Fl gg- He> Cosmas aforesaid, oommenoes with a practical demonstration
of the absurdity of “ Antipodes,” — by drawing
a figure like th is__
He .then acutely observes Cum figura hominis recta
sit, qui fit ut quatuor illi eodem tempore stantes recti non
sint; sed quocumque vertas eos, quatuor illi simul .nun-
quam videantur ; quomodo ergo fieri potest ut vanas illas
mendacesque hypotheses admittamus ?. Quomodo ergo fieri
potest ut eodem tempore pluvia in quatuor illos dccidat?
Quod ergo nec natura neo mens nostra admittere potest id
cur frustra supponitis ?”—“ Thus,” continues Montfaucon,
“ Cosmas here and throughout Topographia Christiana, ut
et multi alii ex SS. PP. qui nee gravitatis centrum, nec astrono-
micas observationes, ca'llebant.” ®s
, St. Augustine it was who had “ seen folks with an eye in the pit of their stomachs ; ” so
his testimony is unsafe ; but Lactantius had beheld fewer marvels, and we quote him :
“ Ineptum credere esse homines quorum vestigia sint superiora quam capita, autibiiquæ
apud nos jacent inversa pendere, fruge3 et arbores deorsum versus crescere. . . . Hujus
erroris originempMosopits fuisse quod existimarint rotundum esse mundum.”
For the sake of contrast with later patristric orthodoxy, let justice be meted out to some
old rabbinical capacities. The most ancient authors of the Guemara were acquainted with
the spherical form of the earth; for they say, in the Jerusalem Talmud, that Alexander
the Great, going over the earth to conquer it, ascertained that it was round; and it is on
that account that statuary represents him with a globe in his hand.69® Albeit, there are
Judaieal authorities of higher antiquity in the Zohar — a book which probably antedates,
but in any case approximates to, the Christian era69?— whose knowledge of the more ancient
systems of cosmogony led them to write as follows:— “ In the book of Chamnobna
the Old one learns,-through extended explanations, that the earth turns upon itself in the
form of a circle; that some (people) are above,'and others below; that the' aspect of all
creatures changes according to the appearance of each place, while preserving nevertheless
the same position ; that such a country of the earth there is that is lighted, whilst sack
others are in darkness ; the former have day when to others it is night ; and there are some
countries where it is constantly day, or, at least, where night lasts but a few instants.”®*
But such profanity was unintelligible to Cosmas. No ray of light, from scientific sources,
could penetrate, into a blockhead.
To him, the habitable earth is a plane surface, having the form of a parallelogram, of
which the sides are double in length to the. top aijd bottom: Inside this ojalong square are
four basins, the Mediterranean, the -Caspian, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Outside
the parallelogram the circumambient oeean surrounds the inner oblong-squa-re, and separates
it from the outer continents (primitively inhabited by Adam’s family), from paradise,
and from the “ garden of Eden,” which are situate upon a mountain at the East. Here
dwelt our first parents, until the ark of Noah, during the deluge, ferried them over to the
inner continent where we ourselves reside unto this day. Cosmas ignored whatever he
could not find in the Bible; and, wiser than our modem theologers, this modest pattern for
prurient orthodoxy never discovered China, Northern Europe, Central Africa, America, Polynesia,
or Australia, in the canonical Scriptttres. Let his map, and his own perspicuous
language, explain true Mosaic cosmology. He begins with thé exact Greek letter of
Genesis i. 1: but his editor kindly furnishes the Vulgate '“ Scriptum est Ini ritixoirio
f e c it Deus CfELUM e t terram. Primum itaque cce'lum fornicatum.” 699
[N. B. My own tracing (made at the British Museum, in 1848, for personal. remembrance)
being too rough, we are indebted to the accomplished Mrs. Luke Burke for the
fac-similé transcript, of which the .above.is a copy; reduced slightly more than one half.
Typographical exigenda compel us also to transfer Cosmas’s 'explanations from the map
C O SM A S - IN D I C O P L E U S T E S .
C o sm a s ’s Map. — F i q . 358. — “ I. TABULA. ” ”
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