Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/203

Rh the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made."

The result was that the Physiologus, which interpreted the sacred significance of the animal kingdom, had a wider circulation than any other book save the Bible, and was translated into the languages even of the remotest Christian peoples.

It will appear strange to any one not well acquainted with the ways of mediæval thinkers that the animal which had perhaps the earliest and greatest significance was one which existed neither in the Bible nor in Nature, but which was evolved by early Christian thought, brooding over statements which came from the sun worship of earlier nations and from pagan literature. This animal was the phoenix; it was made to teach a world of church doctrine, and was even stamped upon the coin of the first Christian emperor.

In the twelfth century we have, as an outgrowth of the Physiologus, the Bestiaries. These developed this theological learning still further, and now it comes in with a full tide. The sculptures of cathedrals, the paintings on stained glass, the illuminations of manuscripts, the embroideries of vestments, are all filled with phoenixes, unicorns, salamanders, as well as with the whole range of animals having real existence.

Of animals having real existence, the lion was perhaps most frequently sculptured, and regarding him the Physiologus is especially explicit. Among other things it ministers to edification as follows: "First, when the lion perceives that the hunters are pursuing him, he erases his footprints with his tail, so that he can not be traced to his lair. In like manner our Saviour, the lion of the tribe of Judah, concealed all traces of his Godhead when he descended to the earth. Secondly, the lion always sleeps with his eyes open; so our Lord slept with his body on the cross, but awoke at the right hand of the Father. Thirdly, the lioness brings forth her whelps dead and watches over them, until after three days, the lion comes and howls over them and brings them to life by his breath; so the Almighty Father recalled to life his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, on the third day."

Another animal which we constantly find lurking in the sculptured foliage of cathedrals is the lizard. Regarding this the Physiologus informs us that in its old age it becomes blind, creeps into some crevice looking eastward, and, beholding the rising sun, is restored to sight: on this the mediæval naturalist advises us: "In like manner, O man, thou who hast on the old garment, and the eyes of whose heart are obscured, seek the wall