st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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76 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
heaven,"
was gravely maintained by St. Chrysostom
and others, partly on the strength of such passages as
Isaiah xl., 22,
"that stretcheth out the heavens as a
curtain (where, instead of
the curtain," Septuagint
has "chamber or "vault");
and partly on the
impossibility of there being ends of heaven,
according to a common Scripture phrase, if the
heaven were circular (c. xx.). In treating of the
works of creation, he has
an opportunity of showing
the astronomical attainments which his biographer
commended. The seven planets, and their order ;
the signs of the zodiac ;
the nature of the star that
appeared to the Magi ;
the nature of air and winds
and water are all discussed in order. "Ocean" is
the refluent stream, compassing the earth like a
girdle, with which we are familiar from Homer. The
four rivers of Paradise, parting away from this circum
ambient ocean-stream, are the Ganges, the Nile, the
Tigris, and the Euphrates (c. xxiii.). His measure
ments of the continents, which are given in stades,
appear to be taken from Strabo. The "
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tree of life,
and the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil/
he interprets in a manner purely allegorical. The
former is an image of that contemplation of God, by
virtue of which we can rise from things terrestrial to
the great Artificer of them all; the latter, of that
bodily nourishment and gratification which passes
away into corruption.
what has
Passing on to man (c. xxvi.), he gives
been called a
psychology in nuce" Contrary to
Plotinus, he makes the mind of man not a distinct
element of his nature from the soul, but only the