96 pliny's katueal histohy. [Book IT, 



the Tulgar most strenuously contend against is, to be com- 

 pelled to believe that tiie water is forced into a rounded 

 figure^ ; yet there is nothing more obvious to the sight among 

 the phaenomena of natm^e. For we see every wiiere, that 

 drops, when they hang down, assume the form of small globes, 

 and when they are covered with dust, or have +he down of 

 leaves spread over them, tliey are observed to be completely 

 round ; and when a cup is filled, the liquid swells up in the 

 middle. But on account of the subtile nature of the fluid 

 and its inherent softness, the fact is more easily ascertained 

 by oiu- reason than by our sight. And it is even more 

 w onderful, that if a very little fluid only be added to a cup 

 when it is full, the superfluous quantity runs over, whereas 

 the contrary happens if we add a solid body, even as much 

 as would weigh 20 denarii. The reason of this is, that what 

 is dropt in raises up the fluid at the top, while what is poured 

 on it slides ofi" From the projecting surface. It is from 

 the same cause^ that the land is not visible from the body 

 of a ship when it may be seen from the mast ; and that 

 when a vessel is receding, if any bright object be fixed to the 

 mast, it seems gradually to descend and finally to become 

 invisible. And the ocean, which we admit to be without 

 limits, if it had any other figiu'e, could it cohere and exist 

 without falling, there being no external margin to contain 

 it ? And the same wonder still recurs, how is it that the 

 extreme parts of the sea, although it be in the form of a 

 globe, do not fall down ? In opposition to which doctrine, 

 the G-reeks, to their great joy and glory, were the first to 

 teach us, by their subtile geometry, that this could not hap- 

 pen, even if the seas were flat, and of the figure which they 

 appear to be. For since water always runs from a higher to 



millibus passuum assurgere." To avoid the apparent improbability of the 

 author conceiving of the Alps as 50 miles high, the commentators have, 

 accorduig to their usual custom, exercised their ingentiity in altering the 

 text. See Poinsinet, i. 206, 207, and Lemaire, i. 373. But the expres- 

 sion does not imply that he conceived them as 50 miles in perpendicular 

 height, but that there is a continuous ascent of 50 miles to get to the 

 eummit. This explanation of the passage is adopted by Alexandre; Lemaire, 

 ut supra. For what is known of Dicsearchus I may refer to Hardouin, 

 Index Auctonma, in Lemah^e, i. 181. 



• " coactam in verticem aquarum quoque figui'am." 



• " aquarum nempe convcxitas." Alexandre, ia Lemaire, i. 374, 



