anthropomorphic, and wanting in sublimity.

Perhaps, however, I may quote from Cosmas Indicopleustes the
views that were entertained in the sixth century. He wrote a work
entitled "Christian Topography," the chief intent of which was to
confute the heretical opinion of the globular form of the earth,
and the pagan assertion that there is a temperate zone on the
southern side of the torrid. He affirms that, according to the
true orthodox system of geography, the earth is a quadrangular
plane, extending four hundred days' journey east and west, and
exactly half as much north and south; that it is inclosed by
mountains, on which the sky rests; that one on the north side,
huger than the others, by intercepting the rays of the sun,
produces night; and that the plane of the earth is not set
exactly horizontally, but with a little inclination from the
north: hence the Euphrates, Tigris, and other rivers, running
southward, are rapid; but the Nile, having to run up-hill, has
necessarily a very slow current.

The Venerable Bede, writing in the seventh century, tells us that
"the creation was accomplished in six days, and that the earth is
its centre and its primary object. The heaven is of a fiery and
subtile nature, round, and equidistant in every part, as a canopy
from the centre of the earth. It turns round every day with
ineffable rapidity, only moderated by the resistance of the seven
planets, three above the sun--Saturn, Jupiter, Mars-- then the
sun; three below--Venus, Mercury, the moon. The stars go round in
their fixed courses, the northern perform the shortest circle.
The highest heaven has its proper limit; it contains the angelic
virtues who descend upon earth, assume ethereal bodies, perform