ii OTHER EXPLANATIONS 177 



flow and ebb of tide ; there is always a descending 

 flood in the one direction. Unless this took place, 

 and these routes supplied the means whereby what 

 is lacking may be bestowed on each land, and what 

 is superfluous may be given off, the whole earth 

 would ere now have been either drained or flooded. 

 Now, one would like to ask Diogenes, seeing the 30 

 deep and all streams are in intercommunication, why 

 the rivers are not everywhere larger in summer. 

 Egypt, he will perhaps tell me, is more baked by 

 the sun, and therefore the Nile rises higher from 

 the extra supply it draws ; but in the other coun 

 tries, too, the rivers receive some addition. Another 

 question seeing that every land attracts moisture 

 from other regions, and a greater supply in propor 

 tion to its heat, why is any part of the world without 

 moisture? Another why is the Nile fresh if its 

 water comes from the sea? No river has a fresher 

 and sweeter taste. 



Ill 



I SHOULD be somewhat too bold if I were to assure 

 you as on oath that hail is formed in the sky much 

 in the way ice is with us, only that in the former 

 case a whole cloud is frozen. So I may regard 

 myself as a witness only in the second degree one 

 of those who say not that they have actually seen 

 but have been informed. Or, I may, for once, do as 

 the chroniclers do. After lying at large to their 

 heart s content, they fix on some one point for which 

 they refuse to vouch, adding : Evidence of this 

 will be found in the authorities. So, if you do 

 not believe me, Posidonius will vouchsafe to you 

 his authority both for the statement I have made, 



N 



