Page 229

the seven liberal arts that God had sent to them on earth. Of these,
there were some who wanted to investigated what the earth
would become and if it would ever come to an end. They
found that truly it would end twice, the first time by the Flood
of water - but at that time Our Lord did not want them to
know whether it would be by water or by fire. And then
they had great suffering and sorrow from the knowledge they
had acquired, for they had learned from it that they would
perish if they were not protected by their wisdom.
Therefore they took advice from their great wisdom and goodness,
knowing well that after the first end of the world
there would be other people, and for this reason they made
great stone columns, on each of which they were able to
draw and incise at least one of the seven arts in its entirety,
so that it would be known to those other people. Some
say that each of these columns was made of a stone
as hard as marble, and of such a nature that water could
not damage it, nor increase nor diminish it in any way, [and that each was]
wholly [covered] with a strong kind of tiles without