The “Bestiare Divin” of Guillaume, a Norman priest, is a very good example of the attempts that were made by the ecclesiastics to show that all the works of Nature were symbols and teachers of great Divine truths. The MS. of Guillaume dates from the thirteenth century, and is at present preserved in the National Library in Paris. The work has been very well reproduced in a French dress by Hippeau, a compatriot of the author of it. The statements of the compiler of such a book as the one under consideration are essentially unreliable, since it was very difficult for him to ascertain the truth, and he had in addition no great desire to be literally exact, and was at any moment prepared to sacrifice the actual facts for what he would consider a higher stratum of truth. He could not be accurate if he would, and would not if he could. Hence Hippeau, in estimating the value of the book, very justly says: “N’oublions pas que les pères de l’Eglise se préoccupèrent toujours beaucoup plus de la pureté des doctrines qu’ils avaient à développer, que de l’exactitude scientifique des notions sur lesquelles ils les appuyaient;” and we have already seen that Augustine considered the significance that could be wrung out of a statement of very much more importance than any adherence to the facts of the case. “Dans la vaste étendue des Cieux, au sien des mers profondes, sur tous les points du globe terrestre, il n’est par un phénomène, pas une étoile, pas un quadrupède, pas un oiseau, pas une plante, pas une pierre, qui n’éveille quelque souvenir biblique, qui ne fournisse la matière d’un enseignement moral, qui ne donne lieu à quelqu’effusion du cœur, qui n’ait à révéler quelque secret de Dieu.” It is evident that whatever of value or interest may be evolved on the strength of such sentiments, the result can hardly be called natural history—a decision that we have already arrived at in our consideration of the “Speculum Mundi.” The “Bestiary” of De Thaun is a book of like nature. Only one copy of the MS. is known, that in the Cottonian collection. Of another of his books, the “Livre des Creatures,” seven copies are extant. The author had as his great patron Adelaide of Louvain, the second queen of Henry I. of England, and to her he dedicated his books. The language in which they are written is very archaic, but an excellent reproduction of the book for English readers has been made by Thomas Wright, F.S.A. We give six lines as an illustration of the original MS., and of its rendering into the rugged English that best gives its character:— “En un livre divin, que apelum Genesim, Iloc lisant truvum que Dés fist par raisun Le soleil e la lune, e estoile chescune. Pur cel me plaist à dire, d’ico est ma materie, Que demusterai e à clers e à lai, Chi grant busuin en unt, e pur mei perierunt.”