PALAEONTOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 



which were then dry land had formerly been below 

 the sea. The most important discussion of the subject 

 is found in the Liber De Mundo, formerly attributed 

 to Philo Judaeus, This unknown author has a passage 

 purporting to give the argument of Theophrastus, the 

 favorite pupil of Aristotle, in support of the infinite 

 duration of the world. Theophrastus is quoted as say- 

 ing that those who believe the world had a beginning 

 and will have an end base their claim on the fact that, 

 since the earth's surface is broken and full of inequal- 

 ities, and since the sea level is sinking in many places, 

 then the earth should now be a perfectl)^ smooth body 

 if it had had no beginning or even if it had been in ex- 

 istence a very great length of time, because the constant 

 action of the streams and rivers must, in a great dura- 

 tion of time, wear away the elevated portions and fill 

 up the depressions until all the surface is level. As 

 proof from the second point, they point to the fact 

 that the Mediterranean Sea is lower in level than for- 

 merly because the Islands of Rhodes and Delos were 

 once completely submerged and have been emerging 

 gradually as known from ancient records. Other 

 places also prove the same fact because elevated por- 

 tions of them contain sea-sand and rocks with shells 

 and other products of the sea imbedded in them. Un- 

 less this action were limited in time all the seas would 

 be completely dried up. To this argument, Theo- 

 phrastus proposes a counter-action which tends to 

 increase the inequalities of the earth. As an Aristo- 



C 125 3 



