The mariners employ an art which cannot deceive. An ugly stone and brown, To which iron joins itself willingly They have; after applying a needle to it, They lay the latter on a straw And put it simply in the water Where the straw makes it float. Then the point turns direct. To the star with such certainty That no man will ever doubt it, Nor will it ever go wrong. When the sea is dark and hazy, That one sees neither star nor moon, Then they put a light by the needle And have no fear of losing their way. The point turns towards the star; And the mariners are taught To follow the right way. It is an art which cannot fail. The author was a caustic and fearless critic, who lashed with equal freedom the clergy and laity, nobles and princes, and even the reigning pontiff himself, all of whom should be for their subjects, according to the satirist, what the pole-star is for mariners--a beacon to guide them over the stormy sea of life. Guyot traveled extensively in his early years, but later in life retired from a world which he despised, and ended his days in the peaceful seclusion of the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny. An interesting reference, of a similar nature to that of the minstrel Guyot, is found in the Spanish code of laws known as Las Siete Partidas of Alfonso el Sabio, begun in 1250 and completed in 1257. It says: "And even as mariners guide themselves in the dark night by the needle, which is their connecting medium between the lodestone and the star, and thus shows them where they go alike in bad seasons as in good; so those who are to give counsel to the king ought always to guide themselves by justice, which is the connecting medium between God and the world, at all times to give their guerdon to the good and their punishment to the Wicked, to each according to his deserts."[5] It will be necessary to give a few more extracts from writers of the first half of the thirteenth century in order to show how little was known about the magnet and how crude were the early appliances used in navigation when Peregrinus appeared on the scene. Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, who lived in the East for some years, wrote his "History of the Orient" between the years 1215 and 1220, in which he says: "An iron needle after touching the lodestone, turns towards the north star, so that such a needle is necessary for those who navigate the seas." This passage of the celebrated Cardinal seems to indicate that even then the compass was widely known and commonly used in navigation. Neckam (1157-1217), the Augustinian Abbot of Cirencester, wrote in his "Utensilibus": "Among the stores of a ship, there must be a needle _mounted on a dart_ which will oscillate and turn until the point looks to the north; the sailors will thus know how to direct their course when the pole-star is concealed through the troubled state of the atmosphere."