erto has been supposed,
reflections of the seas and mountains of the earth, but
configurations of her own surface. He notices, in order to correct
it, the assertions of Aristotle that lunar rainbows appear only
twice in fifty years; 'I myself,' he says, 'have observed two in a
single year.' He has something to say on the refraction of a solar
ray, notices certain crystals which have a power of refraction, and
remarks that none of the ancients and few moderns were acquainted
with the properties of mirrors."

Botany is supposed to be a very modern science, and to most people
Humboldt's expression that he found in Albertus Magnus's writings some
"exceedingly acute remarks on the organic structure and physiology of
plants," will come as an supreme surprise. A few details with regard
to Albert's botanical knowledge, however, will serve to heighten that
surprise, and to show that the foolish tirades of modern sciolists,
who have often expressed their wonder that with all the beauties of
nature around them these scholars of the Middle Ages did not devote
themselves to nature study, are absurd; because if the critics but
knew it, there was profound interest in nature and all her
manifestations, and a series of discoveries that anticipated not a
little of what we {319} consider most important in our modern science.
The story of Albert's botanical knowledge has been told in a single
very full paragraph by his biographer. Sighart also quotes an
appreciative opinion from a modern German botanist, which will serve
to dispel any doubts with regard to Albert's position in botany that
modern students might perhaps continue to harbor, unless they had good
authority to support their opinion, though, of course, it will be
remembered that the main difference between the medieval and the
modern mind is only too often said to be that the medieval required an
authority, while the modern makes its opinion for itself. Even the
most skeptical of modern minds, however, will probably be satisfied by
the following paragraph:

"He was acquainted with the sleep of plants, with the periodical
opening and closing of blossoms, with the diminution of sap through
evaporation from the cuticle of the leaves, and with the influence
of the distribution of the bundles of vessels on the folial
indentations. His minute observations on the forms and variety of
plants intimate an exquisite sense of floral beauty. He
distinguished t