BOOK II. Lxv. 164-LXV1. 166 



not fall away, itself ranks with the marvellous. On 

 the other side the Greek investigators, greatly to 

 their delight and to their glory, prove by subtle 

 mathematical reasoning that it cannot possibly be 

 the case that the seas are really flat and have the 

 shape that they appear to have. For, they argue, 

 while it is the case that water travels downward from 

 an elevation, and this is its admitted nature, and 

 nobody doubts that the water on any coast has 

 reached the farthest point allowed by the slope 

 of the earth, it is manifest beyond doubt that the 

 lower an object is the nearer it is to the centre of the 

 earth, and tiiat all the Unes drawn from the centre to 

 the nearest bodies of water are shorter than those 

 drawn from the edge of these waters to the farthest 

 point in the sea : it therefore follows that all the water 

 from every direction converges towards the centre, 

 this pressure inward being the cause of its not falUng 

 off. 



LXVI. The reason for this formation must be cohermceoj 

 thought to be the inability of earth when absolutely ^"a^"'"^ 

 dry to cohere of itself and without moisture, and of 

 water in its turn to remain still without being held up 

 by earth ; the intention of the Artificer of nature must 

 have been to unite earth and water in a mutual 

 embrace, earth opening her bosom and water pene- 

 trating her entire frame by means of a network of 

 veins radiating within and without, above and below, 

 the water bursting out even at the tops of mountain 

 ridges, to which it is driven and squeezed out by the 

 weight of the earth, and spurts out hke a jet of water 

 from a pipe, and is so far from being in danger of 

 faUing down that it leaps upward to aU the loftiest 

 elevations. This theory shows clearly why the seas 



301 



