J 84- HISTORY OF 



CHAP. XVII. 



OF THE CHANGES PRODUCED BY THE SEA UPON THU EARTH. 



From what has been said, as well of the earth as of the sea, 

 they both appear to be in continual fluctuation. The earth, the 

 common promptuary that supplies subsistence to men, animals, 

 and vegetables, is continually furnishing its stores to their sup. 

 port. But the matter which is thus derived from it, is soor» 

 restored, and laid down again to be prepared for fresh mutations. 

 The transmigration of souls is, no doubt, false and whimsical ; 

 but nothing can be more certain than the transmigration of 

 bodies : the spoils of the meanest reptile may go to the forma- 

 tion of a prince ; and, on the contrary, as the poet has it, the 

 body of C;esar may be employed in stopping a beer-barrel. From 

 this, and other causes, therefore, the earth is in continual change. 

 Its internal lires, the deviation of its rivers, and the falling of its 

 mountains, are daily altering its surface ; and geography can 

 scarcely recollect the lakes and the valleys that history once 

 described. 



But these changes are nothing to the instability of the ocean. 

 It would seem that inquietude was as natural to it as its fluidity. 

 It is first seeii with a constant and equable motion going towards 

 the west ; the tides then interrupt this progression, and for s 

 time drive the waters in a contrary direction : beside these 

 agitations, the currents act their part in a smaller sphere, being 

 generally greatest where the other motions of the sea are least ; 

 namely nearest the shore ; the winds also contribute their share 

 in this universal fluctuation •, so tliat scarcely any part of the sea 

 is wholly seen to stagnate. 



Nil cnim quifiscit, undis impellitur unda, 

 Et spiritus et calor toto se corpore misceiit. 



As this great element is thus changed, and continually la- 

 bouring internally, it may be readily supposed that it produces 

 correspondent changes upon its shores, and those parts of the 

 earth subject to its influence. In fact, it is every day making 

 considerable alterations, cither by overflowing its shores in one 

 place, or deserting them in others ; by covering over whoii? 



