_Temple of Venus, with a man _A man gazing at water that gazing at a lamp._ If the reflects the moon._ If light at the temple of Venus Seleucus in Persia finds cannot be extinguished, why [reflected] light from should not the Virgin generate the moon, why should not without the seed of Venus? the Virgin, pregnant by a _Augustine de Civitate Dei_, beautiful star, generate? XXI, 7. _Augustine de Civitate Dei_, XX, 6. _Two Human Figures and a _Two men sawing a stone on Statue._ If a human being can which appear two human heads._ be changed into stone, why, by If man can be painted on divine power, should not the stone by the power of heaven, Virgin generate? _Albertus de why should not the Virgin Minoralium_, I, _in generate by the assistance of fine_. the Holy Spirit? _Albertus de Minoralium_, II, I. [Illustration: Fac-simile of a page of the Story of the Blessed Virgin. Engraving in the original print is 7-3/8 by 10-1/2 American inches. [From Heineken.]] The book begins with representations of St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory and St. Augustine. St. Ambrose, who is duly quoted from his _Hexameron_, book II, chapter 41, assigns reasons for the Immaculate Conception, by illogical reference to a bird without a mate. St. Augustine, who is represented as seated at a table, reading from his work, _De Mirabilibus_, book III, chapter 12, asserts the Immaculate Conception because many animals are produced without mating. St. Jerome and [p222] St. Gregory expound the same doctrine. Fifty-four illustrations follow, each explained by a proposition that enunciates with great formality some of the marvels of natural science. We are told of bees without fathers, of birds impregnated by the bill, of geese born from trees, of asbestos that burns forever, of pearls made fruitful by the dew, of the phœnix restored by fire, and of many other absurdities. The authorities cited seem to have been selected with a truly catholic spirit: we find among them Valerius Maximus, Peter Comestor, Terence, Boethius, Job, Livy, and Isidore. One edition of this work contains an imprint in sprawling and almost unreadable characters, which bibliographers interpret as the letters F. W. 1470. The letters F. W. were no doubt the initials of Frederich Walther of Nordlingen. The quality of the science taught in this _History of the Blessed Virgin_ enables us to form a just idea of the real value of the scholastic philosophy then regarded as the perfection of wisdom. The silly speculations set forth in the book were the husks upon which a devout people were fed. AN EXERCISE ON THE LORD’S PRAYER.