96 
PLINY's IS^ATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book IT, 
the vulgar most strenuously contend against is, to be com- 
pelled to believe that the water is forced into a rounded 
figure^ ; yet there is nothing more obvious to the sight among 
the phsenomena of nature. Por we see everywhere, that 
drops, when they hang down, assume the form of small globes, 
and when they are covered with dust, or have +he down of 
leaves spread over them, they are observed to be completely 
round ; and when a cup is filled, the liquid swells up in the 
middle. But on account of the subtile nature of the fluid 
and its inherent softness, the fact is more easily ascertained 
by our reason than by our sight. And it is even more 
wonderful, that if a very little fluid only be added to a cup 
when it is full, the superfluous quantity runs over, whereas 
the contrary happens if we add a solid body, even as much 
as would weigh 20 denarii. The reason of this is, that what 
is dropt in raises up the fluid at the top, while what is poured 
on it slides off" from the projecting surface. It is from 
the same cause^ that the land is not visible from the body 
of a ship when it may be seen from the mast ; and that 
when a vessel is receding, if any bright object be flxed to the 
mast, it seems gradually to descend and finally to become 
invisible. And the ocean, which we admit to be without 
limits, if it had any other figure, could it cohere and exist 
without falling, there being no external margin to contain 
it ? And the same wonder still recurs, how is it that the 
extreme parts of the sea, although it be in the form of a 
globe, do not fall down ? In opposition to which doctrine, 
the Grreeks, to their great joy and glory, were the first to 
teach us, by their subtile geometry, that this could not hap- 
pen, even if the seas were flat, and of the flgure which they 
appear to be. Por since water always runs from a higher to 
millibus passuum assurgere." To avoid the apparent improbability of the 
author conceiving of the Alps as 50 miles high, the commentators have, 
according to their usual custom, exercised their ingenuity in altering the 
text. See Poinsinet, i. 206, 207, and Lemaire, i. 373. But the expres-. 
sion does not imply that he conceived them as 50 miles in perpendicular 
height, but that there is a continuous ascent of 50 miles to get to the 
eummit. This explanation of the passage is adopted by Alexandre; Lemaire, 
ut supra. For what is known of Dicsearchus I may refer to Hardouin, 
Inde^x Auctorum, in Lemaire, i. 181. 
• " coactam in verticem aquarum quoque figuram." 
• "aquarum nempe convexitas." Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 374. 
