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Sea-tides, according to locality, attain a height of six,, 

 eight and even nine sazhen. Imagine, now, a column of 

 water of only one square sazhen, but eight sazhen high. 

 To raise this mass a force of not less than 8000 poods 

 is requisite. Scientists we must remember do not diffe- 

 rentiate this attractive force as acting exclusively upon 

 one certain form or certain forms of matter, but assume 

 that it is universally operative upon all, and operates 

 visibly upon the sea only because that liquid body yields 

 more pliantly to its influence. But two or three simple 

 experiments are sufficient to convince us that an attrac- 

 tive force which is able to raise water to the height of 

 8 sazhen would not leave a single tree or a single build- 

 ing standing on the firm ground. 



If it should be argued that solid bodies are not sub- 

 ject to this attraction on account of their atomic cohesion, 

 I can point to friable substances. The deserts of Egypt 

 and Mongolia supply such masses of loose dry sand 

 that they could cover thousands of versts. I admit that 

 sand is heavier than water, but as water is agitated by 

 the wind, so also is sand a circumstance indicating 

 an analogy. It seems undoubtedly certain that if Sun 

 and Moon attract the water of the sea they must attract 

 also the sand of the desert; if they can raise the former 

 8 sazhen, why not the latter four, or even one, or even 

 an arshin, or even an inch ? But they exercise no in- 

 fluence at all of such a kind, and therefore we find 

 ourselves compelled to consider this solar and lunar in- 

 fluence as mere scholastic 'moonshine'. 



The greatest energy of an attractive force operates 

 perpendicularly: thus the height of the sea-tide should 

 correspond to the perpendicular of sun and Moon in re- 

 lation to the earth. Meanwhile astronomy proves and 

 indeed any-one can see for himself with his own eyes 

 that the positions of both Sun and Moon and their rela- 

 tive distances olten alter, and sometimes both orbs occupy 

 the same zenith. These changes do not in the least affect 

 the tides, which take place regularly twice a day whate- 



