ogether,
finally brings out the theory that over this first vault is a vast
cistern containing "the waters." He then takes the expression in Genesis
regarding the "windows of heaven" and establishes a doctrine regarding
the regulation of the rain, to the effect that the angels not only push
and pull the heavenly bodies to light the earth, but also open and close
the heavenly windows to water it.

To understand the surface of the earth, Cosmas, following the methods
of interpretation which Origen and other early fathers of the Church had
established, studies the table of shew-bread in the Jewish tabernacle.
The surface of this table proves to him that the earth is flat, and
its dimensions prove that the earth is twice as long as broad; its four
corners symbolize the four seasons; the twelve loaves of bread,
the twelve months; the hollow about the table proves that the ocean
surrounds the earth. To account for the movement of the sun, Cosmas
suggests that at the north of the earth is a great mountain, and that
at night the sun is carried behind this; but some of the commentators
ventured to express a doubt here: they thought that the sun was pushed
into a pit at night and pulled out in the morning.

Nothing can be more touching in its simplicity than Cosmas's summing up
of his great argument, He declares, "We say therefore with Isaiah that
the heaven embracing the universe is a vault, with Job that it is joined
to the earth, and with Moses that the length of the earth is greater
than its breadth." The treatise closes with rapturous assertions that
not only Moses and the prophets, but also angels and apostles, agree to
the truth of his doctrine, and that at the last day God will condemn all
who do not accept it.

Although this theory was drawn from Scripture, it was also, as we have
seen, the result of an evolution of theological thought begun long
before the scriptural texts on which it rested were written. It was not
at all strange that Cosmas, Egyptian as he was, should have received
this old Nile-born doctrine, as we see it indicated to-day in the
structure of Egyptian temples, and that he should have developed it by
the aid of the Jewish Scriptures; but the theological world knew nothing
of this more remote evolution from pagan germs; it was received as
virtually inspired, and was soon regarded as a fortress of scriptural
truth. Some of the foremost men in the Church devoted themselves to
buttressing it with new te