Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/130

96 pliny's katueal histohy. [Book IT, the Tulgar most strenuously contend against is, to be com- pelled to believe that tiie water is forced into a rounded figure^ ; yet there is nothing more obvious to the sight among the phaenomena of natm^e. For we see every wiiere, 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 oiu- reason than by our sight. And it is even more w onderful, 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 ofi" 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 fixed 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 figiu'e, 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 G-reeks, 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 figure which they appear to be. For 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, accorduig to their usual custom, exercised their ingentiity 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, Index Auctonma, in Lemah^e, i. 181. • " coactam in verticem aquarum quoque figui'am." • " aquarum nempe convcxitas." Alexandre, ia Lemaire, i. 374,