before or after, when it is in its apogee. Whence it comes to pass that two highest tides do not follow one the other in two immediately succeeding syzygies.
The effect of either luminary doth likewise depend upon its declination or distance from the equator; for if the luminary was placed at the pole, it would constantly attract all the parts of the waters, without any intension or remission of its action, and could cause no reciprocation of motion; and, therefore, as the luminaries decline from the equator towards either pole, they will by degrees lose their force, and on this account will excite lesser tides in the solstitial than in the equinoctial syzygies. But in the solstitial quadratures they will raise greater tides than in the quadratures about the equinoxes; because the effect of the moon, then situated in the equator, most exceeds the effect of the sun; therefore the greatest tides fall out in those syzygies, and the least in those quadratures, which happen about the time of both equinoxes; and the greatest tide in the syzygies is always succeeded by the least tide in the quadratures, as we find by experience. But because the sun is less distant from the earth in winter than in summer, it comes to pass that the greatest and least tides more frequently appear before than after the vernal equinox, and more frequently after than before the autumnal.
Moreover, the effects of the luminaries depend upon the latitudes of places. Let ApEP represent the earth on all sides covered with deep waters; C its centre; P, p, its poles; AE the equator; F any place without the equator; Ff the parallel of the place; Dd the correspondent parallel on the other side of the equator; L the place which the moon possessed three hours before; H the place of the earth directly under it; h the opposite place; K, k, the places at 90 degrees distance; CH, Ch, the greatest heights of the sea from the centre of the earth; and CK, Ck, the least heights; and if with the axes Hh, Kk, an ellipsis is described, and by the revolution of that ellipsis about its longer axis Hh a spheroid HPKhpk is formed, this spheroid will nearly represent the figure of the sea; and CF, Cf, CD, Cd, will represent the sea in the places F, f, D, d. But farther; if in the said revolution of the ellipsis any point N describes the circle NM, cutting the parallels Ff, Dd, in any places R, T, and the equator AE in S, CN will represent the height of the sea in all those places R, S, T, situated in this circle. Wherefore in the diurnal revolution of any place F the greatest flood will be in F, at the third hour after the appulse of the moon to the meridian above the horizon; and afterwards the greatest ebb in Q, at the third hour after the setting of the moon; and then the greatest flood in f,
