154 PHYSICAL SCIENCE BK. in 



XXX 



1 NATURE, as I have said, finds no task hard, and 

 especially one resolved upon from the beginning, 

 to which she does not come of a sudden, but of 

 which long warning has been given. From the 

 world s first morning, when out of shapeless uni 

 formity it assumed this form it wears, nature s decree 

 had fixed the day when all earthly things should be 

 overflowed. Nay, from of old the seas have prac 

 tised their strength for this purpose, lest at any time 

 destruction as a strange work might be found diffi 

 cult to compass. Do you not see how the breaker 

 dashes against the beach as if it wished to leave its 

 element ? Do you not see how the tide sometimes 

 crosses its bounds and instals the sea in possession 



2 of the land ? Do you not see how unceasing is the 

 war it wages against its barriers ? But what special 

 apprehension need there be of the sea, the place 

 where you see such turmoil, and of the rivers that 

 burst forth in such fury ? Where has nature not 

 placed water ? She can attack us on all sides the 

 moment she chooses. I can give my own word of 

 honour for it that water meets us as we turn up the 

 soil ; every time our avarice sends us down a mine, 

 or any other motive induces us to sink a shaft deep 

 in the earth, the end of the excavation is always a 

 rush of water. 



3 Remember, too, that there are huge lakes 

 hidden deep in the earth, great quantities of sea 

 stored up, and many rivers that glide through the 

 unseen depths. On all sides, therefore, will be 



