BOOK II. Lxv. 162-164 



of the earth's general sphericity." To me this seems a 

 questionable guess, as I know that some peaks of the 

 Alps rise to a great height, not less than 50,000 

 paces. 



But what the crowd most debates is if it must Spherica' 

 beheve that the conformation of the waters also ']'fll^^ctajL. 

 rises in a curve. Nevertheless nothing else in the 

 natural world is more visibly manifest. For (1) 

 hanging drops of hquid always take the shape of 

 small round globes ; (2) •«'hen dropped on dust or 

 placed on the downy surface of leaves they are seen 

 to be absolutely spherical ; (3) in goblets when filled 

 the surface curves upward most at the centre, though 

 owing to the transparency of the Uquid and its 

 fluidity tending to find its o^vn level this is more easily 

 discovered by theory than by observation ; and (4) a 

 still more remarkable fact is that when a very httle 

 additional liquid is poured into a cup that has already 

 been filled the surplus overflows, but the opposite 

 happens when weighty sohds, often as many as 

 20 coins, are put into it, presumably because these 

 pass inside the liquid and raise its surface to a peak, 

 whereas hquids poured on to the upward curving 

 surface sHp off. (5) The same cause explains why 

 the land is not visible from the deck of a ship when in 

 sight from the masthead ; and why as a vessel 

 passes far into the distance, if some shining object 

 is tied to the top of the mast it appears slowly to sink 

 and finally it is hidden from sight. Lastly (6) what 

 other conformation could have caused the ocean, 

 which we acknowledge to be at the extreme outside, 

 to cohere and not fall away, if there is no boundary 

 beyond to enclose it ? The very question as to how, 

 although the sea is globular in shape, its edge does 



299 



