HISTORY OF 



hour, the sea again begins to flow as before : and 

 thus it has alternately risen and fallen, twice a- 

 day, since the creation. 



This amazing appearance did not fail to excite 

 the curiosity, as it did the wonder of the ancients. 

 After some wild conjectures of the earliest philo- 

 sophers, it became well known, in the time of 

 Pliny, that the tides were entirely under the in- 

 fluence, in a small degree, of the sun ; but in a 

 much greater, of the moon. It was found that 

 there was a flux and reflux of the sea, in the 

 space of twelve hours fifty minutes, which is ex- 

 actly the time of a lunar day. It was observed, 

 that whenever the moon was in the meridian, or, 

 in other words, as nearly as possible over any part 

 of the sea, that the sea flowed to that part, and 

 made a tide there ; on the contrary it was found, 

 that when the moon left the meridian, the sea 

 began to flow back again from whence it came ; 

 and there might be said to ebb. Thus far the 

 waters of the sea seemed very regularly to at- 

 tend the motions of the moon. But it appeared, 

 likewise, that when the moon was in the opposite 

 meridian, as far off on the other side of the globe, 

 that there was a tide on this side also ; so that 

 the moon produced two tides, one by her great- 

 est approach to us, and another by her greatest 

 distance from us : in other words, the moon, in 

 once going round the earth, produced two tides, 

 always at the same time ; one on the part of the 

 globe directly under her, and the other on the 

 part of the globe directly opposite. 



