Page:Illustrations of the history of medieval thought and learning.djvu/318

APPEND, vi. 3, The author describes himself at the opening of the sixth book : m P p. 210 S q. m g a au em q uae a magistris, dux serenissime, multotiens audivi, atque omnia quae recordatione usque ad meditationem memoriae commendavi, et ut firmius verba retinerem (quae irrevocabilia volant) stili officio designavi, et iam quae per viginti annos et eo amplius alios docui, adhuc vix plene et perfecte intelligo, vixque intellecta propriis et apertis verbis explicare valeo : et unde mihi tarn hebes ingenium, tarn rnodica memoria, tarn imperfecta eloquentia ? an quia in patria vervecum 76 crassoque sub acre Nordmanniae sum natus ? alios affirmare audio non solum minima, sed etiam maxima, quae nunquam a magistris audierunt, per se intellexisse, nihilque esse tarn inusitatum, tarn difficile, quod si sibi ostensum fuerit, statim non intelligant atque expedite alios doceant. The passage therefore tells us what William s native country was, -and we have only to add the concordant cf. Haurdau, testimony of n all the known manuscripts of the work, Htt. 246. e which bear any title, to identify the place as a matter of certainty with Conches; it tells us also the author s age, as having been a teacher since about 1120-1125, besides some other particulars about him to which we shall return hereafter. 4. Walter of Saint Victor in his polemic against the opinions of Abailard, Gilbert of La Porree, Peter Lombard, and Peter of Poitiers, written about the year 1180, expressly mentions, in his fourth book, William of Conches as having adopted the Epicurean doctrine of atoms : Quae forte Democritus cum Epicuro suo atomos vocal. Inde Willielmus. de Conchis ex atomorum, id est, minutissimonnn corporum, concretione fieri omnia. The passage occurs among the 78 The edition reads Vernecum Vervecum in patria crassoque sub for vervecum, as though it were a aero nasci. proper name : the reference, how- M. Haureau had the right reading ever, to Juvenal, Sat. x. 49, 50, is in his manuscript, and translates obvious, la patrie des belier.V p. 231. [It Summos posse viros et magna ex- is found also in the Arundel MS. empta daturos 377 f. 131 in the British Museum.]