once and for all.  There was nothing more to be discovered, and therefore scientists took a delight in logical and dialectical speculations which to a man of our day seem senseless and childish.  Far into the Renascence, natural history was a medley of ancient traditions, oriental fables and superficial observations.  The strangest qualities were attributed to animals with which we come almost daily into contact.  The following quotations are culled from a Provencal book on zoology:  “The cricket is so pleased with its song that it forgets to feed and dies singing.”  “When a snake catches sight of a nude man, it is so filled with fear that it does not dare to look at him; but if the man is dressed, the snake looks upon him as a weakling and springs upon him.”  “The adder guards the balsam; if a man desires to steal the balsam, he must first send the adder to sleep by playing on a musical instrument.  But if the adder discovers that it is being duped, it closes one of its ears with its tail and rubs the other one against the ground until it is filled with earth; then it cannot hear the music and remains awake.”  “Of all animals there is none so dangerous as the unicorn; it attacks everybody with the horn which grows on the top of its head.  But it takes such delight in virgins that the hunters place a maiden on its trail.  As soon as the unicorn sees the maiden, it lays its head into her lap and falls asleep, when it may easily be caught.”  Of the magnet we learn among other things that it restores peace between husband and wife, softens the heart of all men and cures dropsy.  “If a magnet is made into a powder and burnt on charcoal in the four corners of the house, the inhabitants imagine that they cannot keep on their legs and run away, sorely affrighted; thieves frequently profit by this fact.  If a magnet is placed under the pillow of a sleeping woman, she is compelled, if she is virtuous, to embrace her husband in her sleep; if she has betrayed him, she will fall out of her bed with fear.”

All this information was the common property of the period; Richard of Berbezilh, for instance, an “aesthetic” troubadour, tells us that—­like a still-born lion’s cub which was only brought to life by the roaring of its dam—­he was awakened to life by his mistress. (He does not say whether it was by her roaring.) Conrad of Wuerzburg compares the Holy Virgin to a lioness who brings her dead cubs, i.e., mankind, to life with loud roaring.  Bartolome Zorgi, another troubadour of the same period, likens his lady to a snake, for—­he explains—­“she flees from the nude poet and her courage only returns with his clothes.”  During the whole mediaeval period the unicorn was a well-known symbol of virginity, more especially of the virginity of Mary.  The Golden Smithy of the German minnesinger, afterwards monk Conrad of Wuerzburg, contains a rather abstruse poem which begins: 

     The hunt began;
     The heavenly unicorn
     Was chased into the thicket
     Of this alien world,
     And sought, imperial maid,
     Within thine arms a sanctuary.... etc.