the Sea calm, the Air tranquil; ſuppoſe it to be young flood,
and that in the term of five or ſix hours the water do riſe ten
^{*} hand breadths and more; that riſe is not made by the firſt
water, which was ſaid to be rarefied, but it is done by the
ſion of new Water: Water of the ſame ſort with the former,
of the ſame brackiſhneſs, of the ſame denſity, of the ſame
weight: Ships, Simplicius, float therein as in the former,
out drawing an hairs breadth more water; a Barrel of this ſecond
doth not weigh one ſingle grain more or leſs than ſuch another
quantity of the other, and retaineth the ſame coldneſs without
the leaſt alteration: And it is, in a word, Water newly and
bly entred by the Channels and Mouth of the ^{*} Lio. Conſider
now, how and from whence it came thither. Are there happly
hereabouts any Gulphs or Whirle pools in the bottom of the
Sea, by which the Earth drinketh in and ſpueth out the Water,
breathing as it were a great and monſtruous Whale? But if this
be ſo, how comes it that the Water doth not flow in the ſpace of
ſix hours in Ancona, in ^{*} Raguſa, in Corfu, where the Tide is
ry ſmall, and happly unobſervable? Who will invent a way to
pour new Water into an immoveable Veſſel, and to make that
it riſe onely in one determinate part of it, and in other places
not? Will you ſay, that this new Water is borrowed from the
Ocean, being brought in by the Straight of Gibraltar? This
will not remove the doubt aforeſaid, but will beget a greater.
And firſt tell me what ought to be the current of that Water,
that entering at the Straights mouth, is carried in ſix hours to
the remoteſt Creeks of the Mediterrane, at a diſtance of two
or three thouſand Miles, and that returneth the ſame ſpace again
in a like time at its going back? What would Ships do that lye out
at Sea? What would become of thoſe that ſhould be in the
Straights-mouth in a continual precipice of a vaſt accumulation of
Waters, that entering in at a Channel but eight Mile, broad, is to
give admittance to ſo much Water as in ſix hours over-floweth a
tract of many hundred Miles broad, & thouſands in length? What
Tygre, what Falcon runneth or flyeth with ſo much ſwiftneſs?
With the ſwiftneſs, I ſay, of above 400 Miles an hour. The
rents run (nor can it be denied) the long-wayes of the Gulph, but
ſo ſlowly, as that a Boat with Oars will out-go them, though
deed not without defalking for their wanderings. Moreover, if this
Water come in at the Straight, the other doubt yet remaineth,
namely, how it cometh to flow here ſo high in a place ſo remote,
without firſt riſing a like or greater height in the parts more
cent? In a word, I cannot think that either obſtinacy, or ſharpneſs
of wit can ever find an anſwer to theſe Objections, nor
quently to maintain the ſtability of the Earth againſt them,
ing within the bounds of Nature.
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