Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/159

 Cliap. 99.] CAUSE OF THE TIDES. 125 always in the space of twenty-four hours. First, the moon rising with the stars ^ swells out the tide, and after some time, having gained the summit of the heavens, she declines from the meridian and sets, and the tide subsides. Again, after she has set, and moves in the heavens under the earth, as she approaches the meridian on the opposite side, the tide flows in ; after which it recedes until she again rises to us. But the tide of the next day is never at the same time with that of the preceding ; as if the planet was in attendance^, greedily drinkiug up the sea, and continually rising in a different place from what she did the day before. The intervals are, however, equal, being always of six hours ; not indeed in respect of any particular day or niglit or place^, but equinoctial hoiu's, and therefore they are unequal as estimated by the length of com.- mon hours, since a greater number of them"^ fall on some cer- tain days or nights, and they are never equal everywhere except at the equinox. This is a great, most clear, and even divine proof of the dullness of those, who deny that the stars go below the earth and rise up again, and that nature pre- sents the same face in the same states of their rising and setting^ ; for the course of the stars is equally obvious in the one case as in the other, producing the same effect as when it is manifest to the sight. There is a difference in the tides, depending on the moon, of a complicated nature, and, first, as to the period of seven days. For the tides are of moderate height from the new moon to the ffrst quarter ; from this time they increase, and are the highest at the full: they then decrease. On the seventh day they are equal to what they were at the first ^ " Mundo ;" the heavens or visible firmament, to which the stara and planets appear to be connected, so as to be moved along with it. 2 " Ancillante ; " " Credas ancillari sidus, et iudiilgere mari, vit non ab eadem parte, qua pridie, pastum ex oceano haui'iat." Ilardouin in Lemaire, i. 427. 3 Not depending on the time of the rising and setting of the sun or the latitude of the place, but determmate portions of the diurnal pei'iod. ^ By a conjectural variation of a letter, viz. by substituting "eos" for " eas," Dalechairip has, as he conceives, i*endercd tliis passage more clear; the alteration is adopted by Lemau'e. oricntibus occidentibusque sideribus," as interpreted by Alexandre iu Lemaire, i. 428.
 * "In iisdem ortus occasusque operibus;" "Eodem modo utrinquo