Motion never-ceasing; the refection of the sun; the irrigators of the earth. What is water? — The ally of life; the washer of filth. What is fire ? - Excess of heat; the nourisher of the newborn; the maturer of fruits. What is cold? — The ague of the limbs. What is frost? --- The persecutor of herbs; the destroyer of leaves; the fetter of the earth; the source of the waters. What is snow ? Dry water. What is summer? - The re-clothing of earth; the ripener of corn. What is autumn ? The granary of the year. What is a ship? - A wandering house ; a perpetual inn; a traveller without footsteps: the neighbour of the sands. What is the sand ? - The wall of the earth. . It was your What gives sleep to the watching? — Hope. CHAP. What is a wonder? -- I saw a man standing; a dead man VII. walking who never existed. How could this be? . An image in water. An unknown person, without tongue or voice, spoke to me, who never existed before, nor has existed since, nor ever will be again: and whom I neither heard nor knew ? dream. I saw the dead produce the living, and by the breath of the living the dead were consumed ? — From the friction of trees fire was produced, which consumed. I saw fire pause in the water unextinguished ? — From flint. Who is that whom you cannot see unless you shut your eyes ? — He who sneezes will show him to you. I saw a man with eight in his hand, he took away seven, and six remained ? School-boys know this. Who is he that will rise higher if you take away his head ?Look at your bed and you will find him there. I saw a flying woman with an iron beak, a wooden body, and a feathered tail, carrying death ? — She is a companion of soldiers. What is that which is, and is not ? — Nothing. How can a thing be, yet not exist ? – In name and not in fact. What is a silent messenger ? — That which I hold in my hand. What is that ? My letter."21 It would be absurd to talk about their chemistry, Their che mistry. as they had none; but their methods of preparing gold for their gold writing may be mentioned, as they were in fact so many chemical experiments. One method. “ File gold very finely, put it in a mortar, and add the sharpest vinegar; rub it till it becomes black, and then pour it out. Put to it some salt or nitre, and so it will dissolve. So you may write with it, and thus all the metals may be dissolved." The gold letters of the Anglo-Saxon MSS. are on a white embossinent, which is probably a calcareous preparation. Modern gilding is made on 21 Alb. Op. p. 1885–1392. |