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Arr. XII. ASTRONOMICAL AND NAUTICAL 
COLLECTIONS. No. XVIII. 
i. Extracts relating to the Theory of the T1pxs. 
[It is thought advisable to insert, in this article, a popular view 
of the principal phenomena of the tides, which appeared some years 
ago, ina periodical work of a miscellaneous nature, and to add to 
it some few corrections, and some extensions, which form a part of 
a more scientific investigation, that has lately been published in 
the Supplement of the Encyclopedia Britannica.) 
“ Of the objections,” says a writer in the Quarterly Review tor 
October, 1811, p. 76, [which have been hastily advanced by some 
authors, against the established theory of the tides,] “ the most 
material seems to be, that according to the Newtonian opinion, 
the moon must be supposed to repel the waters on the remoter 
side of the earth, instead of attracting them. ‘The next is, that the 
lunar action must be sufficient to overcome the forces of gravity and 
cohesion. The third, that the time of high water is frequently 
three, and sometimes six hours later, than that of the moon’s pas- 
sage over the meridian. 
“The difficulty in conceiving the apparent repulsion of the 
waters on the remoter side of the earth, which very naturally occurs 
to one who is but little conversant with the subject, appears to de- 
pend on a want of sufficient attention to the manner in which the 
mean solar and lunar attractions are counterbalanced. We are 
unconsciously disposed to consider the earth, especially in com- 
parison with the moon, as a body perfectly at rest, or at most as 
an immense sphere poised on its axis, or having some secret sup- 
port connected with its centre. And it is true that, if the earth 
were suspended as an apple hangs on a stalk, or a terrestrial globe 
on the pins which connect it with the brazen meridian, the attrac- 
tive force of a distant body would necessarily tend to collect a 
fluid surrounding it, about the part nearest to the disturbing body. 
