is, a narrow passage of sea dividing Attica and the island of Euboea, now called Golfo di Negroponte, from the name of the island and chief city thereof, famous in the wars of Antiochus, and taken from the Venetians by Mahomet the Great. Now that in this Euripe or fret of Negroponte, and upon the occasion mentioned, Aristotle drowned himself, as many affirm, and almost all believe, we have some room to doubt. For without any mention of this, we find two ways delivered of his death by Diogenes Laertius, who expressly treateth thereof; the one from Eumolus and Phavorinus, that, being accused of impiety for composing an hymn unto Hermias (upon whose concubine he begat his son Nicomachus), he withdrew into Chalcis, where drinking poison he died; the hymn is extant in Laertius, and the fifteenth book of Athenæus. Another by Apollodorus, that he died at Chalcis of a natural death and languishment of stomach, in his sixtythird, or great climacterical year; and answerable hereto is the account of Suidas and Censorinus. And if that were clearly made out, which Rabbi Ben Joseph affirmeth he found in an Egyptian book of Abraham Sapiens Perizol, that Aristotle acknowledged all that was written in the law of Moses, and became at last a proselyte, it would also make improbable this received way of his death.*7 Again, beside the negative of authority, it is also deniable by reason; nor will it be easy to obtrude such desperate attempts upon Aristotle, from unsatisfaction of reason, who so often acknowledged the imbecility thereof. Who in matters of difficulty, and such which were not without abstrusities, conceived it sufficient to deliver conjecturalities. And surely he that could sometimes sit down with high improbabilities, that could content himself, and think to satisfy others, that the variegation of birds was from their living in the sun, or erection made by delibration of the testicles; would not have been dejected unto death with this. He that was so well acquainted with ǹöri and Tóτepov, utrum and an quia, as we observe in the queries of his problems, with ἴσως and ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ, fortasse and plerumque, as is * Licetus de Quæsitis. Epist. 6 Another, &c.] The most probable account. observable through all his works, had certainly rested with probabilities, and glancing conjectures in this. Nor would his resolutions have ever run into that mortal antanaclasis, and desperate piece of rhetorick, to be comprised in that he could not comprehend. Nor is it indeed to be made out, that he ever endeavoured the particular of Euripus, or so much as to resolve the ebb and flow of the sea. For, as Vicomercatus and others observe, he hath made no mention hereof in his works, although the occasion present itself in his Meteors, wherein he disputeth the affections of the sea; nor yet in his Problems, although in the twenty-third section there be no less than one and forty queries of the sea. Some mention there is indeed in a work of the propriety of elements, ascribed unto Aristotle:* which notwithstanding is not reputed genuine, and was perhaps the same whence this was urged by Plutarch. Lastly, the thing itself whereon the opinion dependeth, that is, the variety of the flux and the reflux of Euripus, or whether the same do ebb and flow seven times a day, is not incontrovertible. For though Pomponius Mela, and after him Solinus and Pliny have affirmed it, yet I observe Thucydides, who speaketh often of Euboea, hath omitted it. Pausanias, an ancient writer, who hath left an exact description of Greece, and in as particular a way as Leandro of Ítaly, or Camden of Great Britain, describing not only the country towns and rivers, but hills, springs, and houses, hath left no mention hereof. Eschines in Ctesiphon only alludeth unto it; and Strabo, that accurate geographer, speaks warily of it, that is, de parì, and as men commonly reported. And so doth also Maginus, Velocis ac varii fluctus est mare, ubi quater in die, aut septies, ut alii dicunt, reciprocantur æstus. Botero more plainly, Il mar cresce e cala con un impeto mirabile quatra volte il di, ben che communimente si dica sette volte, &c.- "this sea with wondrous impetuosity ebbeth and floweth four times a day, although it be commonly said seven times; and generally opinioned, that Aristotle despairing of the reason, drowned himself therein." In which description by four times a day, it exceeds not in number the motion of other seas, taking the words properly, that is, *De placitis Philosophorum. twice ebbing and twice flowing in four and twenty hours. And is no more than what Thomaso Porrchachi affirmeth in his description of famous islands, that twice a day it hath such an impetuous flood, as is not without wonder. Livy speaks more particularly, Haud facile infestior classi statio est et fretum ipsum Euripi, non septies die (sicut fama fert) temporibus certis reciprocat, sed temerè in modum venti, nunc hunc nunc illuc verso mari, velut monte præcipiti devolutus torrens rapitur:-"there is hardly a worse harbour, the fret or channel of Euripus not certainly ebbing or flowing seven times a day, according to common report: but being uncertainly, and in the manner of a wind, carried hither and thither, is whirled away as a torrent down a hill." But the experimental testimony of Gillius is most considerable of any; who having beheld the course thereof, and made enquiry of millers that dwelt upon its shore, received answer, that it ebbed and flowed four times a day, that is, every six hours, according to the law of the ocean; but that indeed sometimes it observed not that certain course. And this irregularity, though seldom happening, together with its unruly and tumultuous