Chap. 104..] SALTNESS OF THE SEA. 129 



unjustly regarded as the star of our life*. This it is that 

 replenishes the earth^ ; when she approaches it, she fills all 

 bodies, while, when she recedes, she empties them. From 

 this cause it is that shell-fish grow with her increase^, and 

 that those animals which are without blood more particularly 

 experience her influence ; also, that the blood of man is 

 increased or diminished in proportion to the quantity of her 

 light ; also that the leaves and vegetables generally, as I shall 

 describe in the proper place ^, feel her influence, her power 

 penetrating all things. 



CHAP. 103. (100.) — THE POWEE OF THE SUN". 



Fluids are dried up by the heat of the sun ; we have 

 therefore regarded it as a masculine star, burning up and 

 absorbing everything*. 



CHAP. 104. — WHY THE SEA IS SALT. 



Hence it is that the widely-diff'used sea is impregnated 

 with the flavour of salt, in consequence of what is sweet and 

 mild being evaporated from it, which the force of fire easily 

 accomplishes ; while all the more acrid and thick matter is 

 left behind ; on which account the water of the sea is less 

 salt at some depth than at the siu-face. And this is a more 

 true cause of the acrid flavour, than that the sea is the con- 

 tinued perspiration of the land®, or that the greater part of 

 the dry vapour is mixed with it, or that the nature of the 

 earth is such that it impregnates the waters, and, as it were, 



* " Spiritus sidus ;" " Quod vitalem humorem ac spiritus in corpo- 

 ribus rebusque omnibus varie temperet." Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 433. 



2 " Terras saturet ; " as Alexandre interprets it, " succo impleat ; " 

 Lemaire. 



3 This circumstance is alluded to by Cicero, De Divin. ii. 33, and by 

 Horace, Sat. ii. 4, 30. It is difficult to conceive how an opinion so 

 totally unfounded, and so easy to refute, should have obtained general 

 credence. ■♦ Lib. xviii. chap. 75. 



^ Aristotle, Meteor, ii. 1, remarks, that as the sun is continually eva- 

 porating the vrater of the sea, it must eventually be entirely dried up. 

 But we have reason to beheve, that all the water wliich is evaporated by 

 the solar heat, or any other natural process, is again deposited in the form 

 of rain or dew. 



6 "Terrse sudor;" according to Aristotle, Meteor, ii. 4: this opinion* 

 was adopted by some of the ancients. 



TOL. I. E 



