But all these move up and down as it were by a certain
oscillation existing in the earth. And this oscillation proceeds from
such natural cause as this: one of the chasms of the earth is
exceedingly large, and perforated through the entire earth, and is that
which Homer[43] speaks of, 'very far off, where is the most profound
abyss beneath the earth,' which elsewhere both he and many other poets
have called Tartarus. For into this chasm all rivers flow together, and
from it flow out again, but they severally derive their character from
the earth through which they flow."
[Footnote 43: _Iliad_, lib. viii., v. 14.]
"And the reason why all streams flow out from thence and flow into it is
because this liquid has neither bottom nor base. Therefore it oscillates
and fluctuates up and down, and the air and the wind around it do the
same; for they accompany it, both when it rushes to those parts of the
earth, and when to these. And as in respiration the flowing breath is
continually breathed out and drawn in, so there the wind, oscillating
with the liquid, causes certain vehement and irresistible winds both as
it enters and goes out.
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