itself into our text; but the letters A, B, C, &c., indicate the place of each. As the 'work
of Cosmas is exceedingly rare, we hope theological students will appreciate the pains taken
to furnish them with so clear an illustration of what they still call “ Mosaic” cosmogony.
— g . r . a.]
Cosmas’s Greee
A — Adulis city (Abyssinia).
B — the road from Adulis to the East —
Ethiopians travelling.
C — Ptolemy’s chair.
D — Firmament.
E if Waters which are above the Firma-
F J ment.
G ï Columns (to support the Firma-
H J ment).
IB - inhabited earth.
J — land beyond the Ocean, where men
dwelt before the Deluge.
K— land’beyond the Ocean.
L -— Caspian Sea.
M — River Phison.
E xplanations.;
N — 4 Points of the compass.
0 — Mediterranean Sea.
P — Arabian Gulf.
Q — Tigris.
R — Euphrates.
S — River Gihon.
T — land beyond the Ocean,
if — the Sun Occident.
V — the Sun Orient.
X — the Sun Occident.
Y — the Sun Orient.
Z — is Cosmas’s picture of the Almighty
looking down, and seeing that “ it
was good.”
In the IYth book of “ Topographia Christiana,” the pious Cosmas describes his hydro-
graphic and ecclesiastical principles ; but, rich as they are, his argumentation is too prolix
for our purposes, which are served by translating Montfaucon’s synopsis of his author’s
elucidation of Plate I.
“ Fig. 1. In the first figure, the city A d o u l i or Adulis [in Abyssinia] (for it is so called
in both ways by Cosmas) is shown. Axumis, which is two miles distant from the Red
Sea, is situated to the East ; for which reason an Ethiopian is represented, in his Ethiopian
costume, taking the Axumis road to Adulis. Then Ptolemy’s chair is delineated
in the form it is said to have had by Cosmas. That [part of the chair] however, sculptured
all over in characters, had only the last portion of the inscription added. But
the inscription on the stone tablet placed opposite was finished—a fragment of which
from the lower part together with its characters or letters had been destroyed. Above
the stone tablet king Ptolemy E v e b g e t e s himself is represented in his military attire
as he appears in the picture. These things you will find more fully explained in page
140 and the following.
“ Fig. 2. In the second figure the shape of heaven and earth is delineated according to
the opinion of Cosmas and the old Fathers, who thought the earth, as it were, a flat
surface, extending beneath and inclosed by walls on all sides ; and that these walls were
raised to an immense height, and finally arranged themselves into the form of a vault;
while the firmament pervaded the higher part of the vault so that it (beatorum sedes)
might be the seat of the Blest. [The same idea (‘ firmament,’ Hebraicb SK7&KIM
K A Z KIM — literally, solid skies) occurs in Job xxxvii. 18. ; Thus Cahen renders —
‘As-tu étendu avec lui les deux, solides comme un miroir métallique?’ And Noyés —
‘ Canst thou like Mm spread out the sky
Which is firm like a molten mirror? | 700
But, under the firmament, they thought the sun, moon, and' stars, were put in motion
; and that a conical mountain of wondrous height rose up in the northern parts of the
earth • and while the sun, performing his circuit round the earth, stood behind this
mountain, there was night to those inhabiting the earth ; but, on the other hand, it
was day when the sun shone upon us on the reverse [i. e., on our side] of the mountain
: and, in a similar way Cosmas reasons with respect to the moon and stars ; see
page 186 and the following.
“ Fig. 3. Exhibits a prospective view of the universe ; that is to say, of the heavens
and the earth in the part where they are more closely drawn together; for Cosmas
thought the earth was square and oblong, and the same is assumed with respect to the
heavens. See page 186 arid following.
a pig, 4. Represents a conical mountain, and the earth, together with the sun and
moon, under the firmament. But on the sides \_Job ix. 6 — ¿MUDIH—| Pillars (of the
earth)’ ; Job xxvi. 11—*pillars of the skies’] are represented the pillars of heaven,
with an inscription [in Greek /] upon the plan here presented — ol stXoi row oipavov —
the columns of the sky ; which columns, according tp the opinion of Cosmas, I think to
be those walls which arise on the sides from the earth up to the heavens (Psalms
cxlviii. 4—‘ Ye w a t e r s that be above the skies’).
“ Fig. 5. The outline of the earth and its £nvoypa<j>tav are traced out. You may observe
that Cosmas conjectured that the immensely-high conical mountain presented an obstacle
where our earth could not, at the northern part, be so well inclosed by a right line;
because its foundations on that side are round, as if they proceeded from a great promontory
in the ocean.
“ Fig'. 6. Displays the rugged plain “of the earth, such as Cosmas explains in many
places ; for he thought, as we have said before, that the earth was oblong, and its
length twice as long as its breadth, and that an ocean surrounded the entire earth, as is
here represented. But, beyond the ocean, there was yet another land adhering closely,
on all sides, to the walls of heaven. Upon the eastern side of this transmarine, land he
judges that.MAN w a s c r e a t e d ; and that there the paradise of gladness was located,
such as here, on the eastern edge, is described : where it received our first parents,
driven out of paradise to that extreme point of land on the sea-shote. Hence, upon
the coming of the deluge, Noah with his sons was borne by the ark to this earth we
now inhabit. The four rivers, he supposes, to be gushing up the spouts in paradise ;
with subterranean channels through the ocean, to our earth, and in certain places that
they gush out anew. He considers that the Hyrcanian Sea [Caspian] is joined to the
ocean ; which we have elsewhere shown was the opinion of certain ancients.
“ Fig. 7. He briefly dispatches the whole machinery of the world, which, as the ancients
thought, was Composed of the sky and the earth. Its form he represents, with
the conical mountain above alluded to. But Còsmas-iEgypticus deemed that the earth
which we inhabit was always inclining from the north to the south. Albeit Cosmas
contradicts himself. How can such a mass as that of heaven and earth stand, supported
by nothing, since.it is always pressed downward? He answers — the earth,
inasmuch as it is ponderous matter by nature, seeks the bottom ; but the, igneous parts
tend upward: therefore, when sky and earth are thus joined and cannot be torn asunder,
the one pressing from above and the other from below, neither yielding ,to. the
other, the whole machine remains immovable and suspended. [ ‘ This is a grand argument,’
says Mr. Burke, commenting m a private letter, ‘ and beats the Newtonian
theory out and out ! Only fancy ; two forces shut up in a box, one pulling up, and
'the other pulling down, and the box, in consequence, remaining 4 immota et suspensa ! ’
This is, beyond exception, the brightest mechanical idea I have ever come across’].
“ Fig. 8. He répresents the conical mountain on that side which is turned adversely to
the earth; where, when the sun arrives, night is produced to the earth’s inhabitants.
In the same place the revolutions of the sun are indicated by lines [upon the conical
mountain] ; whereby the various seasons of the year are caused. When, therefore, the
sun arrives at the lower line, the nights then are longer, and it makes winter, Tponrj, or
revolution: the sun performing the major portion of his course behind the mountain.
When, however, the sun comes to the middle line of the mountain, then the equinox is
produced; the sun in performing his course having reached the equinoctial line.
When, finally, the sup touches the uppermost line, then the summer revolution takes
place, and he attains to the tropic. This is in conformity with the opinion of Cosmas,
who describes the revolutions of the sun in these words — pey4\tj vi>%, great night ; yéaij
|f l | middle night ; piicpà vi>£ little night; as you behold in the picture.”