xxvin RAIN RIVER SEA 149 



But for our purpose the earth must be more 

 than damaged, it must be submerged. In fact, the 

 disasters described are merely the prelude to 

 destruction. After that, the seas swell far beyond 

 their wonted bounds, sending out their waves far 

 above the farthest high-water mark of the most vio 

 lent tempest. The winds will urge them on from the 3 

 rear, rolling up huge billows that will break far inland 

 out of sight of the highest shore. In course of time 

 the shore will thus be shifted forward, the deep will 

 be established in a realm that is not its own ; the 

 mischief will come nearer, and from its new base 

 the tide will issue still from the deepest recesses 

 of the main. For just like atmosphere and ether, 

 this element, sea, has a large reserve, and in 

 its depth is far more copious than appears to the 

 eye. This reserve, moved by fate, not merely by 

 tides for tides are but the agency of fate raises 

 and drives before it a gulf of vast extent. Then in 4 

 wondrous wise it rears its crest, and overtops all man s 

 refuges of safety. Nor do the waters find this a 

 hard task, since, if the heights were calculated, it 

 would be found that the sea mounts from an eleva 

 tion equal to that of earth. The surface of the sea 

 is of uniform level ; for the earth itself as a whole is 

 uniformly level. Hollows and plains are everywhere 

 below the general level. 



But the whole globe is as a matter of fact formed 

 into a regular sphere, while in part of it is the sea, 

 which unites to form the unity of a single ball. But 

 just as when one looks out across a plain, the 5 

 ground that sinks gradually deceives the eye, so 

 we are not aware of the sea s curvatures, and all 

 that is visible is a plain. But being on a level with 

 the earth, the sea does not require to raise itself to 



