8. Two other works of William of Conches, the Secunda
Philosophia, and the Tertia Philosophia, are described in
the twelfth volume of the Histoire litteraire de la France.
They remain in manuscript at Paris ; but specimens,
some chapters at length, and tables of contents, are printed
by Cousin. The first, we are told, is a dialogue on
anthropology between a master and a disciple ; the second,
also a dialogue, is an abridgement of the author s system
of cosmography, derived from the Philosophia. Had how-
ever Cousin been acquainted with the Dragmaticon he
would probably have suspected that this was the immediate
source, and would have found that D. stands not for
discipulus but for dux, the duke of Normandy to whom the
work is dedicated. Moreover these works are not abridge
ments at all. The one is a literal transcript of part of
the Dragmaticon, the other is a set of disconnected extracts
from it. The latter is taken from different parts of
books ii. vi., and leaves off just before the point from
which the former is transcribed. Of course it is impos
sible to speak with absolute certainty from Cousin s speci
mens, but the following details of collation suggest a
sufficiently plain inference.[1]
The Secunda Philosophia begins with the words Dicendum est, &c., which introduce the section on animals occupying the major part of the sixth book of the Dragmaticon.
- ↑ M. Haureau in his Singularites still clings to the idea of these works being independent productions. I may, however, take leave to doubt whether this distinguished scholar had always the Dragmaticon itself before him. At least it is certain that every reference he makes to the Secunda Philosophia occurs, just as Cousin s do, in the Drag- maticon [e. g. ch. xviii. (Haureau, p. 252)= Dragm. p. 281; ch. xxx. (Haureau, p. 252 n. 2)= Dragm. p. 306] : and not in the fourth book of the Philosophia, as M. Haureau says (p. 241), nor anywhere else in that work. The substance may be there very possibly, though Cousin’s excerpts contain much that is definitely not there; but the form is that of a dialogue, and this fact alone decides the point, M. Haureau speaks (p. 247) of the Dragmaticon as borrowing from the Secunda Philosophia ; but when the smaller work is contained verbatim (within the limits of scrip- tural aberration) in the greater, we need not be long in deciding which is the original and which the extract. With regard to the Tertia Philosophia M. Haureau says little (p. 248), and does not seem to suspect that it is in fact derived from the Dragmaticon.
pp. 244 sq., conjectures is also by William.
