Cassiodorus is said to be the first extant author to use _modernus_. [46] _Quest. nat., Proemium._ “Habet enim haec generatio ingenitum vitium ut nihil quod a modernis reperiatur putent esse recipiendum, unde fit ut si quando inventum proprium publicare voluerim, personae id alienae imponens inquam, ‘Quidam dixit, non ego’ Itaque--ne omnino non audiar--omnes meas sententias dans, ‘Quidam invenit, non ego.’ Sed haec hactenus. ... hoc tamen vitato incommodo ne quis me ignota proferentem ex mea id sententia facere, verum arabicorum studiorum sensa putet proponere. Nolo enim si quae dixero minus provectis displiciant, ego etiam eis displicere. Novi enim quis casus veri professores apud vulgus sequatur. Quare causam arabicorum non meam agam.” In the catalogue of books at Christ Church, Canterbury, which was drawn up while Henry of Eastry was prior (1284-1331), our treatise is listed as “Athelardus de naturalibus questionibus secundum Arabicos”: James (1903) p. 126. [47] P. 7, “Cui tandem eorum credendum est qui cotidianis novitatibus aures vexant? Et assidue quidem etiam nunc cotidie Platones, Aristoteles novi nobis nascuntur, qui aeque ea quae nesciant ut et ea quae sciant sine frontis jectura promittunt; estque in summa verbositate summa eorum fiducia.” [48] _De eodem_, p. 1, “Dum priscorum virorum scripta famosa non omnia sed pleraque perlegerim eorumque facultatem cum modernorum scientia comparaverim, et illos facundos judico et hos taciturnos appello.” [49] Berthelot (1893) I, 344-7. [50] Cap. 77. I cite chapters as numbered in the _editio princeps_. [51] To which the nephew cheerfully assents. [52] _Quest. nat._, cap. 6. [53] _Quest. nat._, cap. 6, “Quare, si quid amplius a me audire desideras, rationem refer et recipe. Non enim ego ille sum quem pellis pictura pascere possit.” [54] _De eodem et diverso_, p. 13. [55] _De eodem et diverso_, p. 13. [56] _Quest. nat._, cap. 15. [57] _Ibid._, cap. 19. [58] _Ibid._, cap. 35. [59] The ascription of this work to Aristotle is questioned by D’Arcy W. Thompson (1913), 14, note, who calls attention to the fact that the majority of the numerous place-names in it are from southern Italy or Sicily; “and I live in hopes of seeing this work, or a very large portion of it, expunged, for this and other weightier reasons, from the canonical writings of Aristotle.” [60] See below, chapter 61, page 621. [61] I refute this theory, however, in Appendix II to the chapter on Bacon. [62] Reinaud et Favé, _Le feu grégeois et les origines de la poudre à canon_, (1845) p. 210. In the quotation from Christine de Pisan at pp. 219-20, however, it seems to me that she has reference only to the poisons last-named and not to the Greek fires previously named in declaring them inhuman and against all the laws of war. [63] _Ibid._, p. 128. [64] The questions thus far listed occur in the order of mention in the following chapters: 6, 7, 10, 11, 20, 12, 30, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 46. [65] _Quest. nat._, cap. 31.