Chapter IV: Preface

Having begun a mighty task in my old age I must make up for
lost time by hurrying on. The magnitude of it is actually
an incentive to effort. Such studies are far superior to
the historian’s task of recording the deeds of the robbers
and butchers of mankind. The former raise us above the
vicissitudes of fortune. “The principal thing” is to have a
pure heart and clean hands, to escape slavery to self. The
study of the universe exalts us to this 109

I. The cause of rivers and their varieties. Waters vary in
amount at different seasons, in temperature, in medicinal
qualities 114

II. Varieties of taste, weight, colour, utility to health,
consistency 115

III. Gravitation or the force of air determines the flow of
water. Surface and spring water: they may be combined as in
Lake Fucinus 115

IV. Why is the sea not filled nor the earth drained dry by
rivers? 116

V. Some hold that what flows into the sea returns by secret
passages cleansed of its salinity 116

VI. Some think rain supplies the rivers, and in proof cite the
interior of Africa as contrasted with Gaul and Germany 117

VII. Objections to this argument. Rain does not penetrate more
than 10 feet. If the earth is dry, it absorbs the rain; if
it is saturated, the rain runs off. Again, rivers rise in
rocks and mountains, where what rain ever fell must have run
off. Rich wells of “living” water are found in the driest
ground at depth. Fountains well out at mountain tops 117

VIII. The interior of the earth is, according to some, a huge
receptacle of fresh water 118

IX. Others think the air which is contained within the earth
being prevented from circulating turns into water 119

X. But indeed the four elements are all interchangeable 120

XI. Though the supply of water is perennial, rivers and springs
are intermittent 121

XII. The abundance of water is no difficulty, since it is a
fourth part of the universe 123

XIII. The relation of water to the other elements. Thales’ silly
notion that the earth sails in water like a ship at sea 124

XIV. The Egyptians divide each of the elements into male and
female 125

XV. The veins of the earth resemble those of the human body.
There are likewise the analogies of marrow, mucus, etc., of
injuries and of bleeding, of parturition, perspiration, etc. 125

XVI. Intermittent fountains are an illustration of seasonal
activity. The great vacant spaces of the earth and their
tenants. Underground fish 128

XVII. The incredible wonders of nature are paralleled and even
outdone by the excesses of luxury 129

XVIII. The extravagances of luxury, which make a wise man mad 130

XIX. To return--a sudden eruption of water casts up fish,
generally poisonous. This points to the unfailing supply of
subterranean water 132

XX. Various tastes of water due to four causes; qualities of
water--petrifying, soporific, intoxicating, fatal 133

XXI. The same pestilential influence as taints rivers is
perceived in caves: the noxious rivers flow from or through
them 134

XXII. The Ocean and seas are coeval with the universe. So
probably are abnormal rivers like the Danube and the Nile 135

XXIII. Rain and surface water must be added to subterranean 135

XXIV. The causes of hot springs 136

XXV. Poisonous rivers. Colouring power of others. Great specific
gravity of certain waters, its effects and cause 137

XXVI. Intermittent rivers and springs. Means possessed by river,
fount, and sea of purifying themselves 141

XXVII. Digression on the universal deluge which will destroy
the world. Nature is niggardly in creation, lavish in
destruction. Ovid is unequal in his treatment of this
catastrophe 143

XXVIII. Further imaginative pictures of what water can do by
way of destruction. Alternative methods of destroying the
earth--water and fire 148

XXIX. Further possibilities of the same character. Distinctions
of seas, gulfs, etc., will all be obliterated; nature and
the works of man will alike be overthrown 150

XXX. Nature shows by the chafing of the sea that she designs to
inundate the world. A deluge is part of the fore-ordained
plan. But there will be a new earth and a new race of men
who will not sin--for a time 154

BOOK IV

CONTAINING A DISCUSSION OF SNOW, HAIL, AND RAIN. [THE NILE]