38 light of the moon and the tides were increasing." According to the rules laid down in an AngloSaxon MS., the second, third, fifth, sixth, ninth, eleventh, fifteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth days of the month were bad days for bleeding. On the tenth, thirteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first, twentythird, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, and twenty-eighth days, it was hurtful to bleed, except during certain hours of the days. The rest of the month was proper for phlebotomy. They had their tales to support their credulity. Thus we read of "sum læce, or a physician, who let his horse blood on one of these days, and it lay soon dead." 40 39 WE will add, as a specimen of their medical charms, their incantation to cure a fever. "In nomine dni nri Ihu Xpi tera tera tèra testis contera taberna gise ges mande leis bois eis andies mandies moab leb lebes Dns ds adjutor sit illi ill eax filiax artifex am."41 Two of their medicines may be added, one for the cure of consumption, the other for the gout. With lungen adle.-" Take hwite hare hunan (white horehound), and ysypo (hyssop), and rudan (rue), and galluc (sowbread), and brysewyrt, and brunwyrt (brown wort), and wude merce (parsley), and grundeswylian (groundsel), of each twenty penny-weights, and take one sester 42 full of old ale, and 38 Bede, v. 3. 40 Ibid. 126. 39 MS. Cott. Lib. Tiber. A. 3. 41 Ibid. 125. 42 The quantity of a sester appears, from the following curious list of Anglo-Saxon weights and measures, to have been fifteen pints: Pund eler gepihth xii penezum lærre thonne pund pætres. Pund ealoch gepihth vi penezum maɲe thoñ pund pætres. Pund piner gepihth xv penezum mope thoñ 1 pund pætres. Pund hunizer gepihth xxxiv penezum mope thoñ pund pætjies. Pund bucepan zepihth lxxx penezum lærre thoñ pund pæτpes. Pund beoper zepihth xxii penezum lærre choñ pund pætjes. Pund meloper gepihth cxv penezum lærre thoй pund pærer. CHAP. VII. BOOK seethe the herbs till the liquor be half boiled away. Drink every day fasting a neap-full cold, and in the evening as much warm." With fot adle (the gout). — “ Take the herb datulus or titulosa, which we call greata crauleac (tuberose isis). Take the heads of it, and dry them very much, and take thereof a pennyweight and a half, and the pear-tree and roman bark, and cummin, and a fourth part of laurel-berries, and of the other herbs half a pennyweight of each, and six pepper-corns, and grind all to dust, and put two egg-shells full of wine. This is true leechcraft. Give it to the man to drink till he be well." 43 Pund beana zepihth Iv penezum lærre thoñ pund pætres. And xv pund pætres zath to Sestre. Saxon MS. ap. Wanley Cat. p. 179. 43 MS. Cott. Lib. Vitell. c. 3. CHAP. VIII. The ANGLO-Saxon Metaphysics. substances. The three men of letters among the Anglo- CHAP. VIII. Saxons who handled any branch of the metaphysical subjects, besides Alfred, were Bede, Alcuin, Their meand Joannes Erigena. taphysics. It is in the tract on substances that Bede's Bede on metaphysical tendencies appear. He compares the three inseparable essences of the Trinity to the circularity, light, and heat of the sun. The globular body of the sun never leaves the heavens; but its light, which he compares to the Filial Personality, and its heat, which he applies to the Spiritual Essence, descend to earth, and diffuse themselves every where, animating the mind, and pervading and softening the heart. Yet, although universally present, light seems never to quit the sun, for there we always behold it; and heat is its unceasing companion. As circles have neither beginning nor end, such is the Deity. Nothing is above ; nothing is below; nothing is beyond him ; no term concludes him; no time confines him. 1 He pursues the same analogies in other parts of nature. In water he traces the spring; its flowing river, and terminating lake. They differ in form, but are one in substance, and are always inseparable. No river can flow without its spring, and must issue into some collecting locality. 2 1 Bede de Subst. vol. ji. p. 304—306. 