295. The cause of the Tides was discovered by KEPLER, who, in his
_Introduction to the Physics of the Heavens_, thus explains it: “The Orb
of the attracting power, which is in the Moon, is extended as far as the
Earth; and draws the waters under the torrid Zone, acting upon places
where it is vertical, insensibly on confined seas and bays, but sensibly
on the ocean whose beds are large, and the waters have the liberty of
reciprocation; that is, of rising and falling.” And in the 70th page of
his _Lunar Astronomy_——“But the cause of the Tides of the Sea appears to
be the bodies of the Sun and Moon drawing the waters of the Sea.” This
hint being given, the immortal Sir ISAAC NEWTON improved it, and wrote
so amply on the subject, as to make the Theory of the Tides in a manner
quite his own; by discovering the cause of their rising on the side of
the Earth opposite to the Moon. For KEPLER believed that the presence of
the Moon occasioned an impulse which caused another in her absence.
[Sidenote: Explained on the Newtonian principles.
Fig. I.