Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/93

Rh predecessor, and is further interesting to us for displaying power of original observation. He had also the happy faculty of meditating upon his observations, and was by no means averse to offering his own explanation of the causes of various phenomena. Accordingly, it has seemed worth while to reproduce a passage from this author relating

to earthquakes, for the reason that it offers a very fair presentment of the status of geological speculation among medieval schoolmen. The second illustration has been selected with similar intent from the "Cosmography" of Ristoro of Arezzo, written in 1282. Dante's acquaintance with Ristoro's work has not been definitely proved, but is regarded by competent authorities as highly probable.