6. Observe how all things are made to suit, and are governed: heat by cold; cold by heat; day by night; and winter by summer. See how the heavens and the earth are respectively adorned: the heavens by the sun, the moon, and stars; the earth by its beautiful flowers, and its herbs, trees, and fruits. From these mankind derive all their food ; their lovely jewels; the various pictures so delectably woven in their hangings and valuable cloths; their variegated colours ; the sweet melody of strings and organs; the splendour of gold and silver, and the other metals; the VOL. III. GG BOOK In his treatise on the soul, Alcuin, in a short but IX. rational essay, discusses its faculties and nature. A Alcuin on few selections may interest. the soul, He distinguishes in it a three-fold-nature: the appetitive ; the rational, and the irascible. Two of these we have in common with animals; but man alone reasons, counsels, and excels in intelligence. The rational faculty should govern the others : its virtues are, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude ; and if these be made perfect by benevolence, they bring the soul near to the Divine nature.3 The memory, the will, and the intelligence, are all distinct, yet one. Though each be separate, they are perfectly united. I perceive that I perceive, will, and remember; I will to remember, perceive, and will; and I remember that I have willed, perceived, and recollected. “We may remark the wonderful swiftness of the soul in forming things which it has perceived by the senses. From these, as from certain messengers, it forms figures in itself, with inexpressible celerity, of whatever it has perceived of sensible things; and it lays up these forms in the treasury of its memory. “ Thus, he who has seen Rome figures Rome in his mind, and its form; and when he shall hear the name of Rome, or remember it, immediately the animus of it will occur to the memory, where its form lies concealed. The soul there recognises it, where it had hidden it. “ It is yet more wonderful, that if unknown things be read or heard of by the ears of the soul, it immediately forms a figure of the unknown thing; as of Jerusalem. When seen it may be very different from the figure of our fancy : but whatever the soul has seen in other cities that are known to it, it imagines may be in Jerusalem. From known species it images the unknown. It does not fancy walls, houses, and streets in a man; nor the limbs of a man in a city, but buildings, as are usual in cities. So in every thing. The mind from the known forms the unknown. pleasant streams of water, so necessary to bring ships, and agitate our mills ; the fragrant aroma of myrrh ; and, lastly, the interesting countenance peculiar to the human form.” Bede de Subst. vol. ii. p. 308. 3 Albini Opera, p. 770. 4 Ibid. p. 773. “ While I think of Jerusalem, I cannot, at that moment, think CHAP. of Rome; or when I think of any other single thing, I cannot VIII. then think of many; but that thing only is present to my mind which I deliberate upon, till, sooner or later, this departs and another occurs. “ This lively and heavenly faculty, which is called mens, or animus, is of such great mobility that it does not even rest in sleep. In a moment, if it chooses, it surveys heaven; it flies over the sea, and wanders through regions and cities. It places in its sight, by thinking, all things that it likes, however far removed.” 5 “ The mind, or soul, is the intellectual spirit, always in motion, always living, and capable of willing both good and evil. By the benignity of its Creator it is ennobled with free will. Created to rule the movements of the flesh, it is invisible, incorporeal ; without weight or colour; circumscribed, yet entire in every member of its flesh. It is now afflicted with the cares, and grieved with the pains of the body; now it sports with joy; now thinks of known things; and now seeks to explore those which are unknown. It wills some things; it does not will others. Love is natural to it. “ It is called by various names : the soul, while it vivifies ; the spirit, when it contemplates; sensibility, while it feels; the mind, when it knows; the intellect, when it understands; the reason, while it discriminates; the will, when it consents; the memory, when it remembers; but these are not as distinct in substance as in names : they are but one soul. Virtue is its beauty; vice its deformity. It is often so affected by some object of knowledge, that, though its eyes be open, it sees not the things before it, nor hears a sounding voice; nor feels a touching body. “ As to what the soul is, nothing better occurs to us to say than that it is the spirit of life; but not of that kind of life which is in cattle, which is without a rational mind. The beauty and ornament of the human soul is the study of wisdom. What is more blessed to the soul than to love the Supreme Good, which is God? What is happier to it than to prepare itself to be worthy of everlasting beatitude, knowing itself most truly to be immortal ?"6 But the most metaphysical treatise that appeared among the Anglo-Saxons was the elaborate 5 Albina Opera, p. 773–775. 6 Ibid. p. 776–778. |