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ista cœlum materiatum donavit, ut sit incorruptibile. Scripturæ autem Sacræ æternitatem et corruptionem cœlo et terræ ex æquo, licet gloriam et venerationem disparem, attribuunt. Nam si legatur, solem et lunam fideles et æternos in cœlo testes esse; legitur etiam, generationes migrare, terram autem in æternum manere. Quod autem utrumque transitorium sit, uno oraculo continetur, nempe cœlum et terram pertransire, verbum autem Domini non pertransire. Neque hæc nos novi placiti studio diximus, sed quod ista rerum et regionum conficta divortia et discrimina, ultra quam veritas patitur, magno impedimento ad veram philosophiam et naturæ contemplationem fore, haud ignari sed exemplo edocti, providemus.

DE

FLUXU ET REFLUXU MARIS.

PREFACE

TO THE

DE FLUXU ET REFLUXU MARIS.

BY ROBERT LESLIE ELLIS.

It was a natural result of the progress of maritime discovery in the sixteenth century, that much was thought and written on the subject of the tides. The reports continually brought home touching the ebb and flow of the sea on far distant shores, not only excited curiosity, but also showed how little the philosophers of antiquity had known of the phenomena which they attempted to explain. Men who dwelt on the shores of an inland sea, and whose range of observation scarcely extended beyond the Pillars of Hercules, were in truth not likely to recognise any of the general laws by which these phenomena are governed. Their authority accordingly in this matter was of necessity set aside; and a number of hypotheses were proposed in order to explain the newly discovered facts. Of these speculations an interesting account is given in the twenty-eighth book of the Pancosmia of Patricius. It is not, however, complete; no mention being made of

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