|
|
| (16) [VIII]. Hiis igitur rationibus, et aliis non curandis, conantur ostendere suam oppinionem esse veram qui tenent aquam esse altiorem terra ista detecta sive habitabili, licet in contrarium est sensus et ratio. Ad sensum enim videmus per totam terram flumina descendere ad mare, tam meridionale quam septentrionale, tam orientale quam occidentale; quod non esset, si principia fluminum et tractus alveorum non essent altiora ipsa superficie maris. Ad rationem vero patebit inferius, et hoc multis rationibus demonstrabitur | (16) By these arguments, therefore, and others to which we need pay no heed, they who hold that water is loftier than the exposed or habitable earth endeavour to show that their opinion is true, though sense and reason contradict it. For by sense we perceive that throughout the whole earth rivers flow down to the sea, whether northern or southern, eastern or western; which would not be unless the sources of the rivers and the course of their channels were higher than the surface of the sea. Reason will be shown below to be on the same side. |