When I was a young lad, I heard that a man had come out of his own country to travel through the world, and that he fared through the whole of India, and thence till he reached an island where he heard shepherds driving cattle and speaking the language of his own country. And when we suppose them to be under us, just so they are of opinion that we are under them. And if it were possible for a man to fall from the earth into the firmament, it is unlikely, for it were more likely for a man to fall from the firmament to the earth,14 as God Himself said: Do not fear, have I not hung the earth without fastening it to anything.15 Howbeit it is one of a thousand who would take the right way to his own country, because of the abundance of the ways on which a man may be wandering, unless he have the graces of God a-guiding him. For the earth is so extensive round about and above and beneath, 2424 miles, according to the opinion of the wise men to which I do not object; and neither Ireland nor Scotland nor England is counted to be in the high region, just as the islands of the east of India are not counted.