ABSTRACT
The Mirror of Nature of Vincent of Beauvais is conceived in a spirit of stately simplicity. It is, as has been said, a commentary on the seven Days of Creation in which all created things are studied in the order of their appearance. The cathedrals had their springtime and their summer, and when the thistle of the fifteenth century appeared they had their autumn too. Mediæval Christianity readily sympathised with every side of human nature, and the Feast of Fools and the Feast of Asses prove that laughter or the flights of youthful fancy were never condemned. The task of the student of nature was to discern the eternal truth that God would have each thing to express, and to find in every creature an adumbration of the great drama of the Fall and the Redemption.
