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| 1 | 306 | 613 | 919 | 1225 |
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statements (see XIX Philosophy No. 987--991,) should here have made
an exception to this rule without mentioning it?
As for instance in the discussion as to the equilibrium of the mass
of water in the Mediterranean Sea--a subject which, it may be
observed, had at that time attracted the interest and study of
hardly any other observer. The acute remarks, in Nos. 985--993, on
the presence of shells at the tops of mountains, suffice to
prove--as it seems to me--that it was not in his nature to allow
himself to be betrayed into wide generalisations, extending beyond
the limits of his own investigations, even by such brilliant results
of personal study.
Most of these Topographical Notes, though suggesting very careful
and thorough research, do not however, as has been said, afford
necessarily indisputable evidence that that research was Leonardo's
own. But it must be granted that in more than one instance
probability is in favour of this idea.
Among the passages which treat somewhat fully of the topography of
Eastern places by far the most interesting is a description of the
Taurus Mountains; but as this text is written in the style of a
formal report and, in the original, is associated with certain
letters which give us the history of its origin, I have thought it
best not to sever it from that connection. It will be found under
No. XXI (Letters).
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