Cliap. 66.] WATEB. ;07 



a lower level, and this is admitted to be essential to it, no 

 one ever doubted that the water would accumulate on any 

 shore, as much as its slope would allow it. It is also certain, 

 that the lower anything is, so much the nearer is it to the 

 centre, and that all the lines which are drawn from this point 

 to the water which is the nearest to it, are shorter than those 

 which reach from the beginning of the sea to its extreme 

 parts ^ Hence it follows, that all the water, from every part, 

 tends towards the centre, and, because it has this tendency, 

 does not fall. 



CHAP. 66. — now THE WATEB IS CONITECTED WITH THE EAETH. 

 OF THE KAVIOATION OF THE SEA AND THE EIVEES. 



We must believe, that the great artist. Nature, has so 

 arranged it, that as the arid and dry earth cannot subsist by 

 itself and without moisture, nor, on the other hand, can the 

 water subsist unless it be supported by the earth, they are 

 connected by a mutual union. The earth opens her harbours, 

 while the water pervades the whole earth, within, without, 

 and above ; its veins running in all directions, like connect- 

 ing links, and bursting out on even the highest ridges ; 

 where, forced up by the air, and pressed out by the weight 

 of the earth, it shoots forth as from a pipe, and is so far from 

 being in danger of falling, that it bounds up to the highest 

 and most lotty places. Hence the reason is obvious, why 

 the seas are not increased by the daily accession of so many 

 rivers*. 



(66.) The earth has, therefore, the whole of its globe girt, 

 on every side, by the sea flowing round it. And this is not a 



* " Quara qu8D ad extremum mare a primis aquis." I profess myself 

 altogether unable to follow the author's mode of reasoning in this para- 

 graph, or to throw any light upon it. He would appear to be arguing 

 in favour of the actual flatness of the sur£aoe of the ocean, whereas his 

 previous remarks prove its convexity. 



* Alexandre remarks on this passage, " Nempe quod remotissimos etiam 

 fontes alat oceanus. Sed omittit Plinius vaporationis intermedia ope 

 hoc fieri." Lemaire, i. 376. Aristotle has written at considerable length 

 on the origin of springs, in his Meteor. L 13. p. 543 et seq. He argues 

 against the opinion of those who suppose that the water of springs is 

 entirely derived from evaporation. Seneca's account of the origm of 

 springs is found in his Nat. Qusest. iii. 1. 



VOL. I. H 



