Abstract

According to Lewis the medieval universe, "while unimaginably large, was also unambiguously finite." The earth was believed to be infinitesimally small by cosmic standards and to have a perfect spherical shape containing within it an ordered variety. Man looked at the world and saw a manifestation of Divine Wisdom and of human finitude. It is Lewis's thesis that this model of the universe accounts for the most typical vice as well as the most typical virtue of medieval literature. The vice, "sheer unabashed, prolonged dulness," arises because the writer feels the world has a built-in significance and thus he need not embellish his subject-matter. The virtue, an "absence of strain" whereby the story seems to be telling itself, comes from the author's complete confidence in the intrinsic value of his subject-matter and results in a vividness unrivalled until very recent times. Lewis concludes his admirable book with a warning to his contemporaries not to misunderstand the character of a model nor to assume naively that today's model is necessarily more factual and "true" to reality than that of the Middle Ages.—B. P. H.