motion, might afford a beginning unto the common opinion. Thus may the expression in Ctesiphon be made out. And by this may Aristotle be interpreted, when in his Problems he seems to borrow a metaphor from Euripus; while in the five and twentieth section he enquireth, why in the upper parts of houses the air doth Euripize, that is, is whirled hither and thither. A later and experimental testimony is to be found in the travels of Monsieur Duloir; who about twenty years ago, remained sometime at Negroponte, or old Chalcis, and also passed and repassed this Euripus; who thus expresseth himself: "I wonder much at the error concerning the flux and reflux of Euripus; and I assure you that opinion is false. I gave a boatman a crown, to set me in a convenient place, where for a whole day I might observe the same. It ebbeth and floweth by six hours, even as it doth at Venice, but the course thereof is vehement."8 Now that which gave life unto the assertion, might be his death at Chalcis, the chief city of Euboea, and seated upon 8 A later and experimental, &c.] First added in 6th edition. Euripus, where 'tis confessed by all he ended his days. That he emaciated and pined away in the too anxious enquiry of its reciprocations, although not drowned therein, as Rhodiginus relateth some conceived, was a half confession thereof not justifiable from antiquity. Surely the philosophy of flux and reflux was very imperfect of old among the Greeks and Latins; nor could they hold a sufficient theory thereof, who only observed the Mediterranean, which in some places hath no ebb, and not much in any part. Nor can we affirm our knowledge is at the height, who have now the theory of the ocean and narrow seas beside. While we refer it unto the moon, we give some satisfaction for the ocean, but no general salve for creeks and seas which know no flood; nor resolve why it flows three or four feet at Venice in the bottom of the gulph, yet scarce at all at Ancona, Durazzo, or Corcyra, which lie but by the way. And therefore old abstrusities have caused new inventions; and some from the hypotheses of Copernicus, or the diurnal and annual motion of the earth, endeavour to salve the flows and motions of these seas, illustrating the same by water in a bowl, that rising or falling to either side, according to the motion of the vessel; the conceit is ingenious, salves some doubts, and is discovered at large by Galileo.*9 But whether the received principle and undeniable action of the moon may not be still retained, although in some difference of application, is yet to be perpended; that is not by a simple operation upon the surface or superior parts, but excitation of the nitro-sulphureous spirits, and parts disposed to intumescency at the bottom; not by attenuation of the upper part of the sea, (whereby ships would draw more water at the flow than at the ebb,) but intergescencies caused first at the bottom, and carrying the upper part before them; subsiding and falling again, according to the motion of the moon from the meridian, and languor of the exciting cause: and therefore rivers and lakes who want these fermenting parts at the bottom, are not excited unto æstuations; and therefore some seas flow higher than others, *Rog. Bac. Doct. Cabeus Met. 2. 9 and is discovered at large by Galileo.] And by the Lord Bacon rejected in his booke, De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris.—Wr. according to the plenty of these spirits, in their submarine constitutions. And therefore also the periods of flux and reflux are various, nor their increase or decrease equal: according to the temper of the terreous parts at the bottom; which as they are more hardly or easily moved, do variously begin, continue, or end their intumescencies. From the peculiar disposition of the earth at the bottom, wherein quick excitations are made, may arise those agars9 and impetuous flows in some estuaries and rivers, as is observed about Trent and Humber in England; which may also have some effect in the boisterous tides of Euripus, not only from ebullitions at the bottom, but also from the sides and lateral parts, driving the streams from either side, which arise or fall according to the motion in those parts, and the intent or remiss operation of the first exciting causes, which maintain their activities above and below the horizon; even as they do in the bodies of plants and animals, and in the commotion of catarrhs.1 How therefore Aristotle died, what was his end, or upon what occasion, although it be not altogether assured, yet that his memory and worthy name shall live, no man will deny, nor grateful scholar doubt. And if according to the elogy of Solon, a man may be only said to be happy after he is dead, and ceaseth to be in the visible capacity of beatitude; or if according unto his own ethicks, sense is not essential unto felicity, but a man may be happy without the apprehension thereof; surely in that sense he is pyramidally happy; nor can he ever perish but in the Euripe of ignorance, nor till the torrent of barbarism overwhelmeth all. A like conceit there passeth of Melisigenes, alias Homer, the father poet, that he pined away upon the riddle of the fishermen. But Herodotus, who wrote his life, hath cleared this point; delivering, that passing from Samos unto Athens, he went sick ashore upon the island Ios, where he died, and was solemnly interred upon the sea-side; and so decidingly concludeth, Ex hac ægritudine extremum diem clausit Homerus in Io, non, ut arbitrantur aliqui, ænigmatis perplexitate enectus, sed morbo. 9 agar.] The tumultuous influx of the tide. But whether the received principle, &c. From the peculiar, &c.] These two paragraphs were first added in the 2nd edition. |
