Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/163

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Chap. 104.]

SALTNESS OF THE SEA.

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unjustly regarded as the star of our life. This it is that replenishes the earth; when she approaches it, she fills all bodies, while, when she recedes, she empties them. From this cause it is that shell-fish grow with her increase³, and that those animals which are without blood more particularly experience her influence; also, that the blood of man is increased or diminished in proportion to the quantity of her light; also that the leaves and vegetables generally, as I shall describe in the proper place, feel her influence, her power penetrating all things.

CHAP. 103. (100.)—THE POWER OF THE SUN.

Fluids are dried up by the heat of the sun; we have therefore regarded it as a masculine star, burning up and absorbing everything5.

CHAP. 104.-WHY THE SEA IS SALT.

Hence it is that the widely-diffused sea is impregnated with the flavour of salt, in consequence of what is sweet and mild being evaporated from it, which the force of fire easily accomplishes; while all the more acrid and thick matter is left behind; on which account the water of the sea is less salt at some depth than at the surface. And this is a more true cause of the acrid flavour, than that the sea is the con- tinued perspiration of the land, or that the greater part of the dry vapour is mixed with it, or that the nature of the earth is such that it impregnates the waters, and, as it were, 1 "Spiritus sidus;" "Quod vitalem humorem ac spiritus in corpo- ribus rebusque omnibus varie temperet." Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 433. 2 "Terras saturet;" as Alexandre interprets it, succo impleat; Lemaire. " " 3 This circumstance is alluded to by Cicero, De Divin. ii. 33, and by Horace, Sat. ii. 4, 30. It is difficult to conceive how an opinion so totally unfounded, and so easy to refute, should have obtained general credence.

Lib. xviii. chap. 75.

5 Aristotle, Meteor. ii. 1, remarks, that as the sun is continually eva- porating the water of the sea, it must eventually be entirely dried up. But we have reason to believe, that all the water which is evaporated by the solar heat, or any other natural process, is again deposited in the form of rain or dew. 6 "Terræ sudor;" according to Aristotle, Meteor. ii. 4: this opinion. was adopted by some of the ancients.