The tides have baffled the ingenuity of some of our greatest
philosophers, though Halley was more successful than any one else in his
attempts to get to the bottom of them.
If we were disposed to go deeply into the tides, we should require the
reader to follow us through a variety of mysterious hieroglyphics, which
we are sure would be unintelligible to the majority. Dashes, crosses,
circles, and triangles would be scattered over the perplexing page in
profusion, while the only result might be, that as 0 is to a hyphen, so
would be a couple of asterisks.
We, therefore, prefer leaving the study of the tides to those whose
taste for the subject would lead them to a practical acquaintance with
it, which may be picked up anywhere up or down the river.