have flowed from the summits of the mountains of Armenia, it must be believed that all the water of the ocean has passed very many times through these mouths. And do you not believe that the Nile must have sent more water into the sea than at present exists of all the element of water? Undoubtedly, yes. And if all this water had fallen away from this body of the earth, this terrestrial machine would long since have been without water. Whence we may conclude that the water goes from the rivers to the sea, and from the sea to the rivers, thus constantly circulating and returning, and that all the sea and the rivers have passed through the mouth of the Nile an infinite number of times [Footnote: Moti Armeni, Ermini in the original, in M. RAVAISSON’S transcript “monti ernini [le loro ruine?]”. He renders this “Le Tigre et l’Euphrate se sont deverses par les sommets des montagnes [avec leurs eaux destructives?] on pent cro’re” &c. Leonardo always writes Ermini, Erminia, for Armeni, Armenia (Arabic: Irminiah). M. RAVAISSON also deviates from the original in his translation of the following passage: “Or tu ne crois pas que le Nil ait mis plus d’eau dans la mer qu’il n’y en a a present dans tout l’element de l’eau. Il est certain que si cette eau etait tombee” &c.]
II.
ON THE OCEAN.
Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.