And Of The Tother Halvendel I Have Seen, Toward The
North Under The Transmontane, Sixty-Two Degrees And Ten Minutes,
And Toward The Part Meridional I Have Seen Under The Antarctic,
Thirty-Three Degrees And Sixteen Minutes.
And then, the halvendel
of the firmament in all holdeth not but nine score degrees.
And of
those nine score, I have seen sixty-two on that one part and
thirty-three on that other part; that be, ninety-five degrees and
nigh the halvendel of a degree. And so, there ne faileth but that
I have seen all the firmament, save four score and four degrees and
the halvendel of a degree, and that is not the fourth part of the
firmament; for the fourth part of the roundness of the firmament
holds four score and ten degrees, so there faileth but five degrees
and an half of the fourth part. And also I have seen the three
parts of all the roundness of the firmament and more yet five
degrees and a half. By the which I say you certainly that men may
environ all the earth of all the world, as well under as above, and
turn again to his country, that had company and shipping and
conduct. And always he should find men, lands and isles, as well
as in this country. For ye wit well, that they that be toward the
Antarctic, they be straight, feet against feet, of them that dwell
under the Transmontane; also well as we and they that dwell under
us be feet against feet. For all the parts of sea and of land have
their opposites, habitable trepassable, and they of this half and
beyond half.
And wit well, that, after that that I may perceive and comprehend,
the lands of Prester John, Emperor of Ind, be under us. For in
going from Scotland or from England toward Jerusalem men go upward
always. For our land is in the low part of the earth toward the
west, and the land of Prester John is in the low part of the earth
toward the east. And [they] have there the day when we have the
night; and also, high to the contrary, they have the night when we
have the day. For the earth and the sea be of round form and
shape, as I have said before; and that that men go upward to one
coast, men go downward to another coast.
Also ye have heard me say that Jerusalem is in the midst of the
world. And that may men prove, and shew there by a spear, that is
pight into the earth, upon the hour of midday, when it is equinox,
that sheweth no shadow on no side. And that it should be in the
midst of the world, David witnesseth it in the Psalter, where he
saith, DEUS OPERATUS EST SALUTEM IN MEDIA TERRAE. Then, they, that
part from those parts of the west for to go toward Jerusalem, as
many journeys as they go upward for to go thither, in as many
journeys may they go from Jerusalem unto other confines of the
superficiality of the earth beyond. And when men go beyond those
journeys toward Ind and to the foreign isles, all is environing the
roundness of the earth and of the sea under our countries on this
half.
And therefore hath it befallen many times of one thing that I have
heard counted when I was young, how a worthy man departed some-time
from our countries for to go search the world. And so he passed
Ind and the isles beyond Ind, where be more than 5000 isles. And
so long he went by sea and land, and so environed the world by many
seasons, that he found an isle where he heard speak his own
language, calling on oxen in the plough, such words as men speak to
beasts in his own country whereof he had great marvel, for he knew
not how it might be. But I say, that he had gone so long by land
and by sea, that he had environed all the earth; that he was come
again environing, that is to say, going about, unto his own
marches, and if he would have passed further, till he had found his
country and his own knowledge. But he turned again from thence,
from whence he was come from. And so he lost much painful labour,
as himself said a great while after that he was come home. For it
befell after, that he went into Norway. And there tempest of the
sea took him, and he arrived in an isle. And, when he was in that
isle, he knew well that it was the isle, where he had heard speak
his own language before and the calling of oxen at the plough; and
that was possible thing.
But how it seemeth to simple men unlearned, that men ne may not go
under the earth, and also that men should fall toward the heaven
from under. But that may not be, upon less than we may fall toward
heaven from the earth where we be. For from what part of the earth
that men dwell, either above or beneath, it seemeth always to them
that dwell that they go more right than any other folk. And right
as it seemeth to us that they be under us, right so it seemeth to
them that we be under them. For if a man might fall from the earth
unto the firmament, by greater, reason the earth and the sea that
be so great and so heavy should fall to the firmament: but that
may not be, and therefore saith our Lord God, NON TIMEAS ME, QUI
SUSPENDI TERRAM EX NIHILO?
And albeit that it be possible thing that men may so environ all
the world, natheles, of a thousand persons, one ne might not happen
to return into his country. For, for the greatness of the earth
and of the sea, men may go by a thousand and a thousand other ways,
that no man could ready him perfectly toward the parts that he came
from, but if it were by adventure and hap, or by the grace of God.
For the earth is full large and full great, and holds in roundness
and about environ, by above and by beneath, 20425 miles, after the
opinion of old wise astronomers; and their sayings I reprove
nought.
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