SPKINGS. 69 



the source of the comeliness of their women, etc., 

 if I were to follow up my subject in this direction, I 

 Bay, it would lead me into deeper and more troubled 

 waters than I am in quest of at present. 



Pliny, in a letter to one of his friends, gives the fol- 

 lowing account of a spring that flowed near his Lau- 

 ren tine villa: 



" There is a spring which rises in a neighboring mount- 

 ain, and running among the rocks is received into a little 

 banqueting-room, artificially formed for that purpose, 

 from whence, after being detained a short time, it falls 

 into the Larian Lake. The nature of this spring is ex- 

 tremely curious: it ebbs and flows regularly three times 

 a day. The increase and decrease are plainly visible, 

 and exceedingly interesting to observe. You sit down 

 by the side of the fountain, and while you are taking a re- 

 past and drinking its water, which is exceedingly cool, you 

 see it gradually rise and fall. If you place a ring or any- 

 thing else at the bottom, when it is dry, the water creeps 

 gradually up, first gently washing, finally covering it en- 

 tirely, and then, little by little, subsides again. If you 

 wait long enough, you may see it thus alternately advance 

 and recede three successive times/' 



Pliny suggests four or five explanations of this 

 phenomenon, but is probably wide of the mark in all 

 but the fourth one : 



44 Or is there rather a certain reservoir that contains 

 these waters in the bowels of the earth, and while it ia 

 recruiting its discharges, the stream in consequence flows 

 more slowly and in less quantity, but, when it has col- 



