33. THIS now is easily applied to the waters of the seas, and shews that the water under the poles will press more forcibly to the earth, than at or near the equator: and consequently that which presses least, must give place, till by ascending it makes room for receiving a greater quantity, which by its additional weight may place the whole upon a ballance. To illustrate this more particularly I shall make use of fig. 116 In which let A C B D be a circle, by whose revolution about the diameter A B a globe should be formed, representing a globe of solid earth. Suppose this globe covered on all sides with water to the same height, suppose that of E A or B F, at which distance the circle E G F H surrounds the circle A C B D; then it is evident, if the globe of earth be at rest, the water which surrounds it will rest in that situation. But if the globe be turned incessantly about its axis A B, and the water have likewise the same motion, it is also evident, from what has been explained, that the water between the circles E H F G and A D B C will remain no longer in the present situation, the parts of it between H and D, and between G and C being by this rotation become lighter, than the parts between E and A and between B and F; so that the water over the poles A and B must of necessity subside, and the water be accumulated over D and C, till the greater quantity in these latter places supply the defect of its weight. This would be the case, were the globe all covered with water. And the same figure of the surface would also be preserved, if some part of the water adjoining to the globe in any part of it were turned into solid earth, as is too evident to need any proof; because the parts of the water remaining at rest, it is the same thing, whether they continue in the state of being easily separable, which denominates them fluid, or were to be consolidated together, so as to make a hard body: and this, though the water should in some places be thus consolidated, even to the surface of it. Which shews that the form of the solid part of the earth makes no alteration in the figure the water will take: and by consequence in order to the preventing some parts of the earth from being entirely overflowed, and other parts quite deserted, the solid parts of the earth must have given them much the same figure, as if the whole earth were covered on all sides with water. 34. FARTHER, I say, this figure of the earth is the same, as it would receive, were it entirely a globe of water, provided that water were of the same density as the substance of the globe. For suppose the globe A C B D to be liquified, and that the globe E H F G, now entirely water, by its rotation about its axis should receive such a figure as we have been describing, and then the globe A C B D should be consolidated again, the figure of the water would plainly not be altered, by such a consolidation.