DE FLUXU ET REFLUXU MARIS. 241 



flow ; and this cause was sought for in the configura 

 tion of land and sea. 



It seems as if Aristotle, if he had developed any 

 theory of the tides, would have had recourse to some 

 similar explanation. Thus Strabo says, (I quote from 

 Xylander s translation,) &quot; Jam Aristotelem Posidonius 

 ait aestuum marinorum qui fiunt in Hispania causas non 

 recte ascribere litori et Mauritania &quot; (by litori is prob 

 ably meant the coast of Spain itself), &quot; dicentem mare 

 ideo reciprocare, quia extrema terrarum sublimia sint et 

 aspera, qua3 et fluctum duriter excipiant et in Hispa- 

 niam repercutiant, cum pleraque litora sint humilia et 

 arenas tumulis constent.&quot; 1 With this passage is to be 

 compared what Aristotle says in the commencement of 

 the second book of the Meteorologies, from which it ap 

 pears to have been his opinion that the seas within the 

 Pillars of Hercules flow continually outwards in conse 

 quence of differences of level, and that where the sea is 

 girt in by straits its motion becomes visible in the form 

 of a reciprocating libration : Sta TO raXavrfveo-Oai SeCpo 

 Ka/ceio-e. This obscure expression is taken to relate to 

 the tides, and probably does so. It suggested to Ca3sal- 

 pinus his theory of their cause. At least he quotes it, 

 and dilates on its meaning ; and when the ebb and flow 

 of the sea is conceived of as a libration, it is easily in 

 ferred that this libration ought to be ascribed not di 

 rectly to the fluid itself but to that on which it rests. 

 And this notion of the libration of the earth connected 

 itself with his views of astronomy. For in order to 



1 Strabo, iii. p. 153. It is worth remarking that this passage is quoted 

 by Ideler in his edition of the Meteorologies, i. p. 501., in a way which 

 makes it quite unintelligible, some words having been accidentally 

 omitted. 



VOL. v. 16 



