washed from their sins in water, then taken to the sun and further
cleansed in fire. They described the moon and sun as two splendid
ships prepared for transferring souls to their native country, the
world of perfect light in the heights of the creation.21

The ancient Hebrews thought the sky a solid firmament overarching
the earth, and supporting a sea of inexhaustible waters, beyond
which God and his angels dwelt in monopolized splendor. Eliphaz
the Temanite says, "Is not God in the height of heaven? And behold
the stars, how high they are; but he walketh upon the arch of
heaven!" And Job says, "He covereth the face of his throne, and
spreadeth his clouds under it. He hath drawn a circular bound upon
the waters to the confines of light and darkness." From the
dazzling realm above this supernal ocean all men were supposed,
until after the resurrection of Christ, to be excluded. But from
that time the belief gradually spread in Christendom that a way
was open for faithful souls to ascend thither. Ephraim the
Syrian,22 and Ambrose, located paradise in the outermost East on
the highest summit of the earth, stretching into the serene
heights of the sky. The ancients often conceived the universe to
form one solid whole, whose different provinces were accessible
from each other to gods and angels by means of bridges and golden
staircases. Hence the innumerable paradisal legends associated
with the mythic mountains of antiquity, such as Elborz, Olympus,
Meru, and Kaf. Among the strange legends of the Middle Age,
Gervase of Tilbury preserves the following one, illustrative of
this belief in a sea over the sky: "One Sunday the people of an
English village were coming out of church, a dark, gloomy day,
when they saw the anchor of a ship hooked to one of the
tombstones, the cable, tightly stretched, hanging down the air.
Presently they saw a sailor sliding down the rope to unfix the
anchor. When he had just loosened it the villagers seized hold of
him; and, while in their hands, he quickly died, as though he had
been drowned!" There is also a famous legend called "St. Brandon's
Voyage." The worthy saint set sail from the coast of Ireland, and
held on his way till he arrived at the moon, which he found to be
the location of hell. Here he saw Judas Iscariot in execrable
tortures, regularly respited, however, every week from Saturday
eve till Sunday eve!

The thought so entirely in accordance with the first impression
made by t