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BACON 



in towards the opposite coasts of Florida and Spain in the 

 Atlantic, there is at the same time a flood tide on the coasts of 

 Peru and the back part of China, in the Southern Ocean, then 

 assuredly, from this decisive instance, we must reject the asser- 

 tion, that the flood and ebb of the sea, about which we inquire, 

 takes place by progressive motion ; for no other sea or place is 

 left where there can be an ebb. But this may most easily be 

 learnt, by inquiring of the inhabitants of Panama and Lima 

 (where the two oceans are separated by a narrow isthmus), 

 whether the flood and ebb takes place on the opposite sides of 

 the isthmus at the same time, or the reverse. This decision or 

 rejection appears certain, if it be granted that the earth is fixed ; 

 but if the earth revolves, it may perhaps happen, that from the 

 unequal revolution (as regards velocity) of the earth and the 

 waters of the sea, there may be a violent forcing of the waters 

 into a mass, forming the flood, and a subsequent relaxation of 

 them (when they can no longer bear the accumulation), form- 

 ing the ebb. A separate inquiry must be made into this. Even 

 with this hypothesis, however, it remains equally true, that there 

 must be an ebb somewhere, at the same time that there is a flood 

 in another quarter. 



Again, let the required nature be the latter of the two motions 

 we have supposed ; namely, that of a rising and subsiding mo- 

 tion, if it should happen that upon diligent examination the 

 progressive motion be rejected. We have, then, three ways 

 before us, with regard to this nature. The motion, by which 

 the waters raise themselves, and again fall back, in the floods 

 and ebbs, without the addition of any other water rolled towards 

 them, must take place in one of the three following ways. 

 Either the supply of water emanates from the interior of the 

 earth, and returns back again ; or there is really no greater 

 quantity of water, but the same water (without any augmenta- 

 tion of its quantity) is extended or rarefied, so as to occupy 

 a greater space and dimension, and again contracts itself; or 

 there is neither an additional supply nor any extension, but the 

 same waters (with regard to quantity, density, or rarity) raise 

 themselves and fall from sympathy, by some magnetic power 

 attracting and calling them up, as it were, from above. Let us 

 then (passing over the first two motions) reduce the investiga- 

 tion to the last, and inquire if there be any such elevation of the 

 water by sympathy or a magnetic force ; and it is evident, in 

 the first place, that the whole mass of water being placed in the 

 trench or cavity of the sea, cannot be raised at once, because 

 there would not be enough to cover the bottom, so that if there 

 be any tendency of this kind in the water to raise itself, yet it 

 would be interrupted and checked by the cohesion of things, or 

 (as the common expression is) that there may be no vacuum. 



