Peter. Another of these treatises is still more curious,
for it endeavours to account for earthquakes and tides by means
of the leviathan mentioned in Scripture. This characteristic
passage runs as follows: "Some say that the earth contains the
animal leviathan, and that he holds his tail after a fashion of
his own, so that it is sometimes scorched by the sun, whereupon
he strives to get hold of the sun, and so the earth is shaken by
the motion of his indignation; he drinks in also, at times, such
huge masses of the waves that when he belches them forth all the
seas feel their effect." And this theological theory of the
tides, as caused by the alternate suction and belching of
leviathan, went far and wide.[327]
In the writings thus covered with the name of Bede there is much
showing a scientific spirit, which might have come to something
of permanent value had it not been hampered by the supposed
necessity of conforming to the letter of Scripture. It is as
startling as it is refreshing to hear one of these medieval
theorists burst out as follows against those who are content to
explain everything by the power of God: "What is more pitiable
than to say that a thing _is_, because God is able to do it, and
not to show any reason why it is so, nor any purpose for which
it is so; just as if God did everything that he is able to do!
You talk like one who says that God is able to make a calf out
of a log.